Somatic therapy takes a body and brain-centred approach to the recovery from difficult and traumatic experiences, grounded in principles of neuroscience, mindfulness, polyvagal theory, yogic techniques, compassion meditation, and 'the felt sense'.

In The Body Keeps the Score, Bessel van der Kolk tells us there are two ways in which we can know ourselves—one is across time and the other is in the here and now—and that these are mutually exclusive and mediated by different brain areas. Traditional 'talk therapy' engages our narrative sense of self, a language-based ‘story-of-me’ compiled from our experiences and the meaning that they hold for us. Sometimes, this story can be like a web that we spin and then get caught in.

Somatic therapies involve noticing what is happening in our internal environment, bringing us into a state of presence while accessing a different kind of information and facilitating a very important process. Sensing inside, also known as interoception, activates the medial prefrontal cortex, a brain area that acts as a bridge between the frontal lobe and the limbic system—or the 'rational' and ‘emotional' brain centres—and plays a key role in the processing of our experiences.

Our ability to reason, plan ahead, reflect, analyse, create structure, and problem solve is managed by the frontal lobe. At times of strong emotional arousal, communication breaks down between rational and emotional centres, meaning that we are driven by our emotions and lose access to these higher functions. This typically underlies many impulsive, harmful, and self-defeating behaviours.

When intense emotions arise, something happening in our lives at the time may have triggered them but is not always responsible for creating them. They can be time capsules from our past, cleverly stored by the body, holding the content that could not be processed back then as the conditions did not support this. We are essentially reliving the past—and may even be becoming retraumatised.

The focusing of attention on the signals of the body while maintaining a grounded presence allows for the processing of this content. Many additional techniques are harnessed to support the body in renegotiating the unprocessed content of past events and facilitating their discharge. This process also expands our window of tolerance, our capacity to contain activation and maintain or regain self-regulation. Our feelings and sensations are a wise guide. Our bodies hold the map that we need to chart our way home.

Somatic therapy