What Is Somatic Therapy and How Does It Work?

Have you ever felt anxious or overwhelmed and noticed your shoulders tensing, breath getting shallow, or stomach tying into knots? That’s your body responding to stress, even if your mind hasn’t caught up yet.

Somatic therapy is a type of body-centered therapy that understands emotional pain doesn’t just live in your thoughts, it lives in your body too. While traditional talk therapy focuses on analyzing your experiences, somatic therapy helps you feel and release what’s physically stored inside.

In recent years, more people are turning to somatic approaches for healing trauma, managing anxiety, and feeling more grounded in their bodies. If you’ve ever felt “stuck” in therapy or struggled to name your emotions, somatic therapy might offer a different and deeply healing path.

In this blog, we’ll explore what somatic therapy is, how it works, the science behind it, and how it can support your mental and physical wellbeing.

What Is Somatic Therapy?

Somatic therapy is a holistic approach to mental health that blends traditional talk therapy with body awareness techniques. The word “somatic” comes from the Greek word “soma,” meaning the living body and that’s the foundation of this therapy: treating the body and mind as deeply connected.

The core idea is simple yet powerful: our bodies hold on to stress, trauma, and unresolved emotions. Even when our minds move on, the body can stay stuck in protective patterns like tension, numbness, or hyper-alertness. Somatic therapy helps release those patterns by gently tuning into bodily sensations and using them as a guide toward healing.

This doesn’t mean you’ll have to relive trauma or explain everything in detail. Instead, the focus is on noticing what’s happening in the present moment, in your breath, posture, heartbeat, or physical tension and creating space to safely process it.

There are several types of somatic therapy approaches, including:

• Somatic Experiencing (developed by Dr. Peter Levine)
• Sensorimotor Psychotherapy
• Hakomi Method
• And body-based practices like breathwork, movement, and grounding

Whether used on its own or alongside other therapies, somatic work helps people feel more connected to their bodies, emotions, and inner sense of safety.

How Does Somatic Therapy Work?

Somatic therapy works by helping you tune into your body’s signals the tightness in your chest, the flutter in your stomach, the way you hold your shoulders when you’re anxious and gently guides you to process the emotions stored there.

Unlike traditional talk therapy, where the focus is mainly on thoughts and stories, somatic therapy brings attention to what your body is experiencing in the moment. A therapist might ask:

• Where do you feel that emotion in your body?
• What does that sensation feel like: tight, heavy, warm, shaky?
• If that part of your body could speak, what would it say?

Through this process, you learn to recognize your body’s cues, regulate your nervous system, and release patterns of holding or bracing that developed during past stress or trauma.

Here’s what it might look like in practice:

Let’s say you’re talking about a stressful event, and you suddenly feel a lump in your throat or tightness in your chest. Instead of brushing it off, your therapist may pause and invite you to gently notice and stay with that sensation. As you bring awareness and breath to it, you may feel emotion rise, a shift in energy, or even relief. This is the body completing what it once couldn’t, in a safe and supported way.

Techniques Often Used in Sessions:

• Grounding: To help you stay connected to the present moment
• Breathwork: To regulate stress and calm the nervous system
• Tracking sensations: Noticing changes in the body as emotions arise
• Movement or shaking: To release built-up energy or freeze responses

What is the Science Behind Somatic Therapy?

Somatic therapy is more than a wellness trend. It’s backed by growing scientific research that shows how the body and nervous system play a central role in emotional health.

The Nervous System and Trauma

When we experience stress or trauma, our autonomic nervous system (ANS) kicks in to protect us through fight, flight, or freeze responses. These are survival mechanisms designed to keep us safe. But sometimes, especially in overwhelming or prolonged situations, our body doesn’t get a chance to complete these responses, leaving us stuck in survival mode long after the threat is gone.

This is where somatic therapy comes in. It helps the body process and release stored stress so the nervous system can return to balance.

One key concept often referenced is Polyvagal Theory, developed by Dr. Stephen Porges. It explains how our sense of safety is deeply rooted in our body’s biology. According to this theory, the vagus nerve helps regulate our state, whether we feel calm and connected, anxious and activated, or shut down and numb.

