Somatic therapy has become increasingly popular as more people recognize the important role the body plays in healing.
While talk therapy can be incredibly helpful for those seeking clarity and insight, especially people who process experiences verbally or are dealing primarily with depression and anxiety, not everyone benefits equally from a talk-only approach.
For people who experience chronic tension or dissociation, struggle to access emotions or become overwhelmed by them quickly, or who have spent years in talk therapy without feeling meaningful change, incorporating somatic—or body-based—approaches can offer an alternative pathway to healing. Body-based approaches help people access deeper emotional patterns and core beliefs that may not be fully reachable through words alone, creating the potential for more lasting change and deeper healing.
Somatic therapy is an umbrella term for different approaches that work with both the mind and the body. These therapies are based on the idea that stress, trauma, and emotional experiences don’t just live in our thoughts—they also show up in our nervous systems, muscle tension, posture, and physical sensations.
Common approaches to Somatic Therapy
If you’re curious about trying somatic therapy, it can help to know a little about the different approaches out there. Some of the most common types include Somatic Experiencing (SE), the Hakomi Method, Sensorimotor Psychotherapy (SP), and Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy (AEDP). While each approach is different, they all share a focus on body awareness, nervous system regulation, and slowing the therapeutic process down enough so people can process emotions safely, without becoming overwhelmed.
Let’s take a closer look at each of these modalities.
Somatic Experiencing
Peter A. Levine developed Somatic Experiencing in the 1970s as a body-oriented approach to resolving trauma and chronic stress through regulation of the autonomic nervous system. SE focuses on how survival energy becomes stored in the body following overwhelming experiences. One feature that distinguishes SE is its interdisciplinary practitioner base, which includes professionals from mental health counseling, massage therapy, physical therapy, and related healing fields. SE practitioners help clients notice and track physical sensations while gradually releasing stored survival stress in small, manageable steps.
Hakomi Method
Founded by Ron Kurtz in the 1970s, the Hakomi Method is a mindfulness-based, experiential approach to psychotherapy and self-study. Hakomi functions as a standalone modality and emphasizes present-moment awareness, curiosity, and nonviolence. Practitioners guide clients in mindfully exploring beliefs, emotional patterns, and unconscious material by paying attention to body language, emotional reactions, and physical sensations. This process often helps clients develop deeper self-awareness and insight into how past experiences continue to shape current ways of relating and responding.
Sensorimotor Psychotherapy
Sensorimotor Psychotherapy was originated by Pat Ogden in the 1980s as a body-centered approach to trauma treatment that integrates somatic awareness with traditional psychotherapy. SP is grounded in the understanding that trauma and chronic stress are held not only in thoughts and emotions, but also in patterns of posture, movement, nervous system activation, and other bodily responses. Therapists help clients track present-moment physical experiences and survival responses in order to process unresolved trauma and restore greater regulation, flexibility, and connection to the here and now.
Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy
In the 1990s, Diana Fosha conceptualized Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy as an emotion-focused, attachment-based model of healing and transformation. AEDP emphasizes the importance of emotional safety, attunement, and the healing potential of a secure therapeutic relationship. Therapists help clients process and stay connected to difficult emotional experiences while feeling supported and understood. Although AEDP also attends to bodily sensations, its primary focus is on helping clients safely experience, regulate, and transform core emotions so that emotional wounds can be worked through without becoming overwhelming.
Somatic-adjacent modalities
There are several somatic-adjacent therapeutic modalities with a similarly neurobiological emphasis, including Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) and Brainspotting. Such approaches differ somewhat in theory and technique but similarly aim to support the processing and integration of traumatic experiences.
Summary
Somatic therapy is a broad and growing field that brings the body into the healing process alongside the mind. While each approach has its own methods and areas of emphasis, they all share the understanding that our experiences are not exclusively mental or emotional—they are also held in the body in patterns of sensation, tension, and nervous system responses.
For many, these approaches can be especially helpful when talk therapy alone hasn’t been enough, or when emotions feel hard to access, overwhelming, or disconnected. By slowing things down and gently bringing attention to what is happening in the body in the present moment, somatic therapies can support greater awareness, steadier regulation, and meaningful change over time.
Want to learn more?
As a trained Sensorimotor Psychotherapy (SP) provider, I offer this work as part of a collaborative, trauma-informed approach that honors each person’s pace, capacity, and lived experience. If you’re curious about whether somatic therapy might be a good fit for you, I welcome you to reach out to connect or schedule a consultation.