Somatic therapy and healing are holistic wellness practices that emphasize treating trauma. “Soma” is a Latin term meaning “of the body,” and somatic bodywork involves using the body as a vessel to calm and regulate our nervous systems, thereby also benefiting our mental and emotional health.
It is now known that traumatic events or memories of your past can often be “stored” within the body, causing your nervous system to go haywire—such as entering into fight, flight, freeze, or fawn modes.
Peter Levine, a top expert in the field, has pioneered much of somatic healing. He states, “The body can get stuck in an overwhelmed and dysfunctional response, which is reversible, though not modifiable by the external event.”
Levine founded the Somatic Experiencing organization and describes the sensations and exercises involved in somatic healing in three ways:
- Interoceptive: internal awareness of the body
- Proprioceptive: spatial orientation of the body
- Kinesthetic: movements of the body
Somatic healing offers a plethora of benefits to the mind and body. Levine says that practicing somatics can help reduce physical and psychological discomfort, decrease stress and irritability, improve concentration, feel more confident and empowered, increase the feeling of hope, increase resiliency, heighten physical well-being, improve sleep, and many more.
The following are several ways you can engage in somatic healing to learn new coping skills that will directly impact your mental health via positively altering and regulating your nervous system.
Grounding
Grounding is perhaps the most well-known and simple practice in somatic healing. The act of grounding is meant to bring us back to the present moment, centering and anchoring ourselves in mind, body, and spirit. Grounding is a great exercise for anxiety, flashbacks, and dissociative symptoms. A couple of ways to practice grounding are as follows:
Run water over your hands. This can be as simple as turning on the tap, you don’t need to go out to a river or stream for this to work. Run cool water over your hands as you focus on the sensations, then switch to warm water and continue to observe how it feels. Alternate until you feel more calmed and regulated in your body.
Take a walk. Whether deep in nature or just around the block, take a serene walk and pay close attention to your steps, rhythm, and pace. Observe how it feels as your feet hit the ground and take fresh air into your lungs. Notice every movement and every piece that makes up the puzzle of your surroundings. Let these little observations land in your body as you walk meditatively.
Breathwork
Regulating your breath with somatic breathwork is a wonderful way to come back into your body with mindful attention. Learning how to practice breathwork is relatively simple but powerful, as it helps bring sensory awareness to your throat, diaphragm, jaw, and shoulders upon inhalation and your belly and chest during exhalation. Find a comfortable position, close your eyes, and try a few breathwork exercises, such as:
Square box breathing. This breathing exercise is perhaps THE simplest one of all. It involves breathing at equal intervals. Inhale for 4 counts, hold for 4, and exhale for 4. Repeat—and that’s it!
Valsalva Maneuver. With this breathing practice, your body will engage the pelvic floor muscles connected to the Vagus Nerve (a main nerve of your parasympathetic nervous system), which is directly related to somatic healing). To practice this type of breathing, you may either stand or sit. Take a large, deep breath through your nose to completely fill your lungs. Hold it, and then tensely contract your abdominal muscles, with the act of trying to exhale forcefully but without actually releasing air. Keep doing this for 5 – 15 seconds, then slowly release it from the mouth as you release the abdominal contraction. Repeat as you like.
Resonant Breathing. Sitting upright, keeping your spine straight, rest one hand over your belly and one over your chest. Inhale through your nose for 5 seconds as you sense your belly enlarging. Hold that breath for 1-2 seconds, then exhale slowly through your nose slowly over 5 seconds again as you totally deflate your belly. Notice closely the sensation of the rise and fall of your belly. Keep your breaths slow and steady as you keep your hands in place, controlling the ups and downs of your in
Visualization
Visualization exercises are a transformational tool to include in your somatic bodywork. This practice involves positive mental imagery that creates a dialogue between your thoughts and your physical responses, helping you move from an uncomfortable or triggering moment into a comforting mental world that is safe and peaceful. There is so much power in visualization. Below are a few ways you can practice this on your own:
Visualize sunlight. Let ethereal, glowing light flow into your mind’s eye, filling your body with an abundance of energetic warmth. Imagine the sun beating down on your face as you look up with your eyes closed, visualizing how the beams radiate off your skin. Experience in your mind’s eye the warmth, brightness, and overall feeling of sunlight.
