A Call for More Somatic Therapies in Mainstream Counseling
Unless...Bandaid Approaches Are Supposed to Be the Goal? š§
A lot of- dare I say most(?)- licensed counselors trained at universities in the United States are unfortunately subpar.
They are āpretty bullshit,ā and I mean this literally. Mainstream counseling can have an allure, especially for the part of the self that doesnāt feel heard (assuming you have at least a decent counselor). But having someone listen to you, even having someone teach you new ways of thinking, will only get you so far if changes stay at the conceptual level.
I saw dozens of counselors, psychologists, and psychiatrists over the ages of 15 through 26- and a wide range of approaches and efficacy. In my 20s Iāve gradually transitioned out of meeting with counselors and into communing with life coaches, shamans, yoga teachers, and others of the like- simply because the results were so obviously BETTER.
Synchronistically, I encountered my most recent counselor when I was out to breakfast about a week ago and I took advantage of the opportunity to thank her for being one of the few counselors that had been a good investment for me.
A few notes about herā¦ She has the capacity to be extremely present and nonjudgmental. Sheās excellent at asking questions- ask a better question, get a better answer. Sheās comfortable with lovingly challenging her clients. And, she doesnāt take insurance.
#fuckinsurance
I donāt know where she went to school. And she wasnāt particularly alternative, other than specializing in sex therapy (in addition to marriage counseling). Still, she is one of the handful of counselors Iāve worked with who had that special something that allowed me to āget deeperā within myself. I propose that this, essentially, is a depth of presence she possesses, both with herself as well as the outside world.
Most counseling programs are almost entirely, if not totally, conceptual, meaning there is little or no somatic or deep emotional processing that the therapist-in-training is guided to transcend before sitting with clients who are attempting to transcend that same depth of inner work.
How can one guide another where they have not been?
And, unfortunately, whatever we have not transmuted in ourselves, we will project onto the world around usā¦
An average counselorās lack of self-awareness becomes especially evident as they gradually get bogged down by the stress of countertransference.
Counseling, like all āhealingā and āhelpingā professions, produces extreme stress when not balanced with boundaries, self-care, play, rest, continued self-reflectionā¦all those yummy things. All too often, instead of the counselor receiving such stress as cues to re-evaluate their own life, they take on a martyr and/or victim mentality- justifying their lot in life by sitting up on a pedestal or crouching into a hole- and swallowing the ramifications of projecting their imbalances onto their clients.
Iāve been shocked by the number of times in the past 5 years Iāve heard friends, clients, and random people I meet in public tell me that while sitting in a counseling session the counselor spent a significant portion of the session talking about their- the counselorās- stress.
The potential for countertransference can be largely mitigated by incorporating somatic and mindfulness practices into counseling programs. Somatic, meaning, of the body. As a human unfolds their layers and rebuilds their character, the ability to be in touch with the body through interoception~ the practice of observing and naming sensations inside the body~ is incredibly helpful, if not absolutely necessary.
The practice of interoception increases a personās depth of presence- that same quality that is so valuable to have in a counselor. Mindfulness of direct sensation allows the person experiencing the sensation to understand that the sensation is rooted in their experience, and so not project it onto the world around them.
For example, one of the last counselors I tried out paled and froze at certain points while I shared my story. Her lack of presence, including a lack of ability to respond verbally, indicated to me that she was triggered by my story to the point that working with her would not be helpful.
I have my own judgment, shame, guilt, and fear to work through- I donāt want to babysit the emotions of my counselor š
Perhaps, if she had more experience with mindfulness and somatic practices, she would have been able to āhold her containerā better and be present with both her reaction and my story.
Now, conceptual counseling can certainly be helpful on an individual journey, but it will only take a person so far.Ā Some people are not interested in resolving deep trauma or diving into the depths of self-development- they are more likely to receive benefits to the point of āresolutionā from mainstream counseling. Conversely, other people become reliant on therapy while stuck in repeating patterns, like a drug, which displays that the therapy is not healing their dis-ease. In these cases, what is discussed remains conceptual and does not influence significant behavioral changes. Still others, after a period of counseling that doesnāt bring them closer to their goals, abandon the modality altogether.
