How Somatic Therapies Treat PTSD and Trauma
Trauma is far more common than most people realize. If you’ve experienced a traumatic event, or multiple events, you’re not alone, and you’re not broken. While awareness about PTSD has grown significantly in recent years, what many people don’t understand is that trauma isn’t just a psychological issue; it’s a whole-body experience that requires a whole-body approach to healing.
Somatic Therapy for Effective Trauma Treatment
Trauma is Common
We’re talking about physical symptoms and outcomes like unexplained body aches and tension, perspiration, fatigue, trembling, dizziness, digestive issues, blurry vision, headaches, and trembling. Fortunately, somatic therapy is available. It’s an approach designed to address the full spectrum of trauma and PTSD symptoms. Somatic (Greek for “of the body”) therapy calls on both psychotherapy and physical therapy.
Trauma’s Impact on the Body
When faced with a horrific experience (or string of experiences), the human body naturally switches into survival mode. Such a stress response is meant to stay in effect until the danger has dissipated. However, some circumstances short-circuit this cycle, such as:
The event feels like more than we can handle
Escape seems impossible
The trauma is being caused by someone we know
It happens during childhood
For a variety of reasons, we just cannot process and resolve the experience
In cases like this, a person gets stuck in a fight-flight-freeze response. Someone diagnosed with PTSD has trouble differentiating between real and perceived threats. So, the body holds onto the pain, and we experience symptoms like those listed above. For someone in this scenario, somatic therapy can be a powerful option.
How Somatic Therapy Can Treat PTSD and Trauma
Using techniques like message, dance, hypnosis, deep breathing, acupressure, and yoga, somatic therapy directly addresses the ways emotional trauma is being stored in the body. Think about it; if a negative body sensation exists, you are still dealing with trauma. A trained somatic therapist understands this and will focus on parallel tracks of emotional and physical healing.
It’s a mind-body strategy that can lead to suppressed emotions being released. In turn, as physical distress is decreased, it becomes easier to target the feelings created by traumatic events.
Three Components of Somatic Therapy:
Resourcing Skills: Building Your Internal Safety Net
PTSD often traps you in an endless loop of negative thoughts and traumatic memories. Resourcing is a somatic technique that helps you intentionally shift your nervous system toward safety and regulation. You and your therapist identify positive memories, sensations, images, or experiences that help your body feel calm and grounded. When you notice yourself spiraling into distress, you can consciously access these resources to interrupt the pattern and remind your nervous system that you're safe in the present moment.
Titration: Processing Trauma in Manageable Doses
Titration means working with trauma slowly and carefully, in small doses your nervous system can handle without becoming overwhelmed. Rather than flooding you with the full intensity of traumatic memories, your therapist helps you explore difficult material gradually, noticing what sensations arise in your body, making connections between physical symptoms and past events, then backing off before it becomes too much. This gentle approach prevents re-traumatization while still allowing healing to occur.
Pendulation: Moving Between Distress and Regulation
Pendulation is the natural rhythm of moving between states of activation (when difficult material comes up) and states of calm (when you access your resources). Think of it like a pendulum swinging back and forth. Your therapist guides you to touch into distressing memories or sensations briefly, then deliberately swing back to your resourcing skills to re-regulate your nervous system. Over time, this practice expands your capacity to be with difficult material without getting stuck in overwhelm.
The Body is the Starting Point.
Somatic therapy includes elements like talk therapy, but it plans to guide trauma survivors to trust their bodies again. They need to feel safe while doing the challenging work of managing PTSD. Somatic therapy takes the tension down several notches and creates room to focus on ugly memories without being triggered. In this state, serious progress can be made.
We would love to talk more with you about somatic therapy for trauma and PTSD. We love to integrate EMDR and ketamine therapy with somatic therapy for a holistic approach. Please feel free to contact us directly to learn more.
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