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Dove Counseling Services
Somatic Psychotherapy
Somatic psychotherapy is a holistic approach to psychotherapy that recognizes the deep connection between the mind and the body. Unlike traditional talk therapy, which focuses primarily on thoughts and emotions, somatic therapy also includes the body’s experiences. Somatic psychotherapy recognizes sensations, movements, and physical patterns as vital sources of information and pathways for healing.
The word soma means body, but in therapy, it refers to more than just our physical form. The soma is the living, sensing body and is the place where we experience our feelings, memories, and responses to the world.
Our bodies hold the story of our lives. They reflect our emotions, our habits, and even old patterns of protection and survival. Stress, trauma, and emotional pain can become stored in the nervous system and expressed through tension, fatigue, chronic discomfort, or a sense of disconnection. By bringing gentle awareness to the body, we can access insights that the mind alone might not reveal. This body-based awareness helps us reconnect with ourselves, release tension or stress that may be held in the body, and find a greater sense of ease, presence, and well-being.
When Talking About It Isn’t Enough
You’ve been in therapy before and can explain why you feel anxious or stuck, but your body still reacts as if you’re in danger.
Bringing the body into therapy helps you work with the physical side of that experience (the racing heart, tight chest, or shallow breath) so that insight and safety begin to reach your whole system, not just your thoughts.
When Old Patterns Keep Showing Up
You tell yourself you’re safe and loved, yet your body still braces for rejection or shutdown in relationships.
Somatic work helps uncover how your body learned to protect you long ago and how to gently update those patterns.
When You Want to Feel More Grounded and Whole
Bringing the body into therapy isn’t just for trauma. It’s also for cultivating aliveness, confidence, and self-trust.
When the body and mind work together, healing becomes embodied not just understood.
When Stress Feels “Stuck” in the Body
After a difficult event, you might notice lingering muscle tension, headaches, or fatigue even long after things have settled down.
The body holds onto incomplete stress responses that talking alone can’t release.
When You Feel Numb, Disconnected, or Shut Down
Sometimes, instead of feeling too much, we stop feeling at all. This is the body’s way of protecting us.
Somatic therapy helps you reconnect with sensations and emotions safely, at your own pace.