Imagine your personal “safe” or “peaceful” space. Think about a place where you felt overwhelmingly serene, calm, and secure, and picture that in your head. Whether it is a real place like a beach or mountain vista or one you have crafted yourself, such as a wonderland of sparkly rainbows, let this space pull you into its peace and safety. Retreat to this inner world when the pressure of the outer world feels like too much.
Body Scans
Conducting a body scan is an easy, quick, and effective somatic exercise to calm the nerves. Body scans raise awareness in the body to help you notice where you might be physically holding tension or carrying pain.
How to do a body scan: start by getting into a comfortable position, whether sitting, lying down, or standing—just do what works for you. Place your focus on the bottom parts of your body, slowly moving up and feeling the sensations in your toes, feet, ankles, shins, knees, thighs, and so on as you continue. Move the parts of your body that your mind settles on. If you end up feeling tense at any point, relax yourself, take deep breaths, and speak to yourself that you release this feeling, that it’s melting away. Once you reach the crown of your head, move gradually back down, feeling mindfully present in your body as you scan and acknowledge your physicality. Imagine yourself as a warm, glowing being as your body fills with calm and comfort.
Self-Regulation
Self-regulation is a range of techniques used to help you control and calm your nervous system by guiding yourself through emotions and feelings as they come up. It’s about creating somatic habits that you can immediately pull out when you are in a traumatic situation, bodily sensation, or mental flashback. During a traumatic episode, self-regulation is one of the hardest things to control because your body is on very high alert. Here are a few ways you can learn to self-regulate:
Give yourself a big hug. It might sound a little childish, but hugging yourself is an immediate catharsis for trauma. All you need to do is wrap your arms tightly around yourself, with one hand resting over your heart and the other reaching back around your shoulder. Just lean into that secure feeling of being contained, and you will notice a gradual reduction in anxious symptoms.
Tap your body all over. Take your hands and repetitively tap them from your head to your toe. There doesn’t have to be any rhyme or reason to the tapping; just tap, tap, tap to your heart’s desire. You may also find comfort in squeezing in the same way. When you engage in this act, no matter how you decide to do it, it helps your body come back into itself as you slowly notice feeling safe.
Posture & Yoga Poses
The way you situate your body while seated is an indicator of how healthy your nervous system is or will be. Beyond this, controlling your posture during somatic bodywork is essential to ensure you get the most out of your practice through mindful bodily awareness. Ask yourself a few questions before you get started: Are you sitting in a natural position? Is your weight evenly distributed? Is your head held high? Are you making sure to sit up straight?
If you can answer yes to all of those, then you are ready to proceed with somatic bodywork. One of the most popular and accessible ways to practice bodywork is with yoga. It can be as simple as a few stretches or more complex if you are an experienced yogi. No matter how you do it, though, you will see somatic benefits from movements such as yoga. Here are a few poses you can try as a beginner:
Segmental Bridges. The bridge is a common pose for beginners but packs a lot of benefits. However, “segmenting” the bridge is a bit different and requires a bit more focus as you move through the pose in a slow and controlled manner, ensuring you move each ‘segment’ of your spine.
Segmental Supine Twist. Just as the segmental bridge mentioned above, the segmental supine twist functions much the same. This pose is performed by lying on your back in a T shape, and instead of letting your legs fall and relax, you will instead segmentally move them slowly with control, being carefully conscious of your body.
Music and Audio Stimulation.
One of the best-known ways to somatically regulate your nervous system is through audio processing. Audio-sensory stimulation is a great way to somatically relax your nerves and give you the benefit of using a unique sense to regulate yourself.
Listen to calming music. Put on a peaceful melody—whatever that means to you—and sit with that as you take in the tones, instruments, beat, and rhythm. Intentionally focus on each sound as you rest in your body, feeling each pulse of the music flow through you. Keep that focus as you breathe intentionally.
