What is Somatic Therapy? A Mind-Body Approach to Healing
If your body had a complaint box, it would probably be overflowing. Tension headaches, tight shoulders, that weird pit in your stomach when stress walks in, wearing heels? Yup, your body’s been trying to talk to you. Somatic therapy is the practice of finally listening.
As a Tampa therapist and art therapist, I love integrating somatic therapy into my work—because healing isn’t just about what you think. It’s about how you feel in your body.
🌿 What Is Somatic Therapy, Exactly?
Somatic therapy is a holistic mental health approach that bridges the mind-body gap. While traditional talk therapy helps untangle your thoughts and emotions, somatic therapy invites your body to the conversation too. This is where trauma often hides—clenched jaws, anxious tummies, or shoulders doing their best boulder impression.
Popular somatic approaches include:
Somatic Experiencing (SE): Helps gently process trauma stored in the nervous system (Levine, 1997).
Sensorimotor Psychotherapy: Combines mindfulness with body awareness (Ogden & Fisher, 2015).
The Hakomi Method: Uses body-centered mindfulness to explore patterns and beliefs.
🌞 Benefits of Somatic Therapy
Releases trauma stored in the body
Calms anxiety and intense emotions through breathwork, grounding, and movement
Strengthens mind-body connection, helping you feel more centered
Reduces stress hormones (Cortisol, I’m looking at you!) and promotes relaxation
💡 Who Can Benefit?
Somatic therapy is an excellent fit if you:
Feel “cut off” from your body
Have experienced trauma that talk therapy alone hasn’t fully resolved
Live with PTSD, anxiety, depression, grief, or chronic pain
Want to try a more experiential, embodied approach to healing
💬 Real Talk
It’s one thing to talk about what’s bothering you. It’s another to feel how it lives in your body—and gently start to shift it. That’s where somatic therapy shines. It’s the therapeutic equivalent of exhaling after holding your breath for years.
🔗 CTA
Ready to get out of your head and back into your body? I’d love to walk this path with you! Let’s connect.
📚 References:
📘 Levine, P. A. (1997). Waking the Tiger: Healing Trauma
📘 Ogden, P., & Fisher, J. (2015). Sensorimotor Psychotherapy: Interventions for Trauma and Attachment
📘 Van der Kolk, B. A. (2014). The Body Keeps the Score
