What is a somatic therapist?

If you are here, there is likely a quiet sense that healing cannot live only in your thoughts.

You may be asking what a somatic therapist is, or you may have already noticed that understanding your story did not fully change how your body responds. Anxiety, chronic tension, shutdown, emotional numbness, or persistent stress often remain even after years of insight. This occurs because the nervous system processes experience more quickly and deeply than language.

Somatic therapy helps people heal trauma stored in the body by working directly with sensation, breath, movement, and nervous system awareness. It honors the mind-body connection, recognizing that the body reacts to life before the mind can explain it.

Before proceeding, it is important to know who is handling this work.



I am Cristina Maria Fort Garcés, a somatic guide working at the intersection of therapy, ritual, and nervous system wisdom. My work centers on somatic psychotherapy and energy coaching, supporting people who feel deeply, hold space for others, and are ready to heal at the level where patterns actually live. If you are a healer, therapist, creative, or space holder carrying long-term stress or feeling disconnected from your body, you may want to explore somatic therapy for healers as a path of integration rather than self-management.

What somatic therapy focuses on and why the body matters

The word somatic comes from soma, meaning body.

In therapy, somatic refers to approaches that focus on how the body holds emotional experience, stress responses, and survival patterns. Long before we can think about what happened, the body reacts. Breath shortens. Muscles tighten. The nervous system prepares to protect.

This is why emotional healing often begins with physical awareness. Many people can speak clearly about their trauma while their body remains stuck in fight, flight, or freeze. Somatic therapy works directly with these physical signals instead of trying to override them with logic or reassurance.

Rather than asking why something happened, somatic work gently asks what the body is doing now and what it needs to feel safe enough to release. This is the foundation of body-based therapy and mind-body connection therapy.

What does a somatic therapist do?

Helps you tune into the body

A somatic therapist guides you to notice physical sensations that are often overlooked, such as tightness, warmth, heaviness, shallow breath, or subtle impulses to move. These sensations are not symptoms to eliminate. They are communication from the nervous system.

Over time, this awareness reveals patterns shaped by past experiences and survival strategies that may no longer be needed.

Uses somatic therapy techniques

Somatic therapy techniques include grounding practices, breathwork, orienting to safety, slow mindful movement, and tracking sensation in real time. The goal is nervous system regulation, not emotional catharsis.

Healing happens when the body learns it can move through activation and return to calm without danger.

Integrates psychology and physiology

Somatic therapists understand how emotional experiences are mirrored in the body. Anxiety may appear as shallow breathing or jaw tension. Grief may feel like heaviness in the chest. Long term stress often lives as chronic muscular holding.



By connecting emotional awareness with physical response, somatic therapy supports integration rather than insight alone.

How somatic therapy heals trauma

Trauma is not only what happened. It is what the body had to do to survive.

When a stressful or overwhelming experience interrupts the nervous system’s natural response, the energy of fear or protection can remain stored. Even years later, the body may react as if the threat is still present.

Somatic therapy helps the body safely discharge this stored energy. Instead of retelling the story, attention stays with present moment sensation and the body’s capacity to return to balance.

What happens in a somatic therapy session?

The beginning of safety and grounding

Sessions begin by establishing emotional and physical safety. This may include orienting to the room, noticing support beneath the body, or checking in with breath and sensation.

Safety is created gradually, not assumed.

Somatic experiencing in practice

You may be guided to track sensations, notice subtle movements, or follow your breath. The pace is slow and intentional. Nothing is forced or pushed.

Release happens through awareness, not reliving.

Integration and reflection

Time is given to notice what shifted. Integration allows the nervous system to register change without overwhelm.

Over time, this builds resilience and trust in the body.

Who can benefit from somatic therapy?

Somatic therapy supports anyone carrying unresolved stress, trauma, or emotional disconnection, especially those who feel they have already done significant inner work but still feel unsettled.



It can be particularly supportive for:

• PTSD or childhood trauma
• Postpartum or birth trauma
• Anxiety, panic, or chronic stress
• Depression or emotional numbness
• Chronic pain with emotional components

Types of somatic therapy

Somatic experiencing

Focuses on releasing stored trauma energy and restoring nervous system balance.

Sensorimotor psychotherapy

Combines mindfulness, body awareness, and emotional processing.

Hakomi method

Uses present moment body awareness to explore core emotional beliefs.

Movement and dance therapy

Supports healing through physical expression and rhythm.

Somatic therapy vs traditional talk therapy

Traditional talk therapy focuses on understanding experiences through language, insight, and reflection. It can be deeply helpful for making sense of emotions, relationships, and personal history, offering clarity and validation through understanding.

Somatic therapy begins in the body. It recognizes that trauma and chronic stress often live in the nervous system long after the story is understood. The body may remain tense, alert, or disconnected even when life feels stable. Somatic work focuses on present moment sensation to help the nervous system complete unfinished stress responses.

These approaches work best together. Talk therapy supports meaning and perspective, while somatic therapy supports regulation and embodiment. For people who feel stuck despite insight, somatic therapy offers a way to restore safety, presence, and trust through the body.

Somatic exercises you can try at home

Grounding through the senses

Name five things you can see, four you can feel, three you can hear, two you can smell, and one you can taste. This brings the nervous system into the present.

Breath reset

Try a 4 2 6 breathing rhythm. Inhale for four, hold for two, exhale for six.

Gentle movement for release

Stretch, shake your arms, or walk slowly while noticing sensation. Let movement process what words cannot.

Healing from the inside out

Healing is not about fixing yourself. It is about restoring presence.

Your body remembers how to calm, recover, and feel again. Somatic therapy invites you to slow down, listen, and rebuild trust from within.

If you are a healer or space holder longing for integration rather than another tool, somatic therapy for healers offers a grounded, embodied space to return home to yourself.



You are not broken.
You are remembering.