What Is Somatic Therapy? How the Body Stores—and Releases—Trauma
Why We Focus Less on the Story—and More on the Body
In somatic therapy, the focus shifts from retelling the story of what happened to understanding how those experiences continue to live in the body. This isn't about dismissing your story or minimizing what you've been through. Rather, it's about recognizing that trauma often speaks through physical sensations, patterns, and responses that words alone can't fully capture or resolve.
When we experience overwhelming events,whether a single incident or prolonged stress, our nervous system often does what it can to protect us: it activates ancient survival responses: fight, flight, freeze, or collapse. These aren't choices we make consciously; they're automatic protective mechanisms hardwired into our biology. In the moment, they help us survive.
But here's what many people don't realize: even long after the event has passed, those same protective responses can remain active in the body. They may show up as chronic anxiety, muscle tension that won't release, emotional numbness, difficulty sleeping, or a persistent sense of being on edge. Your mind may know you're safe now, yet your body continues to act as if danger is still present.
Somatic therapy invites us to gently notice these physical experiences and sensations—not to relive trauma or get stuck in the pain, but to support the body in completing what it couldn’t finish at the time. Through this process, we help the nervous system update its understanding of safety and presence.
What Somatic Therapy Is (and Isn’t)
Somatic therapy is an umbrella term that includes a range of body-based healing modalities. While all forms of somatic work recognize the profound connection between body and mind, they can look very different depending on the training,philosophy, and techniques behind them.
Some therapists integrate movement practices, breathwork, or mindfulness meditation into their sessions. Others work with touch (with explicit consent), body awareness exercises, or tracking physical sensations as they arise. The common thread is a recognition that healing trauma requires engaging the body, not just the thinking mind.
In my practice, , I draw primarily from Somatic Experiencing® (SE): a nervous-system–focused approach developed by Dr. Peter Levine. SE is grounded in the understanding that trauma occurs when survival energy gets "stuck" in the nervous system. Rather than retelling traumatic stories or using prolonged exposure, SE helps clients gradually release this trapped energy and restore a sense of regulation, safety, and capacity.
The work often involves tracking subtle body sensations (a tightness in the chest, warmth in the hands, a shift in breathing) and allowing the nervous system to complete defensive responses that were interrupted during the traumatic event. This gentle, gradual approach helps build resilience without retraumatization.
You can learn more about Somatic Experiencing at the official SE website:
How the Body Stores Trauma
Trauma isn’t stored as a single, discrete memory filed away in our minds. Instead, it lives as a pattern of tension, constriction, shallow breathing, or heightened activation that becomes woven into how we hold and experience our bodies.
When something reminds us of the original threat, even unconsciously, can react as if the danger is happening right now. A particular tone of voice, a smell, a time of day, or even a body posture can trigger the same defensive responses that were active during the traumatic experience. This is why someone might feel sudden panic in a situation that logically seems safe, or why certain contexts consistently create tension or shutdown.
These aren't signs of weakness or dysfunction.They're evidence of a nervous system that learned to protect you and is still trying to do its job. Somatic therapy helps clients bring gentle awareness to these body cues. By creating a safe therapeutic environment where these sensations can be noticed and explored without judgment, we make for completion, self-regulation, and authentic healing.
What Healing Looks Like
Healing through the body is slow, subtle, and profound. It doesn't always announce itself with dramatic breakthroughs. Instead, you might notice small but meaningful shifts that accumulate over time:
A transition from chronic tightness to moments of genuine release, like shoulders that can finally drop, a jaw that unclenches, hands that can rest open instead of curled into fists
You might discover the ability to breathe more fully and deeply, accessing parts of your lungs that have felt constricted for years
Many clients describe feeling more present in their daily lives rather than detached, overwhelmed, or watching life from a distance
There may be a growing capacity for rest without restlessness, connection without hypervigilance, or joy without waiting for the other shoe to drop
You might find yourself able to tolerate uncomfortable emotions without immediately needing to escape them.
you may notice an increased ability to sense your own boundaries and communicate your needs
Some clients report better sleep, reduced chronic pain, or a newfound ease in their bodies during activities they once found triggering.
Each of these moments, however small, signals that your nervous system is remembering what safety and ease feel like. It's learning that it can move between activation and rest, that threat responses can complete and resolve, and that your body can be a place of refuge rather than a source of distress.
A Note on Safety and Pace
Somatic work always moves at the pace of your nervous system, not at the pace of an agenda or timeline. This is fundamental to the approach and what distinguishes it from some other trauma therapies.
Unlike methods that focus on direct exposure to traumatic content or require retelling of painful events, somatic therapy is about noticing—without pushing, forcing, or rushing. We work at the edge of your window of tolerance, that zone where you can be present with difficult material without becoming overwhelmed or shutting down completely.
The therapeutic relationship itself becomes a resource. Through attunement, presence, and careful pacing, we create conditions where your nervous system can begin to explore what has felt too threatening to approach. It's the noticing itself—supported by this relational safety—that allows the body to gradually unwind defensive patterns and integrate new experiences of regulation and capacity.
If something feels like too much, we slow down or shift focus. If you need to pause, we pause. Healing doesn't require pushing through; it requires creating enough safety that your system can naturally move toward greater balance and ease.
If You’re Curious to Learn More
If you’re curious about how somatic therapy or EMDR might support your healing journey, I offer trauma-focused sessions and intensives for adults in the East Bay and online throughout California.
Whether you're dealing with specific traumatic events, developmental trauma, chronic stress, or simply feel disconnected from your body and want to explore a different approach to healing, I'd be honored to support you in this work.
You can learn more at libertyveleztherapy.com or reach out to schedule a consultation. I'm happy to answer questions and help you determine if this approach feels right for you.
If you’re looking for ways to navigate stress, anxiety, or life transitions with care, follow me on LinkedIn for more guidance.
