Listening to What Your Body Is Telling You With Somatic Experiencing
Your body remembers what your mind might forget. Long after a traumatic experience, your nervous system may continue to hold onto protective responses that once kept you safe but now interfere with your daily life. At the Center for Healing & Personal Growth, we understand that true healing often requires listening to the wisdom your body carries and gently helping it release what it no longer needs to hold.
Understanding How Trauma Lives in the Body
Trauma isn't just a mental or emotional experience—it's a whole-body phenomenon that affects every system in your body. When we encounter overwhelming experiences, our nervous system activates ancient survival responses designed to protect us. Sometimes, however, these protective mechanisms become stuck, leaving us feeling anxious, disconnected, or physically uncomfortable long after the danger has passed.
Dr. Peter Levine, who developed Somatic Experiencing, observed that animals in the wild regularly experience life-threatening situations yet rarely develop trauma symptoms. The key difference? Animals naturally discharge the survival energy through physical movements—shaking, trembling, or running—allowing their nervous systems to return to balance. Humans, with our complex thinking minds, often override these natural healing responses, leaving the survival energy trapped in our bodies.
This trapped energy can manifest in various ways: chronic tension, unexplained pain, digestive issues, sleep problems, panic attacks, or a general sense of feeling "on edge." Your body might be trying to complete movements or responses that were interrupted during the traumatic experience, creating sensations that feel confusing or overwhelming.
Common signs that trauma may be stored in your body include:
Chronic muscle tension, especially in neck, shoulders, or jaw
Digestive problems without clear medical cause
Sleep disturbances or nightmares
Feeling "jumpy" or easily startled
Difficulty sitting still or constant restlessness
Unexplained fatigue or energy crashes
Feeling disconnected from your body or emotions
Panic attacks or sudden anxiety without clear triggers
Understanding these connections helps normalize experiences that might feel frightening or confusing. Your body isn't betraying you—it's trying to heal and protect you using the only tools it knows.
The Gentle Path of Somatic Experiencing
Somatic Experiencing offers a gentle, body-based approach to healing trauma that works with your nervous system's natural wisdom rather than against it. Unlike some therapy approaches that focus primarily on talking about traumatic experiences, Somatic Experiencing emphasizes feeling and sensing what's happening in your body right now.
This approach recognizes that healing happens not through re-experiencing trauma, but through helping your nervous system learn that the danger has passed and it's safe to relax. The process involves developing what we call "felt sense"—a subtle awareness of internal sensations that guides the healing process.
The foundation of Somatic Experiencing rests on several key principles:
Titration
Working with small amounts of activation at a time, like taking medicine in measured doses. This prevents overwhelming your nervous system and allows healing to happen gradually and safely.
Pendulation
Learning to notice how sensations naturally move and change in your body, like a pendulum swinging between different states. This helps restore your nervous system's natural rhythm and flexibility.
Resource Building
Identifying and strengthening experiences of safety, calm, and well-being in your body before addressing more challenging material.
Completion
Allowing interrupted survival responses to complete naturally, often through spontaneous movements, trembling, or other physical expressions.
The beauty of this approach lies in its gentleness. You don't need to relive traumatic memories or force yourself through painful emotional experiences. Instead, you learn to trust your body's innate capacity for healing while receiving professional guidance to navigate the process safely.
Simple Somatic Awareness Exercises
While deep somatic work is best done with a trained professional, there are gentle ways to begin developing body awareness and supporting your nervous system's natural healing capacity. These exercises can help you start noticing what your body is communicating and provide some immediate relief from stress and tension.
1. Basic Body Scan
Find a comfortable position and slowly move your attention through different parts of your body, starting from your toes and moving upward. Notice areas of tension, warmth, coolness, or other sensations without trying to change them. Simply observe with curiosity and kindness.
2. Gentle Shaking
Standing with feet hip-width apart, begin to gently shake your hands, then your arms, letting the movement spread naturally through your body. This mimics the natural discharge movements that animals use and can help release stored tension.
3. Breathing with Awareness
Place one hand on your chest and one on your belly. Breathe naturally and notice which hand moves more. Gradually encourage deeper belly breathing, imagining breath flowing all the way down to your pelvic floor.
