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Somatic focused therapy has been much more helpful and less gaslighty for me, but it's also not right for everyone.
Say you have anxiety that's more top down. You usually aren't feeling anxious, but then you start thinking anxious thoughts and that spirals out of control and now you're an anxious mess on the verge of a panic attack. CBT could make sense for some people in this situation because you're reminding yourself there's nothing to really be anxious about in the moment and redirecting your thoughts to less anxious things.
If your anxiety is more bottom up, you might not even have to think about anything that makes you anxious. Your nervous system is just in a chronic state of activation/hyperdrive, and warning you there's danger even if there's not. You can think calming thoughts all you want but that doesn't usually change the fact that your body is kicked into survival mode.
Instead of trying to redirect your thoughts, you can focus your thoughts on noticing physical sensations and putting a label on the way your body is feeling.
So you wouldn't say "I am safe." You would stop and acknowledge how you're feeling, and acknowledge it's your body's way of trying to communicate danger to keep you alive. You don't want to necessarily act based on that warning (unless you are truly in danger, which is the case sometimes), but instead of just dismissing it, recognize what you're physically feeling. Ok, my heart is beating really fast, my chest is kind of tight and I feel physically unsafe. What are some other physical sensations I feel right now that I know are safe?
A popular one is focusing on your "sit bones" or the way a surface you're sitting on feels beneath you. Or focusing on your posture, if how the floor feels beneath your feet when they're planted flat on the ground. It works surprisingly well to reset/calm your nervous system.
This guy offers a free course of several short videos that are really helpful. I started them last year but let it drop off. Reminds me I need to pick up where I left off and finish them
https://traumaresearchfoundation.org/coming-home-to-the-body-a-short-course-on-trauma-and-mind-body-re-connection-with-matthew-sanford-collection/
Sounds a bit like the mindfulness thing, as well. Thanks!
I can't remember what the original comment said about mindfulness, but it's definitely a part of somatic therapy.
The idea behind it though is to "reset" the nervous system once it's in an activated state. If it's activated because of an anxious thought, then just redirecting your thoughts (CBT) might be enough of a solution.
If your body holds on to something like a traumatic memory or near death experience, sometimes you can be activated by something you're not even consciously aware of (for example, there are certain contexts or feelings your nervous system recognizes even when your mind doesn't). This is where CBT might not be as helpful because the issue never had to do with your conscious thoughts to begin with. Somatic therapy focusing on mindfulness of the sensation though is still mindfulness, just not in the same way as CBT.
Example of bottom up processing: I had a friend who had been on a ventilator in the ICU and eventually recovered, but even a year later she was dealing with all kinds of anxiety that seemed to just pop up out of nowhere. One of the first triggers or activators she recognized was the sensation of thirst triggering her body's memory of the ventilator, which then would then lead to anxious thoughts that could spiral into panic.
An example of the same situation but top down processing: thinking about the ventilator, which would then trigger the memory of how her throat physically felt when she couldn't drink water for several months then triggering the sensation of thirst due to anxiety caused by the conscious thought.
It depends on what it is that's putting you in the activated state. Is it a conscious thought or a "body memory?"