What is called for, by these latter groups, is less emphasis on the mind and more emphasis on the body. We must retrain the nervous system, biochemistry, and epigenetic expression of the human body to truly heal mental illnesses. And itās no wonder, when so many counselors keep their clients in the mind, that what assistance is given pales in comparison to the increasing rates of depression, suicidality, addiction, etc. These statistics are a call for, not exclusively but certainly inclusively, a much greater emphasis on rooting down into the body, somatically processing emotions, and incorporating modalities that genuinely embody a new, truer sense of self.
Weāre making some headway in this direction, of course. Many other individuals and some professional and academic groups are choosing to confront the common ineffectiveness of solely conceptual counseling. Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT), eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR), clinical emotional freedom technique (CEFT), neuro-emotional technique (NET), and psychedelic-assisted therapies are on the rise. Better late than neverā¦
Yet, there are still limits to these practices, particularly when the counselors have not been directed to personally practice with such modalities.
But where would a counselor learn to do this? Mindfulness practice and somatic awareness skills are taught in almost no masterās programs, much less bachelorās programs. And the public is generally too ignorant to recognize what they donāt have ā because, of course, that is supposed to be the counselorsā job.
For my capstone project in my final semester of undergrad, I put together a paper and presentation on the history of, research on, and neurological and physiological benefits of mindfulness practice. It was shocking to me that my professor knew none of the information I shared. She was impressed, but apparently from a place of, āWow! How cool! Who knew?ā
This is a travesty. How different would the world be if mindfulness was a skill taught at every level of elementary school? Itās easy to misinterpret mindfulness practice as sitting still, observing all the arises, but mindfulness can be practiced anytime, anywhere- including by children in age-accessible ways.
Since we canāt count on faculty in the psychology departments at state schools to understand the pivotal impact of mindfulness practice, scientifically proven time and time again in extensive research for decades, why are counselors in training depending on these same faculty to teach them how to be present with future clientele?
I told myself that last semester of undergrad that I was only going to continue forward with graduate school if I actually wanted to, having realized by that point that the idea that I needed a masterās degree to ācounselā people was bullshit. In fact, I understood that a masterās degree, especially depending on where I got it, might limit my ability to counsel people. So, I started looking for programs that deeply aligned with my values.
And, I discovered there are masterās programs (as well as bachelorās, PhD, and PsyD programs) that do teach mindfulness, somatic, and embodiment practices, though they are few and far between. They are often not accredited because they do not follow a standard curriculum.
But I donāt care about accreditation, I care about helping people. And, yes, itās unfortunate that thereās not always a positive correlation between such things.
18 months after undergrad, I spent two semesters in a counseling program that was incredibly committed to actualizing the axiom ācounselor, know thyself.ā I was so in love with the program from the outside; it seemed to echo my insides to a T. It was a far cry from the too-rigid pole of the academic psychology pendulum I was swinging away from as fast as possible.
Through those two semesters, I discovered that at the other end of the pendulum sit a few counseling programs that are deeply committed to training counselors in mindfulness practice and somatic work, preparing them to genuinely sit with all that might arise in a therapy session, YET have been corrupted with their own brand of ideology. I would say theyāve maybe gotten ālost in the sauceāā¦
I left that program to escape the influence of the ideologies they were eager to imbed as I let go of the ideology I came in with.
Where is the middle ground?
Iām unsure if a counseling program has yet been developed that truly lets go of ideology- or, indeed, if this is possible at a mass scale. I imagine such a program would have to require an absurd amount of autonomy while also setting high standards for its students to ensure their ability to self-reflect and be present with other humans at deep levels.
