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So much of the world asks you to stay in your head and disconnect from your body.
Work deadlines, social media, and the demands of daily life can keep you stuck in your thoughts and separated from your body's experience.
Sometimes this is to try and protect you from what your body might be feeling. If you are experiencing loss and overwhelm it might feel easier and safer to hold your body and emotions at a distance.
If you are mixed race or multiracial there might be other reasons it does not feel safe or welcome to connect with your body. If you experienced a religious upbringing you might have been told that your body is bad and something to resist and ignore.
I offer somatic therapy online in Seattle, U-District, Ballard, Beacon Hill, and across Washington and California. Somatic therapy can help you create a more compassionate, connected, and kind relationship to your body as well as bring deeper healing that goes beyond just coping.
What does Somatic mean?
Somatic comes from the word 'soma' which means the body. Your body is a vital part of your experience, emotions, and daily life yet it is common for people to have very little experience learning how to connect and listen to the body.
Connecting and listening to your body could look like:
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Noticing that your heart is beating faster when you talk about a certain topic.
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Slowing down physically when you notice your mind racing.
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Paying attention to tension in your body as something to listen to, not push through.
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Learning that your body is speaking to you through the sensations you experience.
What is Somatic Therapy?
Somatic therapy is therapy that listens to your body's experience just as much as your thoughts and the words you say. It also values the connection you have between your mind and body. A somatic approach to therapy will pay attention to:
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Your physical sensations
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Movement
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Breath
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Nervous system responses
Trauma, emotional pain, and experiences are stored in your body along with your mind. This means that your body can communicate parts of your emotion and experience you don't have words for.
In our work this can look like checking in at the start of session to see what you notice happening in your body. Other times we might explore using your breath or grounding exercises to help you connect to your body or feel more at ease.
The Somatic Therapy Process
Slow Down
Pause to Pay Attention
Trauma and stress speed up the body, so we will intentionally create space for you to slow down your experience. This will allow you to create space to listen to your inner world and body instead of feeling rushed to push past them.
Listen
Relearning Trust
Different experiences can make it difficult to trust and listen to your body. As our work together invites you to listen and tune into your body you will be able to rebuild a relationship to your body where you listen and value what your body communicates.
Follow
Tune Into Your Inner Wisdom
As you grow more comfortable in the rhythm of listening to your body and somatic experience, you will have a deeper connection to the inner wisdom that has always been there. Your inner knowing is such a wise and kind guide.
What if connecting to your body feels overwhelming?
If you notice yourself tense up or feel fear at the thought of connecting to your body, that is more than okay. Consent and permission are vital parts of this process and if you do not feel ready to talk about or engage with your body we will follow your lead and listen to what support you need.
Somatic therapy is here as a tool that is available, but never a requirement.
How Somatic Therapy Can Help
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Learn to identify and connect to difficult physical sensations with curiosity.
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Grow the capacity to hold complex and contradictory feelings with less confusion and more clarity.
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Feel more grounded and connected to your body.
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Cultivate a relationship to your body that holds understanding, compassion, and honor.
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Navigate complex experiences like grief, multiracial identity, or religious trauma with clear tools that help you feel and process your experience in both your body and mind.
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Heal both your body and mind as you care for the deeper root of your struggle instead of staying on the surface.
Somatic Therapy & Multiracial Identity
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For a lot of mixed race and multicultural people, identity isn't just something you think about, it's something you feel in your body. Somatic therapy pays attention to that, working with physical sensation and the nervous system alongside anything talked about in a session.
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Shifting how you speak, act, or present yourself depending on who you're with can create real physical tension, like a tightening in the chest or a held breath, even when you're not consciously aware of it.
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Microaggressions and identity questions can get stored physically. Comments like "what are you?" or feeling like you have to explain or prove your identity can leave a physical imprint, showing up as tension, fatigue, or a kind of bracing that sticks around long after the moment passes.
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Belonging (or not belonging) is a felt experience. Feeling like an outsider in certain spaces, even ones tied to your own heritage, often registers in the body as discomfort or feeling on edge before it ever becomes a clear thought.
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Some parts of a mixed or multicultural identity are hard to put into language. Somatic work offers another way in, through sensation and movement, when talking alone doesn't reach it.
Somatic Therapy & Grief
Grief isn't only a mental or emotional experience, it lives in the body too. Somatic therapy pays attention to that, working with physical sensation and the nervous system alongside anything talked about in a session.
Grief often shows up as physical symptoms first. A tight chest, exhaustion, trouble sleeping, or a heavy feeling in the body are common ways grief registers before it's even named as grief.
The body can hold what words haven't caught up to yet. Sometimes a loss is too big, too sudden, or too complicated to talk through right away. Somatic work offers another way in, through sensation, breath, or movement, when talking alone doesn't reach it.
Somatic Therapy & Religious Trauma
It can be common for religious and spiritual spaces to teach that the body is bad and something to push past or ignore. There are some teachings that ask you to listen only to God and dismiss and disregard what your body and desire tell you. When the reality is the body you exist in is good and deserves to be honored. Somatic therapy gently offers a space to shift that relationship with your body.
Everything we do is done on your terms and timing, so there is no requirement to talk about or engage your body. It can be deeply healing to rebuild a relationship with your physical sensations and body that is compassionate, curious, and honoring.
FAQs About Somatic Therapy
How is somatic therapy different from talk therapy?
While talk therapy focuses primarily on thoughts and language, somatic therapy engages the body using breath, grounding techniques, and paying attention to physical sensations. All of your body's experience can communicate what words alone might not reach.
Can somatic therapy be combined with IFS therapy?
Yes. Somatic therapy is often combined with IFS work, since parts frequently show up as physical sensations, such as tightness, a knot in the stomach, or a racing heart, and tuning into the body can help identify and build relationship with those parts more directly.
Is somatic therapy effective for trauma, grief, or religious trauma?
Somatic therapy is commonly used to support healing from grief, trauma, and religious trauma because these experiences often live in the body, showing up as chronic tension, feeling on edge, or shutdown, which somatic work can help calm and ease.
Do you offer somatic therapy in California?
Yes, I offer online somatic therapy in Oakland, Dimond District, Lake Merritt, Fruitvale, and online all across California.
Do you offer somatic therapy in Washington?
Yes, I offer online somatic therapy in Beacon Hill, Ballard, U-District, Seattle, and online all across Washington.