Somatic Therapy in Chicago: Healing Through the Nervous System

What Is Somatic Therapy?

Somatic therapy is a body-centered approach to psychotherapy that recognizes the connection between your thoughts, emotions, physical sensations, and nervous system.

Rather than focusing only on what you think or talk about, you might become aware of tension in your shoulders, changes in your breathing, a racing heart, or an urge to withdraw.

The goal is not to force your body to respond differently; it is to develop a greater understanding of your physical cues.

Somatic Therapy vs. Talk Therapy – Who Can Benefit?

There are many approaches to talk therapy, each offering different ways to help you understand your patterns, relationships, emotions, and experiences. Somatic therapy can also complement that work by bringing attention to how those experiences are also felt in your body.

Somatic therapy may be helpful if you are experiencing:

● Anxiety or panic

● Trauma or difficulty

● Chronic stress

● Persistent tension

● Difficulty relaxing

● Feeling disconnected, numb, or overwhelmed

● Holding it all together on the outside, but continue to feel stuck in old patterns

Our therapeutic approach involves understanding your individual experience and goals to help determine what may be most helpful for you. This may include a number of our approaches and modalities, including somatic therapy.

How Your Nervous System Holds and Responds To Stress and Trauma

The nervous system is constantly responding to what is happening around you. Made up of the sympathetic nervous system (prepares your body for action against the stressor) and the parasympathetic nervous system (supports recovery and rest), each performs an important function in how the body reacts to, stores, and recovers from stressors.

When you experience stress or perceive a threat, your body responds through fight, flight, freeze, or fawn, often before you have consciously processed what is happening. These are natural responses to a threat and not signs that something is wrong with you, and each produces different feelings and potential actions.

● Fight: You may feel angry, tense, and ready to confront the threat.

● Flight: You may feel anxious, restless, and driven to escape or avoid the situation.

● Freeze: You may feel disconnected, stuck, numb, or unable to respond.

● Fawn: You may focus on pleasing others or keeping the peace to feel safe.

Signs That Your Nervous System May Be Dysregulated

A threat response within your nervous system can get stuck “on.” This occurs when the experience of trauma, prolonged stress, or repeated unsafe situations continues to activate the body’s stress response, even after the threat has cleared. Some signs that you are experiencing a dysregulated nervous system include:

● Trouble sleeping

● Digestive changes

● Muscle tension

● Shallow breathing

● Feeling shut down or disconnected

● Difficulty settling down when trying to relax

Holding it all together on the outside, but continue to feel stuck in old patterns

What Does Nervous System Healing Mean?

“Healing the nervous system” is a common way of describing developing greater regulation and flexibility in your responses to stress or the body's reaction to perceived threats. Somatic therapy helps you notice these patterns, recognize what your body is communicating, and gradually develop the ability to move from activation back toward a calmer, more settled state.

The goal is not to eliminate stress or make your nervous system permanently calm. Rather, somatic therapy may help you become more aware of your responses and better able to regulate them when they occur.

Are Somatic Therapy Results Permanent?

Somatic therapy can help you develop skills, coping mechanisms, and pattern recognition that will be helpful after therapy. While it is impossible to say that a person will never experience dysregulation again, somatic therapy has been proven helpful and useful long after treatment ends.