Somatic Approaches to Trauma: Why We Need to Involve the Body in Therapy

“Tell me about your trauma.” Traditional psychotherapy works through words. But what if trauma isn't stored in words?

Peter Levine, author of Somatic Experiencing (SE), noted that animals in the wild regularly experience life threats but do not develop PTSD. Why? Because they complete the stress response — they tremble, shake, move. The body "discharges."

In humans, this discharge is often blocked. And then the stress response remains "incomplete" in the body.

1. How the body stores trauma

During a traumatic event, the nervous system activates a powerful response: "fight, flight, or freeze." If this response is not completed, it remains "stuck" in the form of:

• Chronic muscle tension
• Breathing disturbances (shallow, held)
• Chronic activation of the sympathetic nervous system
• Unexplained physical pains
• Chaotic regulation of the autonomic nervous system

2. What is Somatic Experiencing

SE is a psychotherapeutic approach developed by Peter Levine. It works with bodily sensations (interoception), helping the nervous system to "complete" the incomplete stress response through safe, gradual "discharge."

Key principles: titration (small doses), pendulation (alternating activation and resource), completion of the movement cycle.

3. Other somatic approaches

• Sensorimotor Psychotherapy: integration of body, emotions, and cognitions
• Polyvagal Therapy: working with autonomic states according to Porges' model
• EMDR: contains bodily components
• Brainspotting: working through eye position and bodily sensations

4. Self-practices (supplement to therapy)

• Slow diaphragmatic breathing
• Mindful walking with attention to sensations in the feet
• Trembling practices (controlled tremor, TRE)
• Grounding through the sensation of physical support

Talk to our AI psychologist psybot.app. Read also: EMDR for PTSD.