Listen to nature sounds. The sounds of nature are always so tranquil, right? Well, that babbling brook and little bird tweets actually have a real effect on your nervous system, and listening to them (or even better, getting out there in person) can quickly calm your frazzled nerves. If you’re outside, try to observe your surroundings carefully as you fully drop into your body, noticing every mundane thing.
Resourcing or Tuning In
Resourcing refers to referencing why you feel the way you do when you face a traumatic trigger. This method is rooted in discovering and acknowledging what coping mechanisms you already have so that you can use them at any time during a crisis. Your ability to tune in to your own personal safety net is powerful, and it can range between many different methods. Try the following thought processes—these exercises can help you strengthen your intuition and utilize them as ways to both trust and empower yourself while drawing strength from within.
Think about your real or imagined “safe space.” This mechanism works by allowing your mind to reference a place where you feel secure and at home. Your “safe space” can allow you to come out of a traumatic experience and calm your nerves.
Conjure up your “protective, wise, or nurturing figures.” The people who support you and who you can lean on during a hard time hold a lot of power and peace within you. Thinking about their words, their actions, or even their gentle hug or holding of a hand is a beautiful way to tune in. You may even look at photos of these people.
Tapping or Shaking
Speaking of tapping and shaking, this is a prime way of somatic healing in general that releases a lot of pent-up energy. And, it’s powerful yet simple. Movements like tapping and shaking can help the body return to homeostasis through repetition and self-touch like tapping and shaking.
You may want to tap your head (around your third eye) or all around your body. You may feel like shaking your hands out as you imagine all the negative energy being flung off of you. Or, maybe you prefer to shake your head from side to side, unironically telling the dysregulation: “No! Go away!” No matter how you tap or shake, the somatic benefit is there, and it’s one of the easiest ways to engage in somatic bodywork.
Vocalization
Activating the voice has a positive impact on the vagus nerve, a nerve that runs from your neck down into your abdomen. The act of vibrating your vocal cords can help regulate your nervous system. Here are a few ways to try it out.
Humming Sounds. You may often hear vocalization practices in various religions, from the “Om” sound in Buddhism to the echoing chants in the Catholic church. Vocalization has been around for many years, so there’s no doubt it has proven helpful over time. Simply hum in whatever rhythm or pattern you like, feeling the hum move through your body. You may practice “Om,” but there is also another sound called “Voo,” which is exactly what you’d think it is: simply let out the elongated “vooooooo” as you rest into the vibrations of your body.
Rhythmic Movement
From dancing to swaying to just jiving, any kind of flowing bodily movement has a massive impact on somatic healing in the nervous system. Rhythmic motions are incredibly effective at helping to center the body and mind. It encourages your body to move into a free flow, triggering your innate rhythms. Dancing has even been found to be an intuitive, instinctual process in the body that is as old as time—here is some inspiration for how you can work on somatic movement.
Sway your body. From side to side, sway your body in a way that feels natural to you. You can sway back and forth, side to side, or even in a circular pattern. Test out how it feels to increase or decrease speed, noticing every single movement and observing your emotions as you move.
Rock your torso. Let your head nod forward and back repeatedly, or alternatively, rock it from side to side. Again, as above, play around with the speed by upping or lowering the motion. This particular exercise should also help you release tension in your spine.
Titration & Pendulation.
Titration is derived from the chemistry term for when a solution of known concentration is used to determine the concentration of an unknown solution. This term has since been adapted into somatic bodywork as a way to sense each physical experience, one drop at a time. Because trauma often causes a person to avoid certain physical sensations that may remind them of something bad, titration is a good approach due to its slow, steady approach to somatic healing.
On the other hand, pendulation is a technique used to achieve titration. This occurs when you pendulate your focus between stressful stimuli and something completely non-stress related as you take in relaxing or peaceful content. To practice titration and pendulation, all you need to do is oscillate between the stress and your positive resources (as described above). This is a perfect way to balance your mind and, therefore, your nervous system as well.
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Jorie Logan
Jorie Logan is a copywriter, brand strategist, and traveler with extensive solo travel experience. She’s passionate about sharing stories that empower women to explore their world and discover their authentic joyful selves.