What is "Somatics"?
The word Somatics comes from the Greek 'soma', which means the living body from within — the body as you feel it, not as others see it.
Somatic Experiencing is about reconnecting with this inner experience. It’s not about fixing the body like a machine, but about listening to it as a guide. Our bodies carry implicit memories, emotions, and stored nervous system patterns, that our minds alone can’t always reach.
In therapy, integration happens
on the deepest level, when we
engage both the mind’s reflections and the body’s signals. Somatic Experiencing contributes through a 'bottom-up process', where bodily awareness facilitates the rediscovery of balance and inner regulation.
Why Somatic Experiencing?
Trauma is not so much about
what happened in the past, it’s more about
how your body responded as a way to cope and what it might still be holding onto today.
When past stress experiences aren't fully resolved, they can linger in the nervous system and show up as:
Somatic Symptoms of Stored Stress
- feeling disconnected from yourself or others
- feeling anxious and overwhelmed quickly
- negative self- and body image, feeling "bad" or "unworthy" at the core
- ongoing muscle tension or chronic pain
- persistent people pleasing, perfectionism, overthinking
- fatigue, restlessness, or burnout
Combined with NARM, Somatic Experiencing gently supports your body to complete what was left unfinished, so you can feel steadier, clearer, and more alive in the present.
What to expect in a Somatic Experiencing Session
Sessions are gentle, slow, and always guided by your pace.
Step by step, I’ll support you in becoming attuned to both the subtle and significant psycho-biological shifts in your body.
As you re-learn the language of your body, you’ll gain deeper access to your implicit memory—the living, though often subconscious, library of your life’s story.
Together, we’ll gently expand your nervous system’s capacity, allowing it to become a steadier and more spacious container. With this growing inner stability, new possibilities unfold: greater resilience, presence, and a deeper connection to yourself.
How Somatic Experiencing can help
- release survival energy that keeps you stuck in fight, flight, or freeze
- feel calmer, more grounded, and at ease in your body
- build resilience and emotional balance
- reconnect with a sense of clarity, energy, and aliveness
Benefits of Somatic Experiencing
People often notice:
- A calmer, safer relationship with your body and nervous system
- More confidence, presence and ease in your relationships
- More self-trust, clarity, and self-compassion
- A deeper sense of direction in career, identity, and purpose
- Greater capacity for joy, rest, and authentic connection
- A calmer, safer relationship with your body and nervous system
Core Principles of Somatic Experiencing
- Trauma isn’t in the event itself — it’s how the nervous system holds it.
- The body naturally moves toward healing, balance, and completion, when cues of safety can be detected again.
- Regulation is key. We always work within your nervous system’s capacity, also known as your window of tolerance.
- Healing unfolds in small, safe steps. Past events are approached gently and only when enough stability and support are in place.
- As you grow somatic awareness and inner resources, trust, safety, and stability can naturally return.
- Trauma isn’t in the event itself — it’s how the nervous system holds it.
Shock Trauma: when the body gets stuck in the moment
In addition to emotional or relational wounding, a single overwhelming event can also leave an imprint on the nervous system. A shock trauma occurs when something happened too suddenly, too intensely, or too overwhelmingly for your body to fully process – for example after an accident, a fall, a surgery, a sudden breakup, a threatening medical situation, an assault, or a shocking moment like a loud crash, an explosion or unexpected news that changed everything.
In these moments, your body mobilizes enormous survival energy – fight, flight, or freeze. When this energy cannot be released, it remains stored in the system as “frozen tension.”
Somatic Experiencing® gently supports the body in completing these unfinished survival responses, without re-living the story or details of what happened. As the bound energy begins to release, a sense of safety, presence, and aliveness can return.
Possible Signs of underlying Schock Trauma
- Feeling easily startled or having a constant sense of unease
- Difficulty relaxing or falling asleep
- Emotional numbness or feeling “disconnected” from yourself or your surroundings
- Flashbacks, intrusive images, or body memories
- Heightened sensitivity to sound, light, or touch
- Restless sleep, nightmares, or unexplained exhaustion
- Chronic muscle tension, trembling, or internal restlessness
- Fear of losing control or “going crazy”