What I do see is other, more āalternative,ā healthcare modalities moving in to pick up the slack šš»
How are life coaches, massage therapists, yoga facilitators, spiritual advisors, personal trainers, etc. slowly taking over the counseling market? Because we have tools that work! Not only do our clients benefit from these tools, but the vitality that our tools offer in our own lives emanates through our presence š
Iāve been in so many spaces~ ceremonies, workshops, etc.~ where people walked away saying, āThis was better than 10/20/30 years of therapy,ā simply because of the emphasis on deep somatic processing with excellent facilitation.
Iām also seeing more and more individuals who are/were licensed counselors incorporate more alternative methods, through additional training and personal practice. This is a phenomenal step towards balance. However, any certain degree or credentials are far from required to support a profound benevolent change in another humanās life.
When someone serves as a counselor who is not a ālicensed counselor,ā they are approaching their practice with significantly different methodology and technologies than most licensed professional counselors. Generally, they wonāt feel as boxed into a standard process that is, letās be frank, often ineffective.
Creating such a practice, when not a licensed counselor speaks to (the potential for) a deep degree of inner work and self-knowing in the individual. They didnāt require a degree, a professor, or a university to tell them that it was āOKā to serve as a guide for peopleās human experiences. They simply knew that they could serve in this way because they saw evidence that they could (often despite claims to the contrary) and trusted it.
And, yes, totally reflecting on my own journey here ^^^ šŖ
This is not to say that everyone who calls themself a ācoachā or ātherapistā is worth your money- faaaaaaarrr from it. There are reasons the public accepted regulations for such things. Some of that reasoning is that people donāt want to vet providers for themselves, and/or donāt have the tools. Unfortunately, delegating that vetting job to the government is failing us.
Here is yet another opportunity to step up into greater sovereignty. If you want to improve your life, and you want to pay someone to help facilitate that improvement, expand your capacity to discern the best facilitator for you. Follow what resonates with you, be willing to re-evaluate and change, try different modalities, listen to reviews, find research, and trust your first-hand experience. And please recognize that real change requires changes in the body, to the point of changing epigenetic expression. Conceptual changes are a part of this, for sure, but a far cry from the whole of what needs to shift.
Counseling, coaching, any kind of significant therapy requires inner WORK- an investment of energy that transmutes what was into what will be. And, ideally, a facilitator who has done that same work themselvesā¦
What has your most pivotal experience been with a āhelping professionalā (of any kind)? Have you had experiences in which you were left wanting more, or didnāt feel like you were met fully? How do you vet a doctor, counselor, therapist, teacher, or spiritual guide? Share below; Iād love to hear! šš»
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Another excellent article, Rosey.Ā I was a therapist for about 12 years, mostly in a community mental health center, but also some privateĀ practice and a brief stint working for a large managed mental health company (ugh!).Ā I think you're spot on with your assessment of the MH professions.Ā I do think that, for some people, the traditional therapist/client relationship works just fine, and the client benefits to an extent that they emerge happier and better able to function day to day.Ā Brief therapy modalities do good things for people going through difficult life events such as divorce, death of a loved one, and such.Ā Deeper exploration into more pervasive mental problems does require keener self-awareness and depth of presence on the part of the therapist that, sadly, many therapists simply do not have,Ā and have no interest in attaining.Ā When I was in training, we were told that as a therapist, you should get "supervision", which meant being in therapy yourself to address your own MH issues that affect your ability to help your clients.Ā There was no suggestion as to how that really worked, or what that "supervision" would look like.Ā At times, it seemed like the blind leading the blind.Ā I must say, though, that my experience in grad school was not all MH dogmaĀ - there were professors who encouraged exploration into less traditional modalities. When I was in practice, I was pretty much of a traditionalist, but I have come to learn that so-called "alternative" treatment modalities can be immensely helpful in the same ways that traditional modalities are intended to be.Ā You seem to have come to that conclusion, too,Ā obviously.Ā I think it would be great if therapists availed themselves to some of the alternative modalities for themselves as a tool for improving their ability to help their clients (i.e. supervision).Ā I decided to get out of the therapist role about 20 years ago, largely because of burn out.Ā I wonder if that would have happened if I had sought non-traditional supervision.Ā Hmmm...