Somatic therapy is an umbrella term for therapeutic approaches that intentionally include the body in the process of healing. While traditional “talk therapies” tend to focus on thoughts, beliefs, and narratives, somatic approaches start from a different assumption: that our lived experiences—especially stress and trauma—are not only held in the mind, but also in the nervous system and the body itself.
For therapists who are curious about somatic work but not yet deeply familiar with it, somatic therapy can feel both intriguing and elusive. What does it actually look like in practice? How does it differ from other experiential approaches? And why has it become such a significant part of contemporary trauma treatment?
The Core Idea Behind Somatic Therapy
At its heart, somatic therapy is grounded in the understanding that the body and mind are inseparable. Emotions are not just cognitive events; they are accompanied by sensations such as tightness, warmth, pressure, movement impulses, and shifts in breathing or posture. Over time, particularly in the context of chronic stress or trauma, these physiological patterns can become habitual and automatic.
Somatic therapies aim to help clients become aware of these bodily experiences and gently work with them, rather than bypassing them through insight alone. The goal is not to analyze the body, but to listen to it—tracking sensation, movement, and nervous system states as meaningful sources of information and pathways to change.
A Nervous System–Informed Approach
Most somatic modalities are deeply informed by psychophysiology and neuroscience, particularly the functioning of the autonomic nervous system. Instead of focusing exclusively on symptom reduction, somatic therapy often emphasizes regulation, capacity, and resilience.
From this perspective, many psychological symptoms—such as anxiety, shutdown, emotional reactivity, or chronic tension—are understood as adaptive nervous system responses. Somatic therapy works to support the nervous system in completing incomplete responses, restoring flexibility, and expanding a client’s ability to tolerate internal experience without becoming overwhelmed.
This orientation can be especially valuable for clients who struggle to articulate their experiences verbally, who feel “stuck” despite insight-oriented work, or whose trauma occurred early in life or outside of conscious memory.
Key Somatic Therapy Modalities
While somatic therapy is not a single method, several well-established modalities share common principles while offering distinct frameworks and techniques.
Somatic Experiencing® (SE)
Developed by Peter Levine, Somatic Experiencing is one of the most widely known somatic trauma therapies. SE focuses on tracking bodily sensations and nervous system responses in a gradual, titrated way. Rather than revisiting traumatic events in detail, the therapist helps the client notice moment-to-moment sensory experience, supporting the completion of defensive responses and the restoration of regulation.
SE places strong emphasis on resources, pendulation (moving between states of activation and calm), and respecting the client’s pacing. For therapists, it offers a clear clinical map for working with trauma without relying on catharsis or prolonged exposure.
Sensorimotor Psychotherapy
Founded by Pat Ogden, Sensorimotor Psychotherapy integrates somatic awareness with attachment theory, cognitive approaches, and relational psychotherapy. It is often described as a “body-oriented talking therapy.” Therapists may work with posture, movement, gestures, and physical impulses while also engaging meaning-making and relational reflection.
This modality is particularly well-suited for developmental trauma and attachment wounds, offering a structured way to integrate body-based interventions within a psychotherapeutic frame familiar to many clinicians.
Hakomi Method
Hakomi is a mindfulness-based somatic psychotherapy that blends body awareness with principles from Eastern contemplative traditions. It emphasizes nonviolence, present-moment experience, and the exploration of core beliefs as they arise somatically. Therapists use gentle experiments to evoke and study habitual patterns, allowing clients to access implicit material held in the body.
Hakomi often appeals to therapists who value depth work, mindfulness, and a collaborative, experiential process.
Other Somatic-Informed Approaches
Many contemporary therapies incorporate somatic elements without identifying strictly as somatic modalities. EMDR, Internal Family Systems–informed somatic work, and polyvagal-informed practices all reflect the growing influence of body-based and nervous system–aware perspectives across the field.
What Somatic Therapy Looks Like in Practice
A somatic therapy session may look familiar on the surface—two people talking—but the therapist’s attention is often directed differently. Instead of focusing primarily on content, the therapist tracks process: breath, tone of voice, shifts in posture, pacing, and subtle changes in affect or arousal.
Interventions might include inviting a client to notice a sensation, slow down a movement impulse, orient to the environment, or sense into what happens when a boundary is imagined or enacted. These interventions are typically gentle and collaborative, with an emphasis on choice and consent.
Why Therapists Are Turning Toward Somatic Work
Many therapists discover somatic therapy after noticing the limits of insight-based approaches, particularly with trauma, chronic stress, or attachment-related issues. Clients may understand their patterns intellectually yet continue to feel dysregulated or stuck.
Somatic therapy offers a way to work beneath the level of narrative, supporting change at the level of physiology and implicit memory. For therapists, it can deepen clinical presence, refine attunement, and expand the range of interventions available—often with a sense of greater gentleness and sustainability.
Final Thoughts
By including the body as an active participant in the therapeutic process, somatic approaches offer therapists new ways to understand suffering, resilience, and healing.
For clinicians curious about this work, exploring somatic therapy is less about learning a set of techniques and more about cultivating a different kind of attention—one that honors the wisdom of the nervous system and the body’s innate capacity for regulation and repair.
If you’d like to learn more about somatic therapies, register for our next “Teach me Something” event.
Comments