What is Somatic Therapy?
- Celia Bray
- 6 days ago
- 5 min read
Have you ever noticed how your body responds when you’re feeling overwhelmed? Maybe your shoulders rise, your chest tightens, or your stomach churns even when there’s no immediate threat. These aren’t just random reactions; they’re signs from your nervous system. And they’re often linked to emotional experiences that your mind alone can’t process. This is where somatic therapy can help.
If you’ve ever wondered, “What is somatic therapy and how does it work?”—you’re not alone. As more people seek holistic ways to understand their mental health, somatic therapy offers a powerful body-based alternative to traditional talk therapy. It focuses on the mind-body connection because healing doesn’t just happen in your thoughts; it happens through your whole system.
What is Somatic Therapy, Exactly?
So, what is somatic therapy? In simple terms, it’s a type of therapy that uses the body as the primary pathway to emotional healing. Rather than focusing only on your thoughts or memories, it invites you to explore how your emotions are felt physically—whether it’s a tight chest, clenched jaw, or fluttering in your stomach. Somatic therapy is especially effective when working with trauma.
A well-known example is Somatic Experiencing, developed by Dr Peter Levine. This method helps people safely process trauma by guiding them through body sensations rather than reliving the story.
Unlike traditional talk therapy, which can sometimes feel stuck in the narrative, somatic therapy shifts focus to your felt sense—your internal, sensory experience of the present moment.
What is Somatic Therapy for Trauma?
When you experience trauma, whether it’s a single event like an accident or ongoing stress from a difficult childhood, your body goes into survival mode. You may freeze, fight, or flee. If your body doesn’t get the chance to complete that survival response, the trauma can become stuck in your nervous system, showing up later as chronic tension, emotional numbness, or hypervigilance.
Somatic trauma therapy helps people safely revisit these body-held experiences, not to relive the trauma, but to gently process and release it. Through body awareness, breath, grounding, and movement, clients can complete the unfinished survival responses and bring the nervous system back into balance.
One of the most well-known methods in this space is Somatic Experiencing. So, what is somatic experiencing therapy? Developed by Dr Peter Levine, it’s a specific form of somatic therapy focused on gently renegotiating trauma without overwhelming the system.
What is Somatic Based Therapy Used For?
Somatic based therapy is helpful for a wide range of emotional and physical challenges. These include:
Post-traumatic stress (PTSD)
Anxiety and panic attacks
Chronic stress or burnout
Depression
Grief and loss
Chronic pain with no clear medical cause
Emotional disconnection or numbness
Digestive issues linked to stress
Trouble sleeping or relaxing
By working directly with the nervous system, somatic therapy helps people learn how to recognise and regulate their emotional states, access inner calm, and reconnect with their bodies in safe and healing ways.
Types of Therapies that Include the Wisdom of the Body
There are many different types of somatic therapy, each with its own style and focus. Here are four approaches I work with that incorporate the body into the healing process:
Somatic Therapies – Body-centred approaches that helps clients become aware of physical sensations as a gateway to emotional processing. They support nervous system regulation, grounding, and the release of stored tension or trauma.
Gestalt Therapy – A dynamic, experiential approach that focuses on present-moment awareness. It explores how unresolved experiences live in the body and uses dialogue, movement, and expressive techniques to bring those patterns into conscious awareness.
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) – While rooted in cognitive-behavioural science, ACT emphasizes mindfulness, values-based action, and acceptance of physical and emotional experiences. Somatic awareness is key in helping clients notice what’s happening in their bodies without judgment.
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) Fused with Somatic Approaches – CBT traditionally focuses on thoughts and behaviours, but when integrated somatically, it helps clients recognize the physical responses tied to cognitive patterns. Body awareness is used to interrupt automatic reactions and support more embodied choices.
If you're exploring body-based therapies, these four approaches offer powerful ways to reconnect with yourself and foster healing through both awareness and action.
Is Somatic Therapy Right for You?
Somatic therapy isn’t just for people with a trauma history. It can be incredibly beneficial if:
You feel “stuck” in your healing journey
You experience physical symptoms linked to stress
You struggle to connect with or trust your body
You’ve tried talk therapy but feel like something is missing
You want a gentler, body-based approach to growth and healing
Most importantly, it offers a space where your body’s responses are not seen as problems, but as clues. Clues to what you need to feel safe, whole, and alive again.
What Happens in a Somatic Therapy Session?
If you’re wondering how does somatic therapy work in practice, the answer is that sessions can vary depending on the therapist and your unique needs. But here’s what you can generally expect:
Rather than diving straight into your story, your therapist might invite you to slow down and notice what’s happening in your body. You might track sensations like tightness in your chest, fluttering in your stomach, or a sense of heaviness in your limbs.
Techniques may include:
Body Awareness: Gently noticing physical sensations like warmth, tension, heaviness, or tingling without judgement.
Grounding Techniques: Activities that help anchor you to the present moment—often using touch, movement, or awareness of your surroundings.
Breathwork: Using conscious breathing to regulate your nervous system and increase emotional presence.
Movement Practices: Small postural adjustments or intentional movements that help release stuck energy.
Titration & Pendulation: Exploring intense sensations in manageable doses, then returning to a more neutral or pleasant state to build resilience.
Touch (if agreed upon): In some modalities, therapeutic touch may be used to support safety and regulation.
These practices aim to create space for the nervous system to reset and helping you move out of survival responses like fight, flight or freeze, and into a more connected, calm state.
Why Words Aren’t Always Enough
Talking things through can be powerful but it’s not always enough, especially when trauma is involved. Many people understand their issues intellectually but still feel stuck in old patterns emotionally and physically.
That’s because trauma doesn’t just live in our memories, it lives in our nervous system. It can affect how we breathe, move, and react to everyday stressors. Sometimes, no matter how much you talk about it, the body still feels unsafe.
Somatic therapy offers another way in through sensation, breath, and movement. Instead of retelling painful stories, you learn to listen to your body and create space for healing from the inside out.
A Gentle, Empowering Approach
One of the key principles of somatic therapy is working at your own pace. There’s no need to push or force anything. Instead, your therapist helps you stay within your body’s natural “window of tolerance”—the range where your nervous system can process safely without becoming overwhelmed or shutting down.
This creates a sense of trust, empowerment, and self-agency. You’re not being “fixed” by someone else, you’re being guided back to your own inner wisdom. Over time, many people feel more emotionally resilient, more present, and more connected to themselves and others.
Final Thoughts
So, what is somatic therapy? It’s a gentle, empowering way to heal by reconnecting with your body. Whether you’re dealing with trauma, anxiety, stress, or simply feel disconnected, this approach offers tools to listen to your body’s signals and support your nervous system.
In a world that encourages us to “just think positive” or “get over it,” somatic therapy gives you permission to slow down and tune in. It’s not about pushing through, it’s about softening, feeling, and finding your way back to safety and presence.
If you’ve been feeling stuck—physically, emotionally or both; somatic therapy may be the missing piece. It’s not about fixing what’s broken. It’s about remembering what’s already wise and whole within you.
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