What is somatic therapy?

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Somatic therapy is a body-based approach to healing that addresses trauma, emotional dysregulation, and psychological distress through the body's physical sensations, movements, and physiological responses — based on the understanding that trauma and stress are stored not only in memory and cognition but in the tissues, nervous system, and muscular patterns of the body. The theoretical foundation for somatic therapy comes from the recognition that traumatic experience is stored in the body. Dr. Bessel van der Kolk, Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at Boston University, documented in The Body Keeps the Score that trauma survivors show ongoing physiological activation — chronic muscle tension, altered heart rate variability, dysregulated breathing — even decades after the traumatic events ended. Somatic Experiencing (SE), developed by Dr. Peter Levine, is one of the most widely practiced somatic approaches. Levine observed that animals in the wild, despite constant threat, rarely develop trauma symptoms — because their bodies are allowed to complete the threat response through movement (shaking, trembling, running). Humans, whose threat responses are often suppressed, store the incomplete discharge as chronic activation. EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing), developed by Dr. Francine Shapiro, is another body-inclusive approach with strong research support — over 30 randomized controlled trials. EMDR uses bilateral stimulation (alternating eye movements, taps, or sounds) to facilitate the processing of traumatic memory at a neurological level. Sensorimotor Psychotherapy, developed by Dr. Pat Ogden at the Sensorimotor Psychotherapy Institute, addresses the body postures, movements, and gestures that organize psychological experience. The work involves tracking how traumatic material is held in the body and creating new physical patterns that support regulated states.