4. Grounding Through Your Feet
Standing or sitting, press your feet firmly into the ground. Notice the support the earth provides and imagine roots growing from your feet into the ground, anchoring and stabilizing you.
5. Progressive Muscle Release
Gently tense different muscle groups for a few seconds, then release completely. Notice the contrast between tension and relaxation, and observe how your body responds to each state.
6. Orientation Exercise
Slowly turn your head to look around your environment, noticing colors, shapes, and objects that feel pleasant or neutral. This helps activate your nervous system's natural orientation response and can reduce anxiety.
These exercises work best when approached with patience and self-compassion. Your body has been carrying heavy loads and deserves gentle, respectful attention as it begins to heal.
Recognizing Your Body's Wisdom
Your body possesses profound wisdom about what it needs to heal and feel safe. Learning to recognize and trust this wisdom is a crucial part of the somatic healing process. This might feel unfamiliar at first, especially if you've learned to override or ignore bodily sensations, but developing this relationship with your body can be deeply transformative.
Physical sensations often carry important information:
Expansion and opening in your chest might indicate feelings of joy, relief, or love trying to emerge. Notice these moments and allow yourself to breathe into them.
Constriction or tightening might signal fear, anxiety, or the need for protection. Rather than fighting these sensations, acknowledge them as your body's attempt to keep you safe.
Warmth or tingling often accompanies healing, release, or positive energy flowing through your system. These sensations indicate your nervous system returning to balance.
Trembling or shaking frequently signals the discharge of stored survival energy. While this might feel concerning, it's often a sign that your body is releasing what it no longer needs to hold.
Sudden stillness or quiet after movement or activity can indicate your nervous system finding a new level of calm and integration.
Movement impulses—sudden urges to stretch, move, or change position—often represent your body's attempt to complete interrupted responses or find comfort.
Learning to distinguish between sensations that indicate healing and those that signal overwhelm is crucial. Healing sensations, while sometimes intense, generally feel like they're moving toward resolution. Overwhelming sensations tend to increase anxiety and feel stuck or spiraling.
The Nervous System's Natural Rhythms
Understanding how your nervous system naturally functions can help you work with your body's healing process rather than against it. Your autonomic nervous system has different states designed for different situations, and trauma healing often involves helping these states return to healthy, flexible functioning.
The Sympathetic State activates during stress or excitement, preparing your body for action. In healthy functioning, this state provides energy and focus for challenges, then naturally returns to calm when the situation resolves.
The Parasympathetic State promotes rest, digestion, and healing. This "rest and digest" state allows your body to repair, integrate experiences, and build resources for future challenges.
The Social Engagement System allows for connection, communication, and co-regulation with others. When this system functions well, you can seek support, express needs, and feel soothed by positive relationships.
Trauma can disrupt these natural rhythms, leaving you stuck in states of hypervigilance, shutdown, or disconnection. Somatic work helps restore the nervous system's natural flexibility, allowing you to access different states as appropriate for different situations.
Signs of a healing nervous system include:
Ability to feel calm and alert simultaneously
Natural transitions between activity and rest
Capacity to connect with others while maintaining your own sense of self
Physical sensations that feel manageable and meaningful
Improved sleep, digestion, and overall energy
Greater resilience in the face of stress
Increased capacity for joy and pleasure
This healing process takes time and patience. Your nervous system has been working hard to protect you, and it needs consistent, gentle messages that it's safe to relax and restore balance.
Working with Emotions Through the Body
Emotions aren't just mental experiences—they're full-body phenomena that create specific patterns of sensation, movement, and energy. Somatic Experiencing recognizes that emotions need to move through the body to be fully processed and integrated, rather than being stored as frozen energy.
Different emotions create different somatic experiences:
Fear often shows up as constriction in the chest, rapid heartbeat, or an urge to flee or hide. Healing involves helping your body complete these protective responses and learn that the danger has passed.
Anger frequently manifests as heat, tension in the jaw or fists, or impulses to push away or strike out. Healthy anger expression involves allowing this energy to move through appropriate channels.
