Somatic Therapy
in Richmond VA

Somatic Therapy refers to any therapy approach that works directly with the body, or soma, to alleviate a variety of symptoms related to mood and anxiety disorders, trauma diagnoses, chronic health concerns, and many more. This modality addresses the reptilian brain, which is responsible for the execution of our fight, flight, freeze response. Unlike talk therapy, somatic therapy is not designed to consciously unravel thought patterns, but to intercede directly with feelings in the body. By changing the physical symptoms our bodies feel, we can change our thoughts and beliefs.

The theoretical framework behind somatic therapy is that our symptoms of mental health are better understood as ways in which our energy has gotten stuck in a fight, flight, or freeze response.To release this pent-up energy, we drop out of the mind and into the body by noticing physical sensations. Once in the body, the client begins to notice impulses that are being constricted (usually a sense of tension). Instead of forcing the body to relax, the client learns to listen to the instructions that the body sends. For each emotion or thought we experience, there is a corresponding physical sensation that serves as a window for where these experiences live inside our bodies. This shift to body work over talk therapy can be challenging, as the brain associates the discharge of survival energy with the negative emotions of the original event(s) that elicited the energy in the first place. Because of this, humans begin to associate healing sensations with threat. Unconsciously, we can avoid the discharge of survival energy because we misinterpret the experience.