The role of the body therapies in suicide prevention

Talking therapy? Yes, let's do it. Somatic therapy? Sorry, soma what?

When we look around we see talking therapy or medication as being the ultimate help to aid in an active cases of suicide or as a tool to prevent a human being to take their own life. Is this enough?

The term 'somatic therapies' is defined as body-centred therapy that aims to connect body and mind. And turns out this could be the missing piece of the puzzle. The world is moving fast, the pressures of life are great and it takes a lot of skill and circumstance to stay healthy in mind, body and spirit. In the modern society of the west we are greatly focused on addressing the mind, a little less focused on addressing the body and if you are opened minded enough, you may experience some addressing of the spirit when it comes to mental health issues. Why is it that with every year we see increase in suicide, taking into account that talking therapy has become less 'taboo' and somatic/body interventions are on the rise? Could it be because there isn't enough education and push to make body sessions available in our health care? Is the somatic trend REALLY happening? To be totally honest, I don't know. However we have a rich history of research and science showing the importance of working with the body if we want to create a positive change in ones mind.

Let's look at couple of examples that shows us why it is a necessity to work with the body when working with deep states of depression and suicidal tendencies.

The nervous system is a great friend to find out about our well-being and to source a lot of wisdom from the body. The nervous system IS the body, because it is everywhere. The information from our body has a significant impact on all other systems to say at least! The big boss of our nervous system and the judge on how way we feel is the Vagus Nerve. And the facts is... The Vagus nerves cells are 80-90% afferent. This means they send signals from the body to the brain and only 10-20% are efferent, meaning sending signals from the brain to your body to move or do something else. But... What if someone can't feel their body?

The body is a vehicle of life. If we become stressed or we experience trauma, we become tensed. Chronic stress or/and living in the state of a survival leads to the development of stress related disorders - anxiety or panic attacks. When stress in the body is too great, the body has no choice and shifts into numbness to resolve it. The nervous system takes a back seat and the mind takes over. And so, there is nothing to feel, the disconnection from physical sensations has been developed as a protective mechanism and the way to survive.

The mind takes over and the ego will create it's own narrative about life. In the book 'The revolutionary trauma release process' by PhD. David Berceli we can read some important paragraphs:

'The brain must feel an appropriate amount of stimulation from the body to function properly. If the brain lacks input from the body, it creates it's own'

'The mind can then override the body's encoding to live. In other words, the increase in suicidal thoughts is directly connected to the decrease in physical sensation, while the decrease in physical sensation contributes to the increase in suicidal tendencies'

'It caused them to realise, as one person put it, that "deep inside, under the pain and numbness, I am still alive."

This book based on professional experience and practice of trauma resolution expert David Berceli is one of many educational sources that helps us to see why including the body into suicidal prevention strategy could be beneficial to our society.

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