A mode of healing that goes bone-deep to repair

When Kusum Mathew’s* son Ayan* was five, she found out that he was autistic. She tried various therapies, but the effects would last for only a short while. He was 13 when she heard about somatic therapy from her boss.

When she finally met Delhi-based somatic therapist Vasu Primlani, what Mathew didn’t expect was that Primlani would point out the need to work on her too. “I thought my son needed therapy, but Vasu told me that even I had trauma. I used to cry unnecessarily, but had always thought of the crying as a way of venting the troubles I had to deal with,” she says.

After the first therapy session, Ayan was calmer. And Mathew felt she “was breathing fresh air” after her second session. “It felt like I was being released from prison. I went from depression to laughing like a child. Working 16-18 hours a day, I didn’t realise my body was carrying so much stress. I have learnt to take care of it now,” she says.

What is somatic therapy?

Somatic therapy deals with body trauma, and a therapist works directly on the body to evict the trauma. “The word ‘psychosomatic’ is made up of psycho, meaning psychological, and soma, meaning body,” says Primlani.

“Traditionally, psychology included counselling (talking), and body work. Then it bifurcated, and the therapist could not touch the patient. The trauma stuck in the body cannot be comprehended by the mind, which results in a disconnect between the two.”

Most people don’t know they’re carrying trauma, points out Primlani, adding that the rib cage not only protects our vital organs from physical harm but also from emotional harm. “It known that emotional harm becomes physical harm, that becomes disease. In doing so, our bones absorb this harm, which gets lodged in the body, and remains there for decades,” she says. The body holds on to the past if there is no closure.

Triggers and outcomes

There can be multiple reasons for trauma: losing a job, a breakup, death of a loved one, child sexual abuse, physical or verbal abuse, ADHD and so on. “If you’ve had a major traumatic incident as a child, it will stay and shape you,” shares 43-year-old Primlani, who has been administering this therapy for the last seven years.

Trauma is released in different ways. At a somatic therapy exercise in San Francisco, where Primlani was learning about this therapy, she felt the need to kick the fellow student working on her shin. “I was raped at age five. I resented her sitting between my legs; it felt like she didn’t have a right to be,” recalls Primlani, who is also an athlete. “My legs rekindled the memory of feeling trapped. The need to fight was trapped in my legs since childhood. After telling her repeatedly that I needed to kick her, she put on gloves and said go ahead. I did.” 

Somatic therapy rewires people’s behaviour and they experience self esteem and self respect. Treatment varies based on a person’s condition. 

Primlani adds that somatic therapy aims for long-lasting solutions. “We look for permanent to semi-permanent solutions to trauma,” she says.

(Names changed on request)

About Therapy

Each session which lasts for about an hour costs Rs 2,500. Sometimes Primlani also heals her clients free of cost. Number of healing session required depends upon the patient. Sometimes transformation is experienced in just two sittings. However more enduring trauma takes longer to heal.