Somatic healing can be an effective approach for those with ADHD, even if they aren’t suffering from trauma or anxiety. It can help patients gain more bodily awareness and regulate negative emotions, making managing ADHD symptoms easier.
So, if you want to explore somatic healing for ADHD, keep reading. It may be a holistic approach that you can use to manage your symptoms. That said, it’s worth noting that somatic therapy isn’t a replacement for more traditional ADHD treatments. Let’s begin.
Somatic Healing Teaches Mindfulness
To start, somatic therapy techniques are excellent for increasing mindfulness. Meditation, often used during somatic healing sessions, can help manage ADHD symptoms. It works by making you more mindful and allowing you to control your attention.
During mindfulness meditation sessions, you practice returning your thoughts to the present when they wander. The more you meditate, the easier it becomes. People with ADHD may find it challenging to remain connected to the moment, so practicing more often will benefit you.
Meditation can also raise your brain’s dopamine levels, something that ADHD brains lack, helping to manage many of the symptoms that come with ADHD.
Over time, many people with ADHD find it becomes easier to focus on tasks as they meditate. You must meditate daily and slowly add more time to your sessions to benefit from this somatic technique. It can take time to build this skill, especially with ADHD, so don’t expect it to come to you immediately.
Somatic Healing Increases Bodily Awareness
Body scanning is a somatic healing technique. It allows you to direct your attention to various areas of your body, helping you to increase your bodily awareness. Doing so can help build mindfulness and help people with ADHD feel more connected with their bodies.
People with ADHD can develop dissociation disorders, which cause them to feel disconnected from their bodies, experiences, and surroundings. Working on your bodily awareness will establish a stronger mind-body connection, making dealing with feelings of dissociation easier.
There are some somatic techniques that you can easily use at home to increase your bodily awareness. Here’s a quick breakdown of a few:
- Body scanning: Start by getting comfortable and relaxing. Practice drawing awareness to individual body parts. It helps to start with your bread and work your way down to your feet. Plenty of free videos on YouTube guide you through the process.
- Tapping or shaking: When you dissociate or freeze, try shaking or tapping various body parts to break free from that sensation.
- Yoga with mindfulness: Practice Yoga, but pay extra attention to your body during the session. Follow your breathing closely and focus on your positions, carefully examining how they feel.
- Progressive muscle relaxation: Start by tensing different muscle groups, holding the position, paying attention to the physical sensation, and then relaxing. Doing so can help increase your bodily awareness and help manage anxiety and stress.
People with ADHD can benefit from using these bodily awareness techniques, especially during moments of dissociation. Using them can help you feel more connected with your body, which is something that people with ADHD can struggle with.
Helps Regulate Negative Emotions
Somatic healing can help people with ADHD regulate their nervous system and process negative emotions. Many people with ADHD have strong feelings of anxiety, stress, and frustration. Managing these feelings healthily can help patients fare better in their daily lives.
Somatic therapy is designed to help with dealing with these feelings. It allows patients to process better, express, and manage negative emotions through an enhanced mind-body connection.
Many somatic healing practices also focus on relaxation and alleviating stress and anxiety. For example, you can practice grounding exercises, muscle-relaxing techniques, and meditation to reduce negative emotions.
ADHD can cause anxiety due to having trouble concentrating or remembering important things. Many people with ADHD also struggle with persistent worrying due to struggling to focus. These somatic healing skills can help alleviate those feelings and help patients remain grounded.
Somatic therapy also encourages movement-based healing through Yoga, dancing, and stretching. Getting out extra energy can help people with ADHD relax and feel more aware of their bodies. It’s an excellent method to release stress from the body as well.
Overall, somatic healing is perfect for learning new and healthy ways to manage the negative emotions that can come with ADHD.
Somatic Healing Helps With Trauma Symptoms
Some patients with ADHD can have trauma, which makes the symptoms of ADHD worse. Somatic healing is excellent for dealing with trauma and healing it healthily. Patients learn coping mechanisms that help them to release stress from their bodies, promoting healthy well-being, too.
Somatic therapy helps to reregulate the flight or fight response after trauma sets it out of whack. Patients learn to use breathwork, body scanning, and other grounding strategies to balance out their nervous systems, effectively releasing trauma from the body.
In short, many people with ADHD also have hidden trauma in their bodies. Learning to release it in healthy ways can help them relax and better manage other symptoms of ADHD.
You Can Work With a Somatic Therapist
Lastly, you can have the option to work with a somatic therapist. This person is a professional in somatic healing, allowing them to guide you through the treatment. They can help you determine which somatic techniques will work best for you.
They can guide you with grounding techniques, meditation, and much more. What works for someone else might not work for you, even if you both have ADHD. So, you’ll want to talk to the professionals to determine what forms of somatic healing are your favourites.
It can be difficult for many people to put the mind-body connection into words, but somatic therapists have much experience with it. You’ll want to consider contacting one to learn from them.
Explore Somatic Therapy Today
Somatic healing works well as a supplemental treatment for ADHD. You’ll want to consider it for managing your ADHD symptoms, including negative emotions and feelings of dissociation. There are many different somatic techniques to try, so you’ll find something that works for you. Kate Ibbotson, the founder of A Tidy Mind also offers ADHD focused coaching and neurodivergence affirming psychotherapy if you would like to explore combining somatic therapy with talking therapy.