The Importance of Somatic Work in Trauma-Focused Psychotherapy

Trauma does not live only in memory—it lives in the nervous system. Trauma-focused psychotherapy increasingly recognizes that lasting healing requires more than talking about what happened. Somatic work addresses how trauma impacts the body and nervous system, helping individuals restore a sense of safety, regulation, and connection.

When a person experiences trauma, the autonomic nervous system may become stuck in survival states such as fight, flight, freeze, or collapse. According to Polyvagal Theory, these states reflect shifts between the sympathetic nervous system (mobilization), the dorsal vagal response (shutdown), and the ventral vagal state associated with safety and social connection. For many trauma survivors, the nervous system learns to remain on high alert—or shut down entirely—even long after the threat has passed.

Somatic psychotherapy helps clients gently become aware of their body’s responses without overwhelm. By tuning into physical sensations, breath, posture, and subtle internal shifts, clients learn to recognize nervous system states in real time. This process supports nervous system regulation, allowing the body to slowly move out of survival mode and back toward safety and stability. Rather than forcing traumatic recall, somatic work prioritizes resourcing, pacing, and choice, which is essential for trauma recovery.

Trauma-informed somatic approaches—such as Somatic Experiencing, Polyvagal-informed therapy, and body-based trauma therapy—help build internal safety and expand the nervous system’s capacity for regulation. Through practices like grounding, orienting, and pendulation, clients learn how to come out of activation or shutdown and return to the ventral vagal state where healing, connection, and emotional processing are possible.

Integrating somatic work into trauma therapy empowers individuals to reconnect with their bodies in a safe and supportive way. Over time, this mind-body approach helps reduce symptoms of PTSD and C-PTSD, including hypervigilance, anxiety, emotional numbness, dissociation, and chronic stress. Clients develop practical tools for self-regulation and begin to trust their body as an ally rather than a source of fear.

Somatic trauma therapy honors the wisdom of the nervous system and recognizes that healing happens not by pushing through pain, but by creating safety first. By addressing trauma at the level where it lives—in the body and nervous system—psychotherapy becomes more effective, compassionate, and sustainable.