Talk therapy might not be for everyone, especially in the context of Nepali culture where we aren’t used to talking about ourselves and our problems a lot. But just like complementary and alternative medicine (CAM), alternative therapies are gaining in popularity in recent years and for a good measure. They can offer a host of options for people who don’t respond well to traditional talk therapy with a creative combination of psychological science and artistic expression.

Here are some of the more popular ones:

Somatic experiencing:

Release, recover, and become more resilient! You can understand somatic experiencing as a body-oriented therapeutic approach that seeks to release traumatic shock and resolve fixated physiological states (body stuck in the fight, flight, and freeze response).

It is the lifetime work of Dr. Peter A. Levine who realized that animals, despite being under constant threat of death, don’t show symptoms of trauma. Traumatic experience is more concerned with the ‘freeze’ response where all the energy built up for a survival response gets trapped in the body causing symptoms of dysregulation and dissociation.

With its roots in various fields such as psychology, neuroscience, and indigenous healing practices, SE works towards resolving the ‘threat’ alarm of the body by guiding the client to increase tolerance for difficult bodily sensations and suppressed emotions by taking a ‘body first’ approach.¹

A recent scoping review has found promising findings that SE might be effective in reducing traumatic stress, affective disorders, and somatic symptoms. It helps in improving life quality and has risen in popularity due to its cross-cultural applicability and its combinability with other therapeutic procedures.²

Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR):

Another one of the more popular alternatives where there isn’t much talking involved is EMDR, where the client relies on their own accelerated intellectual or emotional process rather than the counselor’s interpretation.

It aims to address traumatic symptoms such as distress, physiological arousal, and negative beliefs. The client attends to emotionally distressing memories with the aim of transforming the meaning of the traumatic memory while simultaneously focusing on external stimuli such as lateral eye movements, hand tapping, and audio stimulation.

So why the eye movements? Well, it is believed to be connected to biological mechanisms involved in Rapid Eye Movement (REM) sleep that allow internal associations to arise and process disturbing memories and distressing emotions.³

A large number of randomized control trials and meta-analyses have found EMDR effective in treating PTSD symptoms in the short term and long term. EMDR has also shown a significant impact on symptom clusters beyond PTSD, including symptoms characteristic of Complex PTSD, anxiety, depression, and psychosis.⁴

Light Therapy

Despite how simple the idea of light therapy may sound, it is not limited to the therapist simply asking the client to go out and quite literally get some light. Natural light might not be available or enough for the client to start feeling some changes physiologically, so a lightbox of 10,000 lux is used (which is 20 times the strength of typical indoor lighting).

It is a professional practice that is found to be an effective form of treatment for Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), a type of depression occurring in the fall or the winter due to overproduction of melatonin as a response to decreased light levels.⁵

Bright Light Therapy’s role in treating psychiatric disorders beyond SAD is an increasingly promising treatment option, for those disorders that show seasonal variation in symptoms, delayed circadian phase, and depressive symptoms.⁶

Art therapy

We all must have grabbed crayons or colored pencils as children expressing our hearts while scribbling and coloring on paper (sometimes even on walls). Art therapy might be a way to revive our inner child while nurturing (and maybe even healing) ourselves by letting our mind feel safe in the innocence and presence of creating art. Art therapy offers an integrative therapeutic approach through its use of active art-making, creative process, and applied psychological theory, which effectively supports personal and relational treatment goals as well as community concerns.⁷

A review of 413 literature about art therapy revealed positive outcomes of art therapy, mainly in reducing suffering from mental disorders like depression disorders, anxiety, cognitive impairment, dementia, Alzheimer’s disease, schizophrenia, and autism. These findings suggest that art therapy can serve as a useful therapeutic method for assisting patients to open up while also serving as a complementary tool for diagnosis.⁸

Dance/ Movement Therapy

Movement is our first language which starts in utero and continues throughout our lives.

Dance/ Movement Therapy is a therapeutic approach where movement is understood to be functional, communicative, developmental, and expressive. It is both an assessment tool and a primary method of intervention. It is a holistic approach to healing, based on the empirically supported view that mind, body, and spirit are interconnected.⁷

A meta-analysis of 8 studies consisting of 351 people with depression (mild to severe), 192 of whom attended DMT groups, concluded DMT to be an effective intervention in the treatment of adults with depression.⁹

References

1. SE 101 – Somatic Experiencing® International. Accessed July 15, 2024. https://traumahealing.org/se-101/
2. Kuhfuß M, Maldei T, Hetmanek A, Baumann N. Somatic experiencing – effectiveness and key factors of a body-oriented trauma therapy: a scoping literature review. Eur J Psychotraumatology. 2021;12(1):1929023. doi:10.1080/20008198.2021.1929023
3. What is EMDR? – EMDR Institute – EYE MOVEMENT DESENSITIZATION AND REPROCESSING THERAPY. Accessed July 15, 2024. https://www.emdr.com/what-is-emdr/
4. De Jongh A, De Roos C, El‐Leithy S. State of the science: Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) therapy. J Trauma Stress. 2024;37(2):205-216. doi:10.1002/jts.23012
5. 10 Tips to Get the Most Out of Light Therapy | HuffPost Life. Accessed July 15, 2024. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/10-ways-to-get-the-most-out-of-light-therapy_b_8932782
6. Campbell PD, Miller AM, Woesner ME. Bright Light Therapy: Seasonal Affective Disorder and Beyond. Einstein J Biol Med EJBM. 2017;32:E13-E25. PMID:31528147
7. What is Dance/Movement Therapy? Accessed July 15, 2024. https://adta.memberclicks.net/what-is-dancemovement-therapy
8. Hu J, Zhang J, Hu L, Yu H, Xu J. Art Therapy: A Complementary Treatment for Mental Disorders. Front Psychol. 2021;12:686005. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2021.686005
9. Karkou V, Aithal S, Zubala A, Meekums B. Effectiveness of Dance Movement Therapy in the Treatment of Adults With Depression: A Systematic Review With Meta-Analyses. Front Psychol. 2019;10:936. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00936
10. 7 Mental Health Treatments To Try That Aren’t Talk Therapy. Bustle. Published January 10, 2018. Accessed July 15, 2024. https://www.bustle.com/p/7-mental-health-treatments-to-try-that-arent-talk-therapy-7793164
11. Nashville Collaborative Counseling Center. Nashville Collaborative Counseling Center. Accessed July 15, 2024. https://www.nashvillecollaborativecounselingcenter.com/blog/non-talk-therapy