What Is Somatic Therapy (and Why Your Body Might Be Holding the Key to Healing)
If you’ve ever felt like you "should be over it by now" but your body still tightens, braces, or shuts down, you’re not alone. A lot of people try to talk their way through trauma or stress and still end up feeling stuck. It’s not because you’re doing anything wrong. It’s because healing isn’t just a mind thing. It’s a body thing too.
That is the heart of somatic therapy. Your body remembers. It reacts. It protects. And it can absolutely learn to feel safe again.
Understanding Somatic Therapy
Somatic therapy is a form of psychotherapy that focuses on your internal physical sensations, not just your thoughts. It’s grounded in the idea that the body and mind work as one healing system.
A quick definition
Somatic simply means relating to the body. So somatic therapy is body-centered therapy.
Instead of only asking “What happened” or “What are you thinking,” somatic therapy also asks:
What is your body doing right now
Where do you feel that emotion
What sensations show up when you talk about this
This approach has been around for a very long time. Many Eastern cultures have always viewed healing as a mind-body-spirit process. What we now call somatic psychotherapy was shaped by practices like yoga, breathwork, meditation, qi-based traditions, and body-centered awareness. Western psychology is just finally catching up and giving language and research to what Eastern traditions have practiced for centuries.
How Trauma Gets Stored in the Body
Trauma doesn’t only live in your memories. It lives in your nervous system. When something overwhelming happens, your body prepares you to fight, flee, or freeze. But if you can’t complete that survival response, the body holds that energy.
This can show up as
chronic jaw clenching
tight shoulders
stomach issues
feeling disconnected or “zoned out”
migraines
a chest that always feels heavy
Somatic therapy helps you slowly release these stuck responses by giving your body a chance to complete what it couldn’t finish at the time.
Benefits of Somatic Therapy for Mental Health
Because somatic therapy speaks directly to the nervous system, people often feel results that go deeper than insight alone. Many clients see improvements in:
anxiety and panic
depression symptoms
emotional regulation
sleep
chronic pain
overall sense of groundedness and safety
This is why somatic work blends so well with EMDR.
When your body feels safer, your brain can process more effectively.
Somatic Therapy Techniques Used in EMDR
EMDR already incorporates the body through bilateral stimulation, but somatic techniques help clients stay within their window of tolerance and avoid overwhelm.
Here are a couple of simple examples:
Grounding Through the Feet
This involves noticing the pressure of your feet on the ground and pressing down slightly. Clients often feel themselves settle into the present moment quickly. This tells the nervous system “I’m here, I’m okay, and I’m safe.”
Body Scan Check-In
A therapist guides you to move attention through the body from head to toe, noticing sensations without judgment. Tingling, tightness, heaviness, warmth, numbness, whatever is there. This increases awareness and helps identify where activation is being held during EMDR processing.
These techniques are small but powerful. They help clients stay connected, stable, and embodied during deeper EMDR work.
Who Can Benefit from Somatic Therapy
Somatic therapy is especially helpful for people who feel "stuck in their head" or disconnected from their body. It can support people working through
grief
relational trauma
addiction recovery
anxiety and panic
chronic pain or tension
Many clients come in saying “I understand my trauma logically but my body still reacts.” Somatic therapy finally helps those pieces come together.
Somatic Therapy vs Traditional Talk Therapy
Talk therapy focuses on thoughts, insights, and narratives. It’s valuable and effective. But talk therapy doesn’t always reach the implicit, body-based side of trauma.
Somatic therapy works with the nonverbal memories and physiological patterns that words can’t fully access.
Talk therapy says
“Let’s understand what happened.”
Somatic therapy says
“Let’s help your body feel safe again.”
Both matter. Together they are incredibly powerful.
Building Resilience Through Body Awareness
One of the biggest gifts of somatic therapy is learning to notice your body’s cues early. Instead of going from fine to overwhelmed in 0.3 seconds, you begin to see the warning signs and respond with compassion rather than self-blame.
As this awareness grows, people often say things like
“I feel more connected to myself”
or
“I trust my body again.”
This is what resilience actually looks like. Not bypassing stress, but knowing how to come back to yourself.
