What Is Somatic Therapy? A Gentle Path Back to the Body
- Tessa
- Apr 7
- 5 min read
A little offer to give you a clear and calming intro to somatic therapy and how reconnecting with your body can help heal trauma, regulate your nervous system, and live flourishingly.
In a world that often pulls us into our heads, somatic therapy offers a way to heal through the wisdom of our body, Somatic therapy to me is a return, a return to the quiet wisdom of the body, to the rhythms beneath thought, to the felt sense of safety, aliveness, and truth.
As a somatic therapist and relational mentor, I witness every day how healing does not come only through words — but through breath, sensation, and presence.
This is a gently walk through what somatic therapy truly is, how it works, and why so many are turning toward the body as the true place of healing. 'Somatic' and somatics have become buzzwords, widely used these days, but not always used in the right context.
To me, somatics is deep relational work, mostly relationally with ourselves and our body, and secondly with the world around us, the people in it, and the encounters we find ourselves in living, loving and leading.
What Is Somatic Therapy?
Somatic therapy is a body-based approach to healing that helps you reconnect with your physical, emotional, and nervous system experience. 'Somatic' and somatics have become buzzwords, widely used these days, but not always used in the right context.
To me, somatics is deep relational work, mostly relationally with ourselves and our body, and secondly with the world around us, the people in it, and the encounters we find ourselves in living, loving and leading.
The word somatic comes from the Greek word soma, meaning “the living body.”. The way I approach therapy, is throught the living body, through the soma, and thus 'somatic'. It invites us to listen not only to what we think, but to what we feel: in your chest, your belly, your breath, your skin, your heart. For me, using the body as a gateway to understand myself has always been the most healing.
In somatic therapy, I work with tools like:
body awareness and sensation tracking
breath and grounding
gentle movement or stillness
noticing patterns in posture, tension, and nervous system states
the therapeutic relationship as a place of deep, safe connection
Although somatic therapy is not based in talk therapy, I do use talk therapy. There is tremendous healing in understanding our story, and then uncovering how our story is held in our body. Somatic therapy creates a new, integrated and gentle way of relating to yourself — and letting your body lead the way.
Why the Body Matters in Healing
We live in a world that rewards disconnection. We push through. We analyze. We numb. And the body, the body remembers it all.
Our body holds the weight of what was never spoken. The tension of needing to stay safe. The freeze of heartbreak or fear. The patterns we learned long ago to survive.
Trauma, as both my favorite scholars and teachers Gabor Mate and Peter Levine say, is not what happens to us — but what happens inside us in response to what happens to us.
Talk therapy is beautiful, insight helps — yet without a safe space to feel and unwind what’s been stored, we stay in loops of understanding without transformation.
Somatic therapy offers a way to come into regulation, presence, and healing — not just through the mind, but through the body itself.
What we deepen into in a Somatic Therapy Session with me?
Every session is a gentle co-creation. I have come to see how gentleness is a very sustainable way of healing, rather than a cathartic big experience. I love gentle and integrative ways. For me, healing gets to be soft. We move at the pace your nervous system can truly hold — not what your mind thinks you should be able to.
Some things my clients experience during sessions and in their lives as a result...
a slowing down and softening within how you live
deepened awareness of sensation, breath, or internal imagery, visuals and clarity
noticing what’s alive in your body, moment-to-moment — tightness, warmth, numbness, energy and what arises in response to situations
resourcing: finding places of support, safety, or ease
gentle tracking of your nervous system (fight, flight, freeze, fawn, rest)
deep presence and attunement, with no pressure to perform or fix, but to be
I am devoted to create spaces where you don’t need to have answers. I have learned there is beauty to be found in the mystery, in not having answers, however hard that can be as well. Together we craft a space where silence is welcomed, where even the smallest shifts — a deeper exhale, a softened jaw — are celebrated as profound movement and healing experiences.
Who Is Somatic Therapy For?
This work is for anyone who longs to come home to themselves through the magnificence of their body.
It’s especially helpful when:
You’ve tried talk therapy but still feel disconnected and encounter repeating problems
You experience anxiety, burnout, or chronic stress, chronic pain or fatigue
You feel numb, frozen, or “cut off” from your body, from people around you or your life
You’re highly sensitive or empathic and need help regulating, boundary-setting, and becoming more intimate with your sensitivy in a supportive way that lets you flourish in life
You want to deepen your relationship with your body, shame, and societal conditioning
You feel the call to heal in a way that honors your whole being — body, heart, and soul
Whether you're moving through trauma, grief, change, or simply seeking more aliveness —I've seen and come to believe that this paths holds it all, and offers therapy in the most beautiful way I have witnessed, experienced and offered myself.
The Gentle, a home for the body
This work is not about pushing, striving, or “fixing” what’s broken. My work is based in your wholeness. It’s about listening, true listening. about pausing, about allowing what’s here to be felt.
The body carries not only the imprint of your pain — but also the blueprint of your wholeness. Your body remembers joy, grace, flourishing, beauty, pleasure and aliveness. it remembers through softening, through connection,
Not as a quick fix, as a deep, steady path,
As a homecoming within you...
If your body has been whispering — or crying out — for rest, for reconnection, for something more real, then this work will meet you where you are.
I aspire to bring this work with compassion, with humility and with slowness, with sacred witnessing
✨ If you’d like to learn more, you’re warmly welcome to explore with me. You
And it would be an honor to walk with you.
Your body is not a problem to be solved, it is a place to come home to.
www.tessaschiethart.com | somtic psychotherapy, relational mentoring
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