What Does Research Say?

While somatic therapy is still an emerging field, a growing number of studies suggest that body-based approaches can be effective in treating trauma, anxiety, and stress-related disorders.

Somatic Experiencing (SE):

A review of clinical studies found that Somatic Experiencing, a body-oriented trauma therapy, led to significant reductions in PTSD symptoms and improved emotional regulation in trauma survivors (Payne et al., 2015). SE helps individuals complete “stuck” fight, flight, or freeze responses in a safe, supported way.

Trauma-Sensitive Body Work:

In a study exploring somatic interventions for trauma survivors, participants reported decreased symptoms of anxiety, depression, and dissociation after engaging in practices that emphasized body awareness and grounding (Levine et al., 2021). Many also noted increased connection with their bodies and a greater sense of personal agency.

Neuroscience Support – Polyvagal Theory:

Polyvagal Theory, proposed by Porges (2011), explains how our nervous system responds to threat and safety. Somatic therapy supports the regulation of the vagus nerve, encouraging a shift from states of survival (fight, flight, freeze) to connection, calm, and self-regulation.

The Body Keeps the Score:

Psychiatrist Bessel van der Kolk (2014) emphasizes that trauma affects both the brain and body and that talk therapy alone may not resolve deeply rooted somatic symptoms. He strongly advocates integrating body-based practices such as yoga, movement, and somatic experiencing into trauma care.

What Can Somatic Therapy Help With?

Somatic therapy is especially effective for people who feel that talking about their problems only gets them so far or who sense that their body is holding on to something their mind can’t fully explain. It’s widely used for trauma healing, but its benefits go far beyond that.

• Trauma and PTSD: One of the most well-known uses of somatic therapy is in trauma recovery. When someone goes through a traumatic experience, the body often stays in a state of alert, even long after the event is over. Somatic therapy helps discharge that stored energy and rebuild a sense of safety in the body.
• Anxiety and Chronic Stress: If you’ve ever experienced racing thoughts, shallow breathing, or a tight chest during stress, you already know how anxiety lives in the body. Somatic techniques like grounding and breathwork can calm the nervous system and reduce the physical symptoms of anxiety.
• Depression: Depression can manifest as heaviness, fatigue, numbness, or disconnection from the body. Somatic therapy gently encourages reconnection, helping clients feel more present, energized, and embodied.
• Grief and Loss: Grief can be overwhelming and may show up physically as tightness in the chest, difficulty breathing, or tension. Somatic work can support the grieving process by creating space to safely feel and move through difficult sensations.
• Chronic Pain and Tension: Emotional pain can sometimes be expressed through physical symptoms. Somatic therapy can help uncover emotional patterns that may be contributing to chronic tension, headaches, or unexplained pain, offering relief that traditional medical approaches may not.
• Body Image and Disconnection from the Body: Many people carry shame, trauma, or disconnection related to their bodies. Somatic therapy can rebuild a healthier, more compassionate relationship with the body, especially for those recovering from disordered eating, sexual trauma, or medical trauma.
• Dissociation and Numbness: When people disconnect from their bodies due to overwhelming emotions or trauma, they may feel “numb” or “cut off.” Somatic therapy works slowly and safely to bring awareness and connection back into those parts of the self.

Popular Somatic Therapy Tools

Somatic therapy uses a range of body-based techniques to help people become more aware of their physical sensations, regulate their nervous systems, and safely process difficult emotions. These techniques are usually introduced slowly, with the therapist closely attuned to the client’s pace and comfort level.

Body Scanning

This involves slowly bringing attention to different parts of the body to notice sensations, tension, numbness, or other cues. It helps build body awareness and can uncover areas where emotions may be stored physically. For example, “Can you bring your attention to your chest and notice what’s happening there right now?”

Grounding Techniques

Grounding helps anchor you in the present moment, especially when you’re feeling overwhelmed, anxious, or dissociated. It may involve pressing your feet into the floor, feeling the texture of an object, or naming things you can see and hear.

Breathwork

Breath is one of the most accessible ways to influence the body’s stress response. Somatic therapists often guide clients through slow, mindful breathing or noticing natural breath patterns to calm the body.

Movement and Shaking

Gentle movement or intentional shaking can help discharge energy that has been trapped in the body due to stress or trauma. This can be as simple as stretching, swaying, or shaking out your limbs.

Tracking Sensations

Clients are encouraged to “track” sensations in real time like tingling, tightness, warmth, or pulsing without judging or trying to fix them. This builds interoception (internal body awareness) and helps reconnect mind and body.

Pendulation and Titration

These are techniques for trauma work that help clients move gently between distress and safety. Instead of diving into overwhelming emotions, the therapist guides the client in “dosing” the experience and then returning to calm.

What’s the Difference Between Somatic Therapy and Talk Therapy

While both somatic therapy and talk therapy aim to support emotional healing and mental well-being, they approach the process from different starting points. Talk therapy (like CBT or psychodynamic therapy) primarily works through thoughts, stories, and insight. Somatic therapy starts with what the body is feeling, even before words are fully formed.

Do You Have to Choose One Over the Other?

Not at all. Many therapists integrate both approaches. For instance, a session might begin with talking through an issue and then shift into exploring how that issue is felt in the body. This combination often leads to deeper emotional release, greater nervous system regulation, and more sustainable healing.

How Do I Know Somatic Therapy is for Me?

Somatic therapy is especially helpful for people who:

• Feel stuck in talk therapy and want a more body-centered approach
• Struggle with trauma, anxiety, or chronic stress
• Experience physical symptoms like chronic tension, fatigue, or pain that don’t have a clear medical cause
• Have difficulty identifying or expressing emotions
• Tend to dissociate or “go numb” during intense emotions
• Want to build a stronger connection with their body and nervous system
• Are looking for a gentle and trauma-informed path to healing

Even if you haven’t experienced a “big trauma,” somatic therapy can support healing from everyday stress, emotional overwhelm, burnout, or developmental trauma (subtle, early-life patterns that shaped your nervous system).

Who Might Somatic Therapy Not Be Advisable for: 

Somatic therapy may not be the best fit, at least not right away, for individuals who:

• Have severe dissociation, psychosis, or active mania, where body awareness might feel unsafe or destabilizing
• Are not yet able to tolerate emotional discomfort or body sensations without becoming overwhelmed
• Have unmanaged medical conditions that cause chronic pain or sensitivity, where physical tracking may be confusing
• Are looking for a highly structured or directive therapy approach (somatic work can be subtle and nonlinear)

In these cases, somatic therapy might still be an option later, often in combination with medical support or more stabilizing therapy first. A skilled therapist can help assess readiness and tailor the approach accordingly.

Note: The most important factor in somatic therapy is feeling safe and in control. A well-trained therapist will move at your pace, explain what’s happening, and never push you into anything you’re not ready for. Your comfort and choice are always central to the process.

What to Expect in a Somatic Therapy Session

If you’re new to body-based therapy, you might be wondering: What actually happens in a somatic session? Unlike some forms of therapy that follow a fixed structure, somatic therapy is more fluid and responsive, tailored to what you’re feeling in the moment.

Sessions usually begin with a short check-in and a grounding exercise to help you settle into your body like noticing your breath or feet on the floor. As you talk about something that’s bothering you, the therapist might ask:

• Where do you feel that in your body?
• What does that sensation feel like?

This helps you explore emotions through the body, rather than just through the mind. You may be guided to use breathwork, gentle movement, or tracking sensations always based on what feels safe and manageable. The therapist may help you shift attention when things feel intense, using techniques like pendulation (moving between distress and safety).

Healing may show up as feeling calmer, more grounded, less reactive, or simply more at ease in your body.

Conclusion

Somatic therapy offers a powerful reminder: healing doesn’t just happen in your thoughts, it happens through your body too. By tuning into physical sensations and working with the nervous system, this approach helps release stress, process trauma, and build a deeper sense of safety and connection within yourself.

If traditional talk therapy hasn’t felt like enough, somatic therapy might be the missing piece. And the best part? Your body already holds the wisdom, you just need a safe space to listen.