Seeking Safety in the Body—Anxiety Therapy San Francisco
Anxiety Therapy San Francisco
When you live with anxiety, there is a constant feeling that you are under threat. This threat may or may not come from the outside. When growing up with developmental trauma, there may be a sense that your body is not a safe place, e.g. the feeling of threat never seems to go away. Things that others would not perceive as a threat, like physical sensations or emotions, you might find scary. (Van Der Kolk, 210). The solution can be to push the feelings and physical sensations away or ignore them, leading you to feel disconnected from your body.
Your anxiety may show up in many ways. Maybe you always need to keep moving or distract yourself so that the negative thoughts are kept at bay. Or maybe you worry constantly and your thoughts never, ever slow down. It’s likely that you have developed ways of coping and staying active all the time (with no time to rest or sit with yourself) may be one of them. Other ways to cope may be using alcohol or drugs because you can’t unwind without them.
Therapy that targets feeling unsafe in the body, such as dynamic attachment repatterning (Diane Poole Heller) or dance therapy (adta.org), will allow you to start to connect to yourself and your emotions again. A skilled therapist (and one you feel comfortable with) will provide a safe place for you to start to feel sensations and emotions (good and bad) that may be the source of anxiety. As Bessel Van Der Kolk states, “Feeling safe is a necessary condition to confront your fears and anxieties.” (214). The goal is to feel, moment by moment, safe in the body. Many moments of safety strung together will allow you to create safety in your body as a baseline.
Another thing that therapy for your anxiety will help with is how to deal with anxiety when it shows up again. Anxiety is a normal part of the human experience and instead of panicking or taking it as a sign of emotions to avoid, a therapist will give you ways to soothe yourself and cope.
If you have more questions about how to find safety in the body and anxiety therapy in San Francisco, please contact me, Lisa Manca at (415) 212-8780 or via email at lisa@lisamanca.com.
References:
A., V. der K. B. (2015). The body keeps the score: Brain, mind, and body in the healing of trauma. Penguin Books.