When Anxiety Finally Rests: Why Sleep Can Happen in Therapy Sessions

Some of my most productive sessions end with clients asleep on the couch. Let me explain.

Individuals who struggle with chronic anxiety or any adjacent disorders, often live pretty dissociated from their body (yeah, it’s way more common than you might have been told.) More on that in a later post.

When I am helping a client ASSOCIATE with their body again, they have to move through a state of freeze. A state where their body immobilizes and essentially plays dead. It’s often described by my clients as feeling like there are heavy rocks on top of them, or sand being poured over their body, keeping them from moving. I’ve felt it too, it’s no joke.

It takes a TON of energy for a body to stay anxious, even if you’re dissociated from the physical experience. So it’s natural that as we move through and out of the anxiety, the body depresses in order to rest and recover. Hence, freeze, or dissociated depression!

This state often makes people feel very sleepy. When that happens, I know the body is asking for what it needs, which is something we honor in my office. As my clients snooze, their nervous systems are rewiring and relearning how to move through this process. It feels like a privilege to be a part of. This kind of sleep is WORK. It’s HEALING. It’s SCIENCE!

Tasha Worth, CSW