Somatic Therapy
Healing through the body's wisdom—working with sensations, nervous system regulation, and embodied experience
Explore Somatic TherapyWhat Is Somatic Therapy?
Somatic therapy is a body-centered approach that recognizes the profound connection between mind and body. Rather than working solely with thoughts and emotions, somatic therapy includes body sensations, movement, and nervous system states as central to the healing process. The word "somatic" comes from the Greek word "soma," meaning the living body in its wholeness.
Traditional talk therapy operates from the "top down"—using language and cognition to create change. Somatic therapy works "bottom up"—accessing the body's stored experiences, wisdom, and capacity for self-regulation. Trauma, stress, and emotional pain aren't just held in your mind—they're encoded in your nervous system, muscles, breath patterns, and posture. Somatic therapy addresses healing at this bodily level.
At Sagebrush Counseling, we integrate somatic approaches with mindfulness therapy, inner child work, parts work, and attachment-based therapy. This comprehensive approach addresses both body and mind in the healing process.
Core Principles of Somatic Therapy
Understanding the body-mind connection in healing
The Body Holds Experience
Trauma, stress, and emotional experiences aren't just psychological—they're stored in the body. Muscles remember tension, the nervous system remembers threat, and patterns of holding affect how you feel and function.
Sensation Is Information
Body sensations provide crucial information about your emotional state, needs, and responses. Learning to notice and interpret these sensations is key to self-awareness and regulation.
The Nervous System Can Be Regulated
Your autonomic nervous system can get stuck in states of hyperarousal (fight/flight) or hypoarousal (freeze/shutdown). Somatic practices help regulate the nervous system back to balance.
Incomplete Responses Need Completion
When threat responses (fight, flight, freeze) are interrupted or can't complete, they stay stuck in the body. Somatic therapy helps complete these protective responses, releasing stored survival energy.
The Body Has Wisdom
Your body knows what it needs to heal. Somatic therapy trusts the body's inherent wisdom and capacity for self-regulation rather than imposing external solutions.
Slow Is Fast
Moving slowly with body awareness prevents overwhelm and re-traumatization. Small, gentle shifts in the nervous system create lasting change more effectively than pushing through.
Key Somatic Concepts
Understanding how somatic therapy works with the nervous system and body
Window of Tolerance
Your "window of tolerance" is the zone where you can process experience without becoming overwhelmed or shutting down. Trauma narrows this window; somatic therapy gradually expands it.
- Hyperarousal: anxiety, panic, hypervigilance, overwhelm
- Window of tolerance: regulated, present, able to process
- Hypoarousal: numbness, disconnection, shutdown, depression
Pendulation
Moving awareness between sensation and comfort—between activation and calm—helps the nervous system learn it can handle difficult experiences without getting stuck. This rhythmic movement builds resilience.
Titration
Working with small, manageable amounts of activation or difficult material rather than diving into overwhelm. Taking "small bites" allows processing without retraumatization.
Resourcing
Identifying internal and external resources that bring a sense of safety, calm, or strength. Resources stabilize your nervous system and provide anchors during difficult work.
Tracking
Following subtle shifts in body sensations, breathing, posture, facial expressions, and energy levels. Tracking helps you and your therapist notice what's happening in your nervous system moment to moment.
Discharge
The body's natural process of releasing stored stress and survival energy through shaking, trembling, deep breaths, tears, or other spontaneous movements. Allowing discharge completes threat responses.
Somatic Practices & Techniques
How somatic therapy works with the body
Body Awareness
Learning to notice sensations, temperature, tension, breath, and movement in your body. This foundational practice builds interoception—awareness of internal states.
Grounding Techniques
Practices that help you feel connected to your body and present moment—feeling your feet on the floor, noticing contact with your chair, orienting to your environment.
Breathwork
Working with breath patterns to regulate the nervous system. Slow exhales activate the parasympathetic (calming) system, while different breath patterns address various states.
Movement
Using gentle, mindful movement to release held tension, complete interrupted protective responses, or simply reconnect with your body's capacity for action.
Touch & Boundary Work
Self-touch, pressure, or working with physical boundaries helps establish safety, containment, and a sense of where you end and the world begins.
Orienting
Looking around your environment, noticing what's actually present now. This helps the nervous system recognize current safety versus past threat.
