Trauma-Informed Somatic Therapy: Mind-Body Integration

Somatic Healing Through the Call of the Body

In the Western world, we often prioritise our minds over our bodies. While this “mind-first” approach has brought remarkable scientific and technological advancements, it may inadvertently create a gap between our mental and physical well-being. When it comes to healing trauma and emotional distress, this disconnection between mind and body can actually stand in the way of true recovery.

Somatic Body Therapies recognise that trauma doesn’t just reside in our minds—it gets stored in our bodies. This idea dates back to Wilhelm Reich, a student of Sigmund Freud, who proposed that trauma creates a “body armor,” manifesting as muscular tension, pain, and other physical symptoms. Reich believed that by releasing this tension through somatic techniques, individuals could experience profound emotional and psychological healing.

The Role of Pioneers in Somatic Psychotherapy

Wilhelm Reich believed that emotional and psychological issues were not just mental—they were stored in the body as muscular tension, or “armoring.” His exploration of the body’s energetic processes led him to develop the concept of orgone energy, a universal life force that, when blocked, could lead to emotional and physical ailments. Reich’s techniques, such as vegetotherapy, involved deep breathing, expressive movement, and bodywork to release this blocked energy.

Reich’s ideas were further developed by other somatic pioneers like Alexander Lowen, who focused on bioenergetic analysis, emphasizing that unresolved life experiences are stored in the body and expressed through movement and breathing. Fritz Perls, the founder of Gestalt therapy, explored how being present in the “here and now” can help resolve emotional and bodily blockages. Stanley Keleman advanced the field by focusing on how our body forms and organizes itself around emotions and behaviors, particularly how we can shift these forms to create new expressions of ourselves.

These pioneering ideas laid the foundation for contemporary approaches such as Somatic Experiencing (SE), Integral Somatic Psychology (ISP), and Internal Family Systems (IFS), all of which focus on how trauma is stored in the body and how it can be released for healing.

A Shift in Western Consciousness: Total Healing Through Mind and Body

Over time, there has been a growing realization in the Western world that an over-reliance on the brain, while ignoring the body and emotions, limits true healing. For decades, the Western approach to health and therapy has been focused predominantly on cognition—how we think, reason, and process information—without considering how much trauma, stress, and emotions are stored physically within the body.

This shift in thinking has led to the increasing acceptance of practices like yoga, tai chi, and qi gong—ancient Eastern practices that engage the mind-body connection through movement, breathing, and awareness. Terms like prana breathing (from the Indian tradition) and chi (from Chinese philosophy), which were once viewed with suspicion in the West, are now widely recognized as important aspects of total healing. These practices help us reconnect with our bodies, regulate our emotions, and restore balance by acknowledging the vital role the body plays in processing trauma and stress.

Incorporating both mind and body into healing is essential for full recovery, as it allows us to tap into our body’s natural ability to heal itself, release stored tension, and restore emotional and physical equilibrium.

 Somatic Experiencing (SE) by Dr. Peter Levine

Somatic Experiencing (SE) is a body-focused therapy designed to help individuals release trauma that has become “stuck” in the nervous system. Dr. Peter Levine developed SE by observing how animals in the wild recover from traumatic events—through instinctual movements and the discharge of energy. Humans, however, often suppress these natural responses, causing trauma to remain trapped in the body.

What Happens in a Somatic Experiencing Session?

In a typical SE session, the therapist guides you through an exploration of your physical sensations, emotions, and memories. The focus is on tracking sensations in the body—such as tightness, warmth, or tension—and learning how to notice and regulate these sensations. You are not required to talk in detail about the traumatic event unless you feel comfortable doing so.

• Body Awareness: You’ll be guided to focus on your bodily sensations, such as a tightness in your chest or heaviness in your limbs. The goal is to become aware of these sensations without judgment, allowing the body to process them naturally.

• Resourcing: The therapist helps you identify internal or external resources that make you feel safe and grounded, such as a calming memory, a sense of strength, or an object you find comforting. These resources are used to support you as you engage with trauma-related sensations.

• Titration: To prevent overwhelm, SE involves introducing small amounts of traumatic material gradually. This allows you to engage with the trauma at a manageable pace, avoiding re-traumatization while gently working through the physical and emotional distress.

• Discharge: As your body processes the trauma, you may experience a release of energy in the form of physical movements like shaking, sighing, or crying. This discharge is a natural and healthy part of the healing process, signifying the release of stored trauma.

• Closure: Each session concludes with grounding techniques to ensure you leave feeling calm and balanced. This might involve gentle movement, focusing on positive sensations, or using the resources identified earlier.

SE works by allowing the body to complete the processes it was unable to during the traumatic event, restoring balance to the nervous system. The combination of bottom-up processing and physical awareness is key to its effectiveness.

