Somatic Practices in Therapy: Connecting Body and Mind
When most people think about therapy, they often imagine talking through thoughts and emotions. While traditional talk therapy is incredibly valuable, there’s another layer to our mental health that sometimes gets overlooked: the body. Somatic practices in therapy focus on the connection between body and mind, helping you understand how physical sensations, posture, and movement are intertwined with your emotions and mental wellbeing.
What Are Somatic Practices?
“Somatic” comes from the Greek word soma, meaning “body.” In therapy, somatic practices recognize that our bodies hold experiences, emotions, and even trauma. These practices aim to bring awareness to bodily sensations, release tension, and help process emotions that might not surface through words alone.
Think of it this way: have you ever felt your stomach tighten before a stressful conversation or noticed your shoulders slump when you feel defeated? These physical responses are the body’s way of communicating. Somatic therapy helps you listen to those signals and use them as tools for self-awareness and healing.
Why Somatic Practices Matter in Therapy
Our bodies and minds are deeply connected. Emotions like fear, grief, or anxiety aren’t just mental—they live in the body. When we ignore these signals, stress can accumulate, sometimes manifesting as tension, chronic pain, or emotional overwhelm.
Somatic practices can help:
Release stored tension or trauma
Increase self-awareness of emotional and bodily states
Improve emotional regulation and resilience
Strengthen the connection between thought and action
Getting Started Can Feel Funny—But That’s Okay
Now, I’ll be honest—when I first encountered somatic practices, my reaction was something like: “Like, this is ridiculous. Someone’s going to teach me how to breathe? Oh, you want me to just tap in and figure out how to wiggle my toes? Look at five things in the room? Really? This is actually going to make a difference?”
It turns out, it can. And part of what I started to learn is that there’s a lot of variation in somatic practices. Some are immediate and designed to give us a quick moment of recognition—to pull us out of rumination, panic attacks, or depressive feelings so we can reconnect with the here and now. Others help calm the nervous system during moments of hyperventilation or intense stress. And then there are practices focused on long-term skill building, where movement, stretching, and mindful awareness become natural parts of our daily routine, gradually reducing overall tension and helping us feel safer and more grounded in our bodies.
Somatic Practices Can Work for Anyone
It doesn’t matter if you’re a high-functioning, stress-filled lawyer, a CEO running a large organization, a student pursuing a graduate degree, a healthcare professional, or a paramedic always waiting for the next emergency. Somatic practices can be beneficial for all personalities and lifestyles.
It’s also important to recognize that somatic practices don’t all need to look like sitting in meditation for 30 minutes. Some days, my practice is just one simple breath out—and that’s enough to reset me in the moment. For others, it might involve an hour of meditation, or even a silent retreat to connect deeply with mind and body. There’s no one-size-fits-all, and we don’t need to be experts in every mental health technique. What matters is that we’re actively working toward life enhancements in the areas where we have room to grow.
Examples of Somatic Practices
Somatic therapy can take many forms, and a skilled therapist will tailor practices to your needs. Common approaches include:
Breathwork: Focusing on the breath to calm the nervous system and create a sense of grounding.
Body Scans: Paying attention to physical sensations from head to toe, noticing areas of tension or discomfort.
Movement and Stretching: Gentle movement, dance, or yoga-inspired exercises to release emotion and tension.
Mindful Awareness: Observing physical sensations during emotions or triggers to better understand their impact.
Grounding Techniques: Using posture, touch, or visualization to feel present in the body during stressful moments.
How Somatic Practices Work in Therapy
In therapy, somatic practices are often combined with talk therapy. For example, a therapist may guide you through noticing tension in your body while exploring a challenging memory. The goal isn’t just to talk about the experience—it’s to feel it safely, release what’s held in the body, and integrate that awareness into your emotional understanding.
These practices can be especially helpful for people who:
Experience anxiety, panic, or chronic stress
Have a history of trauma
Feel “disconnected” from their emotions
Struggle to verbalize their feelings
A Compassionate Reminder
Your body is not just a vessel—it’s a living record of your experiences. Somatic therapy helps you listen, release, and reconnect with yourself in a gentle, supported way. Healing doesn’t just happen in your mind; it happens in your body too.
By integrating somatic practices into therapy, you can build a stronger connection between body and mind, process emotions more fully, and move through life with greater awareness, resilience, and balance.
