What Is Somatic Therapy (and how I use it)

Somatic therapy is a body-based approach to healing that recognizes what many people intuitively know: experiences are not only remembered in the mind, but held in the nervous system, tissues, breath, and patterns of response. Long after an event has passed, the body may still be bracing, guarding, dissociating, or over-adapting in quiet ways that shape daily life.

Rather than focusing primarily on story or insight, somatic therapy works with present-moment sensation, regulation, and the body’s innate capacity to reorganize when given the right conditions. This work is not about reliving the past. It’s about creating enough safety and steadiness for the nervous system to release what it has been holding — gradually, intelligently, and at a pace that respects your capacity.

How somatic therapy differs from talk therapy

Traditional talk therapy often centers on understanding: naming patterns, processing emotions, making meaning. Somatic therapy includes these elements, but it doesn’t rely on cognition alone. It recognizes that insight does not automatically change physiology.

In somatic work, we pay attention to cues such as breath, muscle tone, posture, temperature, impulses to move or pause, and subtle shifts in sensation. These signals tell us how the nervous system is responding in real time. By working with them directly, change becomes embodied — not just understood, but lived.

This can be especially helpful for people who:

• Feel “stuck” despite years of insight or self-work

• Experience anxiety, chronic tension, or shutdown without a clear cause

• Have a history of early stress, medical trauma, or relational overwhelm

• Sense that their body is carrying more than their mind can explain

How I practice somatic therapy

My approach is slow, relational, and carefully paced. We begin with regulation and stabilization — establishing a felt sense of safety, orientation, and support in the body. From there, deeper work unfolds organically, guided by what arises rather than by a predetermined agenda.

Sessions may include:

• Gentle attention to sensation and nervous-system states

• Breath awareness or subtle breathwork

• Grounded, consensual touch when appropriate

• Guided imagery or resourcing practices

• Sound or vocalization as a way to support release and regulation

Nothing is forced. There is no expectation to “go somewhere” or arrive at a breakthrough. The body leads, and we follow with curiosity and respect.

A note on touch and pacing

When touch is included, it is always optional, clearly discussed, and used with clinical care. Touch in somatic therapy is not manipulative or corrective — it is informational. It offers the nervous system another experience of contact, boundary, and support, which can be profoundly reparative when early experiences were overwhelming, inconsistent, or absent.

Equally important is pacing. Somatic work unfolds over time. This is not a quick fix, but a process of restoring trust in the body’s signals and rhythms.

What this work supports

People often come to this work during times of transition — pregnancy, postpartum, grief, illness, burnout, midlife change, or the quiet realization that old coping strategies no longer work. Over time, many experience:

• Greater steadiness and emotional range

• Reduced reactivity or shutdown

• Improved capacity for connection and rest

• A deeper sense of inhabiting their body and life

This is not about becoming someone new. It’s about returning to what has been interrupted, unfinished, or held in reserve.

Somatic therapy offers a way back — through the body, at its own pace, with care.