Healing From the Inside Out
For those who have experienced trauma, the anguish is not just stored in our psyche but also lives inside our bodies. While traditional talk therapy concentrates on resolving the distress by working with thoughts, beliefs, and emotions, many trauma survivors find that the verbal approach fails to address their inner turmoil in totality. Since somatic therapy works with the mind–body connection, it helps many clients resolve trauma in a deeper synergy, where they work with both mind and body.
What is Somatic Therapy?
The adjective ‘somatic’ traces its roots back to the Greek word ‘sōmatikos,’ which means ‘about the body.’ Therefore, ‘somatic’ can be understood as anything that relates to the physical body and its various aspects, functions, and phenomena. In scientific and medical contexts, ‘somatic’ is often used to describe bodily functions, processes, or conditions as opposed to those of the mind or psyche.
Since the mind and body are integrally related, mental conditions often manifest as somatic symptoms. For instance, the somatic symptoms of anxiety can include sweating and rapid heartbeat.
Trauma can destabilize the nervous system and throw it into a survival mode that includes responses such as fight, flight, freeze, or fawn, even long after the threat has passed. This can translate into chronic tension, shallow breathing, fatigue, hypervigilance, numbness, or unexplained physical pain.
Trauma memories are often put away in the inner recesses of the psyche, meaning they present as bodily sensations and not as clear narratives. For example, an individual might cognitively comprehend that they are “safe now,” yet their body keeps reacting to imagined and imminent threats. In such cases, somatic therapy may be used to directly address these bodily responses, helping the nervous system absorb that the trauma is really over.
Somatic therapy is an umbrella term for body-centered approaches to mental health that work with an awareness of physical sensations, posture, movement, breath, and nervous system responses, treating them as pathways to healing. Rather than asking clients to relive traumatic events in detail, somatic therapy advocates being in the present moment. Clients are made aware of sensations such as warmth, tightness, trembling, or ease, helping them gently and safely explore these sensations in successive guided therapy sessions.
Many trauma survivors feel numb or disconnected from their bodies. Somatic therapy gently rebuilds this connection by helping clients cultivate curiosity and compassion toward bodily sensations. Learning to feel safe in one’s own body is a marker of progress in trauma recovery, especially for individuals who have gone through abuse, neglect, or chronic stress.
Also Read: Teletherapy vs In-Person: Which Is Right for You?
Key Somatic Therapy Techniques for Trauma Healing
Somatic therapy includes a wide spectrum of techniques that are all body-focused, helping survivors reconnect with their nervous system, release stored tension, and restore safety in the body. These practices work with sensations and physical states rather than just thoughts or memories, allowing healing to occur from the “bottom up”, or “inside out,” starting with the body and working toward emotional integration.
1. Grounding Techniques
Grounding exercises use sensory awareness to ground the individual’s attention in the present moment. By shifting the emphasis on physical sensations, such as acknowledging the sensation of placing one’s feet on the ground or becoming aware of sounds and textures present around the individual, the person undergoing therapy gradually learns the methods to counter dissociation, which helps stabilize the nervous system. Examples of grounding techniques are body scan and the “5-4-3-2-1” method for sensory grounding whereby the individual notices five things that they can see, four things that they can touch, three things they can hear, two things they can smell and one thing that they can taste.
2. Breathwork
Breathing has a remarkable impact on the nervous system since it regulates the heart rate, emotional responses, and overall well-being by impacting vagus nerve stimulation and autonomic nervous system balance. In Breathwork, the client practices techniques like diaphragmatic breathing, box breathing, and other paced patterns to control the fight-or-flight response and induce relaxation. Breathwork is often done in a face-to-face session with the therapist and extended beyond the therapy setting, to be employed by the client as a self-regulation tool outside of therapy.
3. Tension Release Techniques
Trauma causes chronic muscle tension or tightness. Progressive muscle relaxation helps release tension in muscles by following a process, where muscle groups are first tensed, then released — a method that helps the body let go of stored stress. Progressive muscle relaxation is doubly beneficial in that it deepens the individual’s awareness of their body while promoting physical relaxation.
4. Somatic Experiencing® (SE)
Developed by Dr. Peter Levine, Somatic Experiencing® uses a step-by-step structure to trace physical sensations linked to trauma and then release them gradually. Rather than recounting traumatic memories in detail, clients trace bodily sensations and then slowly release their trapped survival energy to move through and out of the body.
5. Therapeutic Touch & Massage Therapy
Touch-based techniques are employed by skilled experts once the client has given informed consent. They can help individuals unlock emotional release via techniques like myofascial release or acupressure, modalities that reduce physical tension and help to reinstate a sense of safety and grounding in the body.
6. Movement & Dance Therapy
Movement-based practices are useful in releasing pent-up emotions and regulating the nervous system. Practices like gentle yoga, tai chi, dance, or other rhythmic movements can strengthen the individual’s awareness of their body, acting as a nonverbal pathway for expression and healing.
7. Sound Therapy
Sound therapy utilizes vibrations and tones from singing bowls, gongs, or drums to facilitate emotional release and promote nervous system regulation. Sound frequencies have been proven to be de-stressors, as they influence stress responses, promote relaxation, and help the body reorganize its physiological patterns of trauma manifestation.
8. EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) Therapy
EMDR can be considered to be a somatic modality because it engages both body and brain. In EMDR, clients tune into and identify the somatic elements of their trauma memories. Then, guided eye movements or bilateral stimulation are used to help rewire and lessen the emotional intensity of traumatic memories, activating cognitive and physical regulation.
Somatic therapy is more effective when included within a wellness routine that includes mindfulness, meditation, yoga, and pilates. Moreover, it can be tailored to cultural practices and spiritual beliefs, making it acceptable to clients from diverse social and cultural backgrounds.
Who Can Benefit from Somatic Therapy?
Somatic therapy can help clients struggling with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), developmental or childhood trauma, medical trauma, sexual abuse, or complex trauma. It can also benefit individuals with anxiety, depression, or chronic stress associated with unresolved trauma. Individuals who do badly in verbal communication may find somatic approaches better suited to resolve their underlying trauma.
Looking for a trauma therapist in Upper East Side, New York?
Laura Pearl uses EMDR therapy and other somatic approaches to help clients get out of destructive patterns to live and work in healthy ways.