Integral Somatic Psychology (ISP)

Integral Somatic Psychology (ISP), developed by Dr. Raja Selvam, blends psychological and bodily awareness techniques to help individuals process deep-seated trauma. ISP emphasizes emotional regulation by accessing bodily sensations that are connected to psychological issues. By tapping into the body’s memory of trauma, ISP allows individuals to process unresolved emotional and physical stress, creating lasting change in the nervous system.

ISP helps to connect the mind and body through awareness of subtle sensations, making it particularly effective for addressing complex trauma, anxiety, and depression.

Internal Family Systems (IFS)

Internal Family Systems (IFS), created by Dr. Richard Schwartz, is a therapeutic approach that views the mind as made up of different “parts”—each representing different emotional states, thoughts, or memories. When trauma occurs, some parts of the self become wounded, while others develop protective roles to guard against future pain.

IFS helps clients identify these different parts, often leading to deeper insights into how trauma has shaped their internal world. By recognizing and healing these parts, IFS integrates trauma within the self, creating emotional balance and a stronger sense of inner peace.

How Somatic Therapy Can Be Used with Other Therapies

Somatic therapy is often the missing link when traditional therapies fall short. Many therapeutic approaches focus primarily on the cognitive and emotional aspects of trauma, leaving the body out of the equation. However, trauma is often stored physically, and without addressing the body’s role in healing, therapy can sometimes feel incomplete.

The integration of top-down approaches (like Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, which focuses on thoughts) and bottom-up approaches (like somatic therapy, which focuses on the body) is crucial. The mind and body are deeply interconnected, and a full recovery often requires working with both.

By incorporating somatic techniques alongside traditional therapies, therapists can help clients process trauma more holistically. For example:

• Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) helps clients understand and challenge unhelpful thoughts, but when combined with somatic therapy, it also helps clients address the physical tension or numbness associated with these thoughts.
• Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) can be enhanced by somatic techniques like body scanning, allowing clients to stay grounded as they process distressing memories.
• Gestalt therapy, ISP, and Reichian approaches all focus on bringing awareness to the present moment, allowing clients to process emotions through their physical sensations.

A Somatic Approach

How a Somatic Therapist Could See an Eating Problem

Your relationship with food—whether it involves disordered eating, binge eating, emotional eating, or food restriction—is often a way your body communicates unresolved emotional conflicts. In therapy, these behaviors may be understood as forms of “armoring” or as dissociative responses to past trauma. Somatic therapists help clients connect with their bodily sensations to understand how unprocessed trauma might be influencing their eating habits.

• Wilhelm Reich would say that food behaviors are a form of armoring, a physical way to shield oneself from emotional pain.
• Carl Jung could interpret eating habits as expressions of unconscious elements.
• Stanley Keleman might suggest that your form has organized itself around these behaviors, and that by addressing bodily sensations, we can create new, healthier patterns.

Somatic therapy views disordered eating as an expression of unresolved emotional or trauma-based issues, which need to be processed through the body to bring lasting change.

Why Some Therapies Don’t Work: The Missing Link

Sometimes, traditional therapies may not work because they overlook the body’s role in healing. Trauma affects both the brain and body, and cognitive or talk therapies alone may not address the full scope of the trauma’s impact. This is why the integration of top-down and bottom-up approaches is so important.

For instance, a client working through trauma using talk therapy alone might feel stuck because the body still holds onto physical tension or fear. Somatic therapy offers the tools to release this tension, allowing the mind to also shift and heal.

This missing link—addressing both mind and body—can explain why certain therapies feel incomplete and why somatic therapies are essential for deeper healing.

The Role of Gabor Maté and Bessel van der Kolk in Somatic Healing

Bessel van der Kolk emphasises that trauma is not just a psychological issue but one that resides in the body, often affecting the nervous system and physical health. His book, The Body Keeps the Score, highlights how traumatic experiences are encoded in the body and how somatic therapies help release these memories.

Gabor Maté further elaborates on the connection between unresolved trauma and physical illness. His work shows that trauma can manifest as chronic pain, autoimmune disorders, and emotional dysregulation. He explains, “Trauma is not what happens to you; it’s what happens inside you as a result of what happens to you.” Somatic approaches allow the body to heal itself by releasing stored emotional and physical trauma.

How Listening Ear Counselling & Consultancy Pte. Ltd. Can Help

At Listening Ear Counselling & Consultancy Pte. Ltd., we specialise in combining various somatic and psychological approaches to offer a deeply integrative healing experience. Karl deSouza has over 20 years of experience in therapy and over 15 in somatic therapy starting with Gestalt, Reichian approaches, and then later with Integral Somatic Psychology (ISP) Somatic Experiencing (SE), His unique combination of modalities helps clients move through trauma in a holistic way, working with both the mind and body to achieve lasting healing.

If you’re interested in exploring how somatic therapy can support your journey, reach out to us for a consultation. We’re here to guide you through the healing process with compassion and expertise.