Somatic Therapy is an umbrella for a variety of types of therapy that focus working with the body. Approaches often focus on the mind-body connection and use techniques such as mindfulness, breathwork, body awareness, and pendulation. Some examples of somatic therapies are Somatic Experiencing, Sensorimotor Psychotherapy, and the Hakomi Method. Numerous therapies, such as IFS, EMDR, gestalt, and others, incorporate somatic therapy techniques.

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Trauma and feelings live inside the bottom and can at times be encoded in ways that lead to struggles throughout life. During childhood, our sense of self and our emotions are encoded based off of our sense of safety. When we do not feel safe, these emotions can get stuck in our implicit memory (emotional and bodily sensations stored in our limbic system). Later in life, it is not unccomon to experience strong feelings as a reaction to a scenario that we might realize does not match the emotional and/or physical intensity. Other times, we struggle to notice our emotions and sensations because we have learned it is easier or more comfortable to not be in the body.

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In somatic therapy, we work to safely create a new relationship with our felt sense (the difference between knowing how we feel versus feeling the sensations of how we feel). As we learn to get in touch with our body, we can show ourselves that we are able to tolerate discomfort and do not need to continue reacting with patterns of avoidance, pleasing, or fighting against triggers and emotions. The more we create this new relationship with ourselves, we can also allow the feelings that have been stuck in our limbic system be reprocessed so we can release the tension we have been holding.