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Exploring Somatic and Cultural Therapy

Apr 24, 2025

Somatic Approaches and Therapy Summit

Introduction

  • Speaker: Dr. Clarissa Sigrand, Assistant Professor at Naropa University
  • Guest: Dr. Roger Kuhn
    • Porch Creek, Two-Spirit, Indigiqueer, Somatic Cultural Sex Therapist, Sexuality Educator, Writer, Activist, and Musician
    • Organizer of the Bay Area American Indian Two Spirit Powwow
    • Board member of the Two Spirit and Native LGBTQ Plus Center for Equity
  • Topic: Soma-cultural Liberation Therapy

Understanding Somatic and Cultural Connections

Somatic-based Programs

  • Importance of auditing somatic-based educational programs
    • Encourages curiosity about what and who is being taught

Multicultural Counseling

  • Often limited to a minimal course in therapy education
  • Emphasizes the importance of understanding the full cultural context

Somacultural Liberation

  • Definition: How culture shapes and informs bodily experiences
    • Micro: Individual daily experiences
    • Macro: Shared cultural experiences
  • Healing is linked to understanding identities and cultural roots

Cultural Impact on Bodily Experience

Experience of Culture and Identity

  • Example: Tech culture in San Francisco, disparity between tech and working-class individuals
  • Technology as a cultural signal

Cultural Survival

  • Individuals may disconnect from their bodies or minimize themselves to survive

Therapy in Practice

Online Therapy

  • Challenges due to limited view of the client's body
  • Emphasis on reading breath and subtle physical cues as indicators of emotional state

Hypervigilance and Anxiety

  • Recognized as adaptive strategies
  • Importance of understanding the behavior patterns

Tools and Models in Therapy

BOLD Addressing Model

  • Expansion on Pamela Hays’ Addressing Model
  • Includes bodily awareness in cultural identity assessment

Cultural Being

  • Encouraging clients to explore and share their cultural identities
  • Importance of the therapist's own cultural self-disclosure in building trust

Somatic Practices

Hand Experiential Exercise

  • Dominant hand: Represents current challenge
  • Non-dominant hand: Represents desired outcome
  • Goal: Move from tension to openness
  • Application in therapy, especially with couples

Somatic Toolkit

  • Building a personal set of practices that resonate with the individual client
  • Includes breathwork, movement, and other body awareness techniques

Soma-C and Window of Tolerance

  • SOMA-C: Scan, Observe, Mindful movement, Awareness, Change
  • Window of Tolerance: Understanding personal emotional thresholds

Personal and Collective Liberation

  • Anoka Chico: Community love
  • Collective liberation is essential for individual liberation
  • Importance of community in healing

Conclusion

  • Emphasis on continuous growth and cultural adaptation
  • Encouragement to explore Dr. Kuhn's work on somacultural liberation

This session highlighted the interconnection between somatics and cultural identity, therapy practices, and the potential for both individual and collective healing.

Full transcript