As mental health professionals, you are already doing incredible work sitting with clients through their most vulnerable moments and helping them make sense of their inner worlds. The tools you have honed to this point are powerful and invaluable. Still, as our understanding of trauma deepens, many practitioners are beginning to explore an exciting and complementary avenue: somatic work.
Why the body? The simple answer is that trauma doesn’t just live in the mind; it’s also held in the body. You’ve likely encountered clients who intellectually understand their trauma, but still find themselves emotionally or physically stuck, experiencing endless anxiety, hypervigilance, or even chronic pain despite extensive cognitive processing. This is where somatic work, the practice of working with the body to address trauma, becomes a powerful addition to the tools you already use.
The Body’s Story of Trauma: More Than Words
As counsellors and psychotherapists, we’re trained to work with the narrative, to help clients unravel their emotional and psychological responses to trauma. But there’s another story being told; one that happens below the surface. Trauma can imprint itself onto the body’s nervous system, bypassing language entirely. When a person experiences trauma, their body ramps up its survival responses. In the immediate moment, these responses are, of course necessary and protective. But for many, the nervous system can get "stuck" in this survival state, even long after the threat has passed. The physiological overwhelm is such that, as you've likely seen with some of your clients, they can talk about their experiences in therapy with a curious detachment. Others can feel that they have cognitively come to terms with these events, but there’s still something unresolved. Despite cognitive insights, they may continue to experience distressing symptoms like flashbacks, panic attacks, or a sense of disconnection from their bodies or emotions. This is because trauma often gets stored in the body. It’s in the muscle tension, the shallow breathing, physiological twitching, and bizaare energies that seem to urge the body into some kind of action. Somatic work offers a way to access and address this body-based aspect of trauma, completing the full picture. By bringing in body awareness, we’re able to work not just with thoughts and emotions, but with the physiological responses that keep people stuck.
Bridging Talk Therapy and Somatic Practices - Integrating somatic therapy
At the Centre for Somatic Resilience Training, our goal is to help you integrate this somatic understanding into the incredible work you’re already doing. We know that traditional talk therapies and somatic practices aren’t mutually exclusive. In fact, they complement one another beautifully. By bringing the body into your therapeutic approach, you create a fuller, more holistic path toward healing for your clients. You can continue to do the vital work of helping clients process their emotions and reframe their experiences, while also guiding them to notice how their body is responding to the memories of those experiences, whether that’s a clenched jaw, a racing heart, or a sense of calm they’ve never felt before.
For example, imagine a client who is intellectually aware of their trauma but remains emotionally overwhelmed. They might say, “I know I’m safe now, but I can’t seem to shake this anxiety.” This is where somatic work steps in. Instead of staying solely in the realm of thought, you might guide them to gently notice where that anxiety lives in their body. Is it in their chest? Their stomach? Is there a tightness or a fluttering sensation? This seemingly simple act of tuning into bodily sensations opens up new pathways for healing.
Through somatic practices, clients can begin to “reset” their nervous system, teaching it how to move between states of activation and relaxation. This work doesn’t replace the insightful, narrative-focused approaches you already use, but enhances them, offering clients new ways to engage with their healing process.
Why Now? The Excitement of Working with Somatics
So, why is this an exciting time to be exploring somatic work? As the field of trauma therapy continues to evolve, we’re beginning to understand more about how trauma affects not just the mind but the body, and how somatic approaches can create lasting change. Groundbreaking research into the Polyvagal Theory, neuroception and interoception shows us that our nervous system is constantly scanning for safety or danger, and that this process is often happening below the level of conscious awareness. When we integrate somatic practices into therapy, we’re working directly with this system, helping clients shift from states of survival to states of safety and connection.
For practitioners, this means stepping into the forefront of trauma work. It’s not about abandoning what you already know or reinventing your approach, it’s about adding new layers to it. Learning how to track the nervous system, how to guide clients through difficult sensations, and how to help them recognise the signals their body is sending can be transformative. Imagine being able to offer clients a new kind of awareness, manageable within the confines of a safe other, you, the therapist. Helping them not just talk about their trauma but feel, in their bodies, what it means to move from a state of overwhelm to a state of ease. This is the kind of change that has the potential to be truly life-altering, and it starts by understanding the body’s role in the healing process.
Inviting Challenge: Pushing the Boundaries of What We Know
Taking this step can feel like a challenge. You’ve worked hard to build your skillset as a therapist, and it’s natural to feel hesitant about stepping into a new area of practice. But it’s important to remember that this isn’t about starting from scratch. It’s about taking the strong foundation you’ve already built and expanding it. Somatic work won’t replace the insights you’ve gained through years of practice, but it will give you new tools to help those clients who are stuck in patterns that talking alone can’t seem to shift.
If you’re considering adding somatic work to your practice, you’re not alone in this journey. Many counsellors and psychotherapists are seeing the value of integrating body-based approaches into their work, and the results speak for themselves. Clients report feeling more connected to themselves, and more present in their lives. For those who use evaluative tools to track anxiety, depression, PTSD and physical symptoms over time, you will be astonished at the evidence-based changes you witness. The debilitating symptoms of trauma are not something that anyone should have to live with
A Practice-Changing Opportunity
At the Centre for Somatic Resilience Training, we don’t claim to have all the answers, nor do we see this approach as “the only way.” But we do believe that understanding how trauma affects the body, and how the body can heal, is a crucial, practice-changing addition to the therapeutic work that is already so powerful. By joining our course, you’ll be on the cutting edge of this exciting intersection of talk therapy and somatic practice, gaining tools that will make your work even more impactful.
This isn’t just about adding another skill to your toolkit; it’s about expanding your understanding of trauma and resilience in ways that can fundamentally shift the healing process. If you’re ready to deepen your practice and explore new ways to support your clients, we’d love for you to join us.
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