Resourcing Exercise
Identifying and connecting with positive body sensations, memories of safety, or images that bring calm. Building a "resource library" for nervous system regulation.
Sensation Tracking
Following sensations as they shift, move, or change in the body. Tracking teaches the nervous system that sensations can move rather than staying stuck.
Integrating Somatic Therapy with Other Approaches
How somatic work enhances and deepens other therapeutic modalities
Somatic + Mindfulness Therapy
Mindfulness provides the awareness to notice body sensations, while somatic therapy teaches how to work with and regulate what you notice. Together they build embodied presence.
Learn more about Mindfulness Therapy →Somatic + Inner Child Work
Inner child wounds are held somatically—in the body's protective patterns and nervous system states. Somatic approaches help release stored childhood experiences from the body.
Learn more about Inner Child Therapy →Somatic + Parts Work
Different parts have different body signatures—sensations, postures, breathing patterns. Somatic awareness helps identify which part is present and what it needs.
Learn more about Parts Work →Somatic + Attachment Therapy
Attachment patterns are encoded in the nervous system and body. Somatic regulation creates the safety needed to explore and heal attachment wounds.
Learn more about Attachment Therapy →Somatic + EFT
Emotions live in the body. Somatic awareness in couples therapy helps partners notice and communicate body-based emotional experiences, deepening vulnerability and connection.
Learn more about EFT →Somatic + ACT
ACT's acceptance and willingness become embodied through somatic practices. Learning to be with uncomfortable body sensations while taking values-based action builds psychological flexibility.
Learn more about ACT →What Somatic Therapy Helps With
Issues where body-based healing creates profound change
Trauma & PTSD
Processing traumatic experiences stored in the body and nervous system. Releasing incomplete survival responses and restoring regulation.
Chronic Anxiety
Regulating a nervous system stuck in hyperarousal. Learning to recognize and shift out of fight-or-flight states.
Depression & Shutdown
Working with hypoarousal and freeze states. Gently bringing energy and aliveness back into the body and nervous system.
Chronic Pain
Addressing how tension patterns, nervous system dysregulation, and stored trauma contribute to physical pain. Changing relationship with pain through body awareness.
Dissociation
Reconnecting with the body after disconnection or numbing. Building tolerance for being present in your body safely.
Panic Attacks
Understanding panic as a nervous system response and learning somatic tools to regulate during and prevent episodes.
Sleep Issues
Calming an activated nervous system and releasing tension that interferes with rest. Teaching the body it's safe to let go.
Stress & Burnout
Releasing chronic tension and stress held in the body. Building capacity for rest, recovery, and nervous system regulation.
Relationship Patterns
Noticing how your nervous system responds in relationships—when you shutdown, fight, or flee. Creating new somatic patterns of connection.
Body Image Issues
Reconnecting with your body through sensation and function rather than appearance. Building compassionate body awareness.
Anger & Rage
Understanding anger as energy in the body and learning to work with it safely. Completing interrupted fight responses.
Boundary Issues
Establishing physical and energetic boundaries through body awareness. Learning to sense when boundaries are violated and how to maintain them.
Who Benefits from Somatic Therapy
This approach helps those ready to work with the body's wisdom in healing
Trauma Survivors
You've experienced trauma that's stored in your body—tension, hypervigilance, numbing, or other physical manifestations. Talk therapy alone hasn't been enough.
Those Disconnected from Bodies
You live primarily in your head, disconnected from body sensations. You want to reconnect with your physical experience and embodied wisdom.
People with Chronic Activation
Your nervous system feels constantly on edge—anxious, vigilant, unable to relax. You want to learn how to actually feel safe in your body.
Individuals Struggling with Shutdown
You experience numbness, dissociation, or depression rooted in nervous system freeze. You want to gently restore energy and aliveness.
Those with Physical Symptoms
You experience tension, pain, or stress-related physical issues. You recognize the mind-body connection and want to address it holistically.
Anyone Seeking Embodied Healing
You understand that lasting change requires more than just thinking differently. You're ready to work with your body as a partner in healing.
Ready to Work with Your Body's Wisdom?
Somatic therapy can help you regulate your nervous system, release stored trauma, and reconnect with your body's innate capacity for healing.
Contact Sagebrush Counseling