What Is Somatic Therapy, Really? (And Why Talking Isn't Always Enough)
Takeaway
If the term somatic is new for you, you’re not alone. Maybe you’ve seen posts about it, but are not sure if it’s legit. Questions I often get: What is it, and why would I do that? Will my therapist be touching me? Will I be asked to move around the room? Will I be reliving my trauma repeatedly?!
This essay will hopefully help you answer these questions and more.
Somatic therapy isn't a technique or an add-on to "real" therapy. It's a fundamentally different understanding of where healing lives, one that takes the body seriously as an intelligent, responsive system that holds and communicates what the mind can't yet articulate.
Somatic therapy invites the body to share its wisdom and aid in the healing journey.
Because there are many branches of the somatic therapy tree, it can be confusing how to start. Check out my next post, How to Choose A Somatic Therapist in That’s Right for You, for help choosing a somatic therapist in Washington that is right for you.
What is Somatic Therapy?
Somatic therapy is a body-based approach that attends to your sensations in the moment to work with, and not against, the healing of your nervous system activations (panic, numbness, stress!). It helps us connect the mind to the body’s natural wisdom. With a healing professional, this therapy slows down the process and welcomes the body’s experiences, where many things are stored and still alive, sometimes wreaking havoc. Instead of depending on the intellect alone, the body is invited to join the process. It is called a bottom-up approach because it starts with sensation and moves into meaning. Traditional talk therapy is called a top-down approach because it starts with logic and meaning. Somatic therapy asks us to shift our understanding of where our healing capacity initiates.
Meeting Ren, a real-time client example
Recently, I was sitting with a client I’ll call Ren. She has been experiencing external stressors on multiple levels this summer. When she arrived, she immediately and breathlessly began sharing about the newest stress that had arrived. When she paused to take a breath, I asked the typical somatic therapist question: “As you explain this, what do you notice in your body?” Ren immediately put a hand on her belly and said, "It's something here, like I just got punched. I can’t breathe”. Before she could name it, her body understood its role and importance in her work with me that day. And felt safe enough to be curious.
Why Talking Isn’t Always Enough
Talk therapy is genuinely valuable. Many have had the experience of what Oprah coined as the aha-moment! When at last, in a flash, you finally have insight on something that has eluded your understanding. But this insight doesn't always move through the body. You can understand exactly why you panic in conflict and still panic. It is the difference between reading about a ripe mango and having the sticky juice of a mango run down your chin, the fibers wedging between your teeth.
Many of the clients I see are successful and smart; they have done therapy for ages, but still feel stuck. Somatic therapy and talk therapy are not opposites. They simply approach mental health from different angles. Talk therapy starts with What do you know/think? Somatic therapy starts with, What are you experiencing? In Western culture, we value knowing and generally will do anything to avoid the physical feels. The cost is that our body can’t keep up with the pace. It tires, gets over-agitated, and/or leaves the building. Our bodies and minds carry the burdens of our greatest fears.
Just talking is not enough.
The nervous system has its own intelligence that is constantly communicating with us. But we need a different way to listen. A way that does not overwhelm or freeze.
What Somatic Actually Means
The word “somatic” comes from the Greek word soma, meaning the physical body. Indigenous body-based healing practices, including dance, song, prayer, meditation, yoga, community and hands-on approaches, are somatic practices that have existed around the world since humans have. Somatics is a newer word that, according to Wiki, has come to be known as internal body-based approaches to healing in the West. These days, the conversation around somatic therapy is about how to listen, engage, and reconnect with the body’s wisdom in the healing process.
The Body Isn’t a Symptom Carrier, It Is an Ecosystem
The nervous system is an automatic response system in our bodies whose job it is to detect threat and safety in our surroundings and communicate that with us in a way to help us take action. It communicates with and through the body. You might have heard the term nervous system regulation, or fight, flight, and freeze (sometimes fight, flight, freeze, and fawn).
A regulated nervous system is flexible and responsive. It responds to signals of threat, and then returns to a baseline of calm and energized. Nervous system dysregulation is when the system gets stuck in a response to threat, and needs support to return.
Sweating, increased heart rate, hyper attention to detail, inability to have clear thoughts, engaging in risky behavior, dissociation, numbness, avoidance, a feeling of emptiness, the urge to throw things, punch, scream, and/or annihilate and destroy, are among the tells of nervous system dysregulation, or experiencing a trauma response.
This is where it can get tricky.
Experiencing an acute or ongoing shocking event can cause parts of you to carry the experience long after it is over. Sometimes these parts have words to explain it, and sometimes they only experience sensations. Even though your brain understands that the event is over, your nervous system may continue to react to the sounds, smells, images, vibes, and touch in the world around you.
The body is an organized ecosystem. When something is off with one part of us, other parts of the system react and respond, sometimes with the symptoms above. A lot of what brings people to therapy is feeling stuck in their body, not just stuck in their thinking.
Ren’s healing
As a somatic and IFS therapist, I recognized the attention that Ren’s body was asking for when she placed her hand on her belly. Before she spoke, her body communicated for her. Because I am practiced at reading the language of the body, I helped Ren slow down and listen. This is one way to access nervous system regulation in the moment. I didn’t pressure her or tell her what was happening. I led her through a practice of curiosity with the sensations she was experiencing.
It turns out, the feeling of getting punched in the gut was familiar. Even though it was painful in the moment, Ren remained curious about it. She spontaneously shared about a recent loss and her relationship with that beloved one. As she made the connection, tears welled in her eyes as an important part of her story was able to emerge and be witnessed. And at the end of the story, the sensation had shifted.
What Somatic Therapy Actually Looks Like in Session
Somatic therapy doesn’t always look so different from a typical talk therapy session. If you work with me, we’ll meet and check in. I might ask you to notice what's happening in your body as you are describing an event or relationship. I won’t be doing something to you; I will invite you to be with what is happening for you in the moment. Then, together we can track it, like a hunter follows tracks through the woods, slow and curious. We will follow where your body leads us and pay attention to any spontaneous requests or impulses to move, settle, or complete.
Some somatic therapists use touch, some do not. In my practice, when touch is involved, I practice with ongoing consent.
Your no is as powerful a message as your yes is.
As an IFS and somatic therapist, I trust that your body contains all the ingredients you need for healing, even when you don’t. I can sit with and honor your experience as vital, even if you can’t.
Who is Somatic Therapy Best For?
Somatic work can be a relief for people who have done talk therapy in the past and hit a wall. If you have a sense that something is alive in your body that you haven't been able to reach yet, somatic therapy can be a great resource.
Somatic therapy can be an important bridge to healing for those of you who are movers, athletes, manual laborers, and artists. When your daily work is with and through your body, somatic therapy can help to bring a new kind of meaning to what you already know.
I am biased, but I think somatic therapy can be beneficial for anyone with curiosity about it. If you made it this far, it might be worth looking into.
The Body Has Been Waiting
Your body is not broken. It is an overburdened system working hard to protect you against taking on further wounding. Somatic therapy doesn't ask you to relive what happened, or to feel everything all at once. It asks if it is ok to slow down and listen for what's already there. Most people are surprised to find that their body has been waiting patiently for exactly that kind of attention. It usually has quite a lot to say.
W