- Jordan Dann
"I am my body. My body is me... I grant myself the space and curiosