Somatic Therapy and Why the Body Keeps Score

Psychiatrist Bessel van der Kolk spent decades documenting something somatic therapists have known all along: trauma doesn’t just live in the memory. It lives in the body. My work with somatic therapy starts from that same premise. Your experiences don’t just live in your memory. They live in your body.

When something overwhelming happens, your body mobilizes itself in response. Muscles contract. Breath shortens. The chest tightens. These physical responses are part of your survival system doing its job. The problem shows up when the event ends but the physical holding pattern doesn’t. Your jaw stays clenched. Your shoulders stay up near your ears. Your belly stays guarded. Over time, your body forgets these contractions were ever a response to anything. They just become the way things are.

Somatic therapy addresses that embodied history directly. Instead of spending most of the session analyzing events and patterns with the thinking mind, I turn your attention toward what’s happening in your body right now. What do you notice in your chest as you talk about this? Where does your body contract when you feel unsafe? What happens to your breath when you remember that moment?

Those aren’t abstract questions. They’re the start of a conversation with your body that can unlock healing in ways thinking alone never will.

At The Resiliency Co., somatic awareness runs through much of my clinical work. Sometimes it’s a brief pause to notice physical sensations during an EMDR session. Sometimes it’s a grounding practice that helps bring you back into the present moment. Sometimes it’s the entire focus of a session for someone who’s spent years disconnected from their body.

Your body has been holding things long enough. Somatic therapy is how I help it finally let go.

One client realized during a somatic session that she had been holding her shoulders up near her ears for as long as she could remember. As we worked with that pattern directly, she described feeling an ache release that she had stopped noticing years ago because it had simply become normal to her.

If this sounds like where you are right now, reach out. I would love to help you find steady ground again. You can learn more about working with me at resiliencyco.net.