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What Is Somatic Therapy? Healing Trauma Through Body Awareness
"The body remembers what the mind forgets—and it holds the key to healing."
— Brooke Sprowl
What Is Somatic Therapy—and Why Is It Transformational?
Somatic therapy is a body-centered approach to mental health that helps people heal from trauma, stress, and emotional dysregulation by reconnecting with their physical sensations. Rather than focusing solely on thoughts or behaviors, somatic therapy understands that trauma lives in the body—and that healing must begin there.
In 2025, somatic therapy is gaining recognition for its powerful impact on trauma recovery, anxiety, depression, and dissociation. It helps clients tune into the wisdom of their nervous system and discharge stress responses that have been trapped for years—or even decades.
This blog explores how somatic therapy works, its benefits, and the tools therapists use to help clients regulate their nervous systems, reconnect with their bodies, and finally feel safe inside themselves.
What Is Somatic Therapy?
What it is:
Somatic therapy integrates traditional talk therapy with physical awareness. “Soma” means body—and this therapy recognizes that our muscles, posture, breath, and sensations all carry emotional data.
Somatic approaches are especially effective for:
Trauma and PTSD
Chronic stress and anxiety
Dissociation
Attachment wounds
Emotional dysregulation
How it works:
Rather than analyzing emotions intellectually, somatic therapists guide clients to notice physical responses: tightening in the chest, shallow breathing, numbness, or restlessness. By bringing curiosity to these sensations, healing becomes a felt, embodied experience.
Why it matters:
The nervous system stores trauma. If your body is stuck in fight, flight, freeze, or fawn mode, no amount of positive thinking can bring true calm. Somatic therapy releases these stuck responses and restores safety.
Ask yourself: When I’m upset, where do I feel it in my body? Do I disconnect or get flooded?
5 Core Principles of Somatic Therapy
1. The Body Remembers Trauma
Unprocessed trauma is stored in the nervous system—not just in memory. Your body may react with anxiety, panic, or shutdown, even when your mind says “you’re fine.”
2. Awareness Is the First Step to Regulation
Somatic therapy begins with noticing: tension in your jaw, a flutter in your stomach, a clenched fist. This awareness allows you to shift from unconscious reaction to mindful presence.
3. The Nervous System Has Its Own Language
Rather than pushing emotions away, somatic therapy helps you listen to what your body is trying to say—through breath, posture, or pain.
4. Safety Comes Before Story
Before exploring trauma narratives, somatic therapists build nervous system safety. This includes grounding exercises, resourcing, and titration (taking small steps rather than overwhelming exposure).
5. Healing Is Nonverbal—and Often Nonlinear
Progress in somatic therapy may look like deeper breathing, increased embodiment, or less reactivity—not necessarily big emotional catharsis.
Learn more about the science of body-based healing: NCBI– The Body and Trauma
Reconnect with the Wisdom of Your Body
Somatic therapy offers a doorway back into your body—gently, safely, and at your own pace.
Common Somatic Therapy Techniques
1. Grounding and Centering
Helps anchor clients in the present moment by using breath, body awareness, and sensory input. Great for panic and dissociation.
2. Titration and Pendulation
Developed in Somatic Experiencing, this technique helps clients visit traumatic memories in small doses, while returning to a sense of safety.
3. Movement and Postural Awareness
Body language often mirrors emotional states. Small shifts in posture or tension can change your felt experience.
4. Touch and Bodywork (when appropriate)
Some somatic modalities like Hakomi or Rosen Method use gentle touch to support regulation and connection—always with consent.
5. Breathwork and Vocal Expression
Breath is a direct line to the nervous system. Somatic therapy often includes sighing, humming, or deep breathing to release tension.
Explore more tools here: Types of Somatic Therapy Techniques
How Somatic Therapy Supports Trauma Recovery
Releases trapped survival responses (e.g., fight/flight)
Restores connection to the body when dissociation or numbness is present
Builds emotional resilience by increasing regulation skills
Heals attachment wounds by cultivating felt safety in the presence of another
Somatic therapy isn’t about reliving the trauma. It’s about feeling safe enough in your own body to experience life without being hijacked by the past.
Ask yourself: Can I feel emotions in my body without shutting down—or does sensation feel overwhelming or unsafe?
Start Healing Where Trauma Lives: In the Body
Our body-based therapists offer compassionate, skilled support to help you reclaim your nervous system and feel whole again.
Is Somatic Therapy Right for You?
Somatic therapy can be especially helpful if you:
Feel stuck despite years of talk therapy
Struggle with chronic anxiety, shutdown, or panic
Feel numb, dissociated, or disconnected from your body
Have experienced trauma, emotional neglect, or high stress
You don’t need to know what to say in therapy. Your body already knows where to begin.
Stay curious, stay compassionate, and know that your journey is uniquely yours.
And in that uniqueness lies your power.
In the meantime, stay true, brave, and kind,
– Brooke
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Brooke Sprowl is an industry-leading expert and author in psychology, spirituality, and self-transformation. Her insights have featured in dozens of media outlets such as Huffington Post, Business Insider, Cosmopolitan Magazine, the Los Angeles Times, Spectrum One News, Mind Body Green, YourTango, and many more. As the founder and CEO of My LA Therapy, she leads a team of 15 dedicated therapists and wellness professionals. Brooke has been a featured speaker at prominent universities and venues such as UCLA School of Public Affairs, USC, Loyola Marymount University, the Mark Taper Auditorium, and Highways Performance Gallery, to name a few. With a Master’s degree in Clinical Social Welfare with a Mental Health Specialization from UCLA, a Bachelor’s degree in Neuroscience from USC, and certifications in peak performance and flow science from the Flow Research Collective, Brooke has helped hundreds of prominent leaders and CEO’s overcome anxiety, relationship difficulties, and trauma and reclaim a sense of purpose, vitality, and spiritual connection. With 15 years of experience in personal development and self-transformation as a therapist and coach, she has pioneered dozens of original concepts and frameworks to guide people in overcoming mental health challenges and awakening spiritually. Brooke is the host of the podcast, Waking Up with Brooke Sprowl. She is passionate about writing, neuroscience, philosophy, integrity, poetry, spirituality, creativity, effective altruism, personal and collective healing, and curating luxury, transformational retreat experiences for high-achievers seeking spiritual connection.