Grief commonly creates heaviness in the chest, a sense of empty space, or waves of sensation that rise and fall. Supporting grief means creating space for these waves to move naturally.
Joy typically brings expansion in the chest, lightness throughout the body, or impulses to reach out and connect. Trauma can sometimes make joy feel unsafe, requiring gentle reintroduction.
Working with emotions somatically doesn't mean forcing feelings or trying to make them different. Instead, it involves creating a safe container for whatever wants to emerge and trusting your body's natural capacity to process and integrate emotional experiences.
Creating Safety for Somatic Healing
Safety is the foundation of all somatic work. Your nervous system needs to feel genuinely safe before it will allow deep healing to occur. This safety isn't just about external circumstances—it's about creating internal conditions that support your body's natural healing wisdom.
Elements of somatic safety include:
Pacing: Going slowly enough that your nervous system can integrate changes without becoming overwhelmed. Healing doesn't happen on a timeline, and rushing can actually interfere with the process.
Choice: Maintaining your ability to choose what feels right for your body in each moment. You are the expert on your own experience, and good somatic work always honors your autonomy.
Boundary respect: Learning to recognize and communicate your limits, and having those limits consistently respected by others.
Resource availability: Having access to people, places, activities, or internal states that help you feel calm and grounded.
Professional support: Working with trained somatic practitioners who understand trauma's impact on the nervous system and can guide you safely through the healing process.
At the Center for Healing & Personal Growth, our trauma specialists understand that somatic healing requires both professional expertise and deep respect for each person's unique journey. We create environments where your body's wisdom can emerge safely and be honored throughout the healing process.
When to Seek Professional Somatic Support
While gentle body awareness practices can be beneficial for most people, deeper somatic trauma work is best undertaken with professional guidance. Trained somatic practitioners understand how to work safely with the nervous system and can help you navigate intense sensations or emotional releases that might feel overwhelming on your own.
Consider professional somatic support if you experience:
Panic attacks or overwhelming anxiety that interferes with daily life
Chronic pain or physical symptoms without clear medical causes
Feeling disconnected from your body or emotions
Sleep disturbances, nightmares, or night terrors
Difficulty regulating emotions or frequent emotional overwhelm
Hypervigilance or feeling constantly "on edge"
Dissociation or feeling like you're "leaving your body" during stress
Addiction or compulsive behaviors that feel out of your control
Professional somatic practitioners are trained to recognize when the nervous system becomes overwhelmed and know how to help restore balance safely. They can guide you through the healing process at a pace that works for your unique system and provide support when challenging material emerges.
Integration and Daily Life
The goal of somatic work isn't to eliminate all stress or difficulty from your life—it's to help your nervous system respond to life's challenges with greater flexibility and resilience. As healing progresses, you'll likely notice improvements in how you handle stress, connect with others, and experience pleasure and joy.
Signs of somatic integration include:
Increased body awareness and trust in physical sensations
Greater capacity to self-regulate during stressful situations
Improved relationships as you become more present and authentic
Enhanced creativity and spontaneity
Better sleep, digestion, and overall physical health
Increased resilience and faster recovery from setbacks
Greater capacity for intimacy and emotional connection
The beautiful aspect of somatic healing is that it creates lasting changes in how your nervous system functions. Unlike coping strategies that require constant conscious effort, somatic integration happens at a cellular level, creating new patterns of response that become automatic over time.
Conclusion: Trusting Your Body's Healing Journey
Your body has been your faithful companion through every experience of your life, working tirelessly to keep you safe and alive. Somatic Experiencing offers a way to honor this dedication by finally listening to what your body has been trying to tell you and providing the support it needs to complete its healing journey.
This path requires patience, compassion, and often professional guidance, but it offers the possibility of profound transformation. When you learn to trust your body's wisdom and work with its natural healing capacity, you open the door to a life lived with greater ease, authenticity, and joy. At the Center for Healing & Personal Growth, we're honored to support you in this deeply personal and courageous journey toward wholeness.
Remember, you don't have to navigate life's challenges alone—healing and growth are possible with the right support. Reach out to the Center for Healing & Personal Growth today to discover how our trauma-informed, heart-centered approach can help you thrive.
