Understanding Somatic Therapy: A Holistic Path to Healing
A journey inward to heal emotional wounds, calm the nervous system, and rediscover who you truly are.
Somatic therapy is a transformative approach that helps individuals deeply connect with their bodies to address and heal emotional core wounds.
By understanding the pivotal role of the nervous system in our lives, somatic therapy supports clients as they build their capacity to experience and process challenging emotions in healthy and empowering ways.
“Somatic"
—Originates from the Greek word soma, meaning "body."
In somatic therapy, it’s recognised that our bodies, emotions, and nervous systems hold imprints of our earliest memories and experiences.
Unlike traditional talk therapy, which centres on cognitive exploration, somatic therapy involves tuning into sensations, emotions, and memories stored within the body, enabling deeper healing and self-discovery. This process goes beyond willpower, addressing the root causes of distress to create lasting change.
What to Expect in a Somatic Therapy Session
Sessions are gentle and curiosity-driven, creating a safe space to explore parts of yourself that were impacted by a lack of safety and unmet needs in the past.
In a somatic therapy session, the focus moves from verbal analysis to experiencing what unfolds within the body as you discuss life issues.
By bringing awareness to sensations—such as tension, heat, or tingling—and the associated emotions and memories, these younger parts of yourself can be witnessed in a way that wasn’t possible at the time. This experience allows you to release survival patterns that were once used to keep you safe, closing trauma loops and freeing you from long-standing emotional burdens.
As you process and release these stored beliefs and emotions, you often gain clarity and discover insights into long-standing behavioural patterns, beliefs, reactions and core wounds that shape your present experience, leading to transformation and healing.
How Somatic Therapy Helps with Trauma and Emotional Challenges
Somatic therapy is particularly beneficial for those facing trauma, anxiety, chronic stress, depression, low self-esteem, and other emotional challenges.
Trauma is not just a psychological experience but a physical one, with its emotional imprints held within the body, creating sensations of tension, pain, or feelings of being "stuck."
Somatic therapy gently brings awareness to these sensations, enabling a release of stored traumatic energy. This healing process allows the body to complete the “fight, flight, freeze” responses it couldn’t fully process at the time, providing a sense of relief and freedom from those triggers.
For a deeper understanding of what trauma really is, click here to find out more about trauma.
Key Benefits of Somatic Therapy
A primary benefit of somatic therapy is its ability to bring unconscious thoughts, beliefs, and behaviors into conscious awareness.
Many patterns influencing our lives are rooted in early experiences, often forming before age seven, and remain in the unconscious mind, driving behaviors that we may not fully understand. Somatic therapy shines a light on these hidden elements, allowing them to be seen, understood, and finally processed, creating space for authentic self-connection and healing.
Cultivating Self-Compassion Through Somatic Therapy
By reconnecting with your body, you begin to develop a nurturing, compassionate relationship with yourself.
Somatic therapy focuses on cultivating self-compassion. Learning to listen to your body’s signals and respond kindly builds a sense of safety, presence, and self-acceptance, which enhances both your relationship with yourself and your interactions with others. This embodied self-awareness promotes resilience and overall well-being.
A Client’s Journey Through Somatic Therapy
Somatic therapy sessions are designed to create safety and calm within your body and nervous system.
Here’s what a session might involve:
Creating a Safety “Resource”: We begin by cultivating a sense of safety within your body, known as a “resource.” This foundational tool helps build a calm nervous system, providing support not only during the session but also in everyday life.
Inviting the “Trigger”: Together, we identify a “trigger” to explore. This might be a challenging relationship or person, an uncomfortable feeling, or an aspect of yourself, such as a habit or addiction. Triggers often provoke intense responses that cause stress or overthinking, impacting both body and mind.
Exploring Sensations and Emotions: As you discuss the issue, we focus on the sensations and emotions that arise. Using curiosity and a gentle, guided framework, we explore these bodily responses to understand their origins, unmet needs, and beliefs.
Embodying and Integrating Parts: Techniques grounded in safety support a steady nervous system, allowing emotions, thoughts, memories, and sensations to surface in a way that feels manageable. These parts of yourself can then be integrated, allowing for a sense of wholeness and connection.
Returning to Your Safety Resource: We conclude each session by reconnecting with your safety resource, leaving you with a sense of calm and groundedness.
By facilitating deep healing, somatic therapy opens the door to authentic self-connection and emotional freedom, allowing you to break free from long-standing patterns and experience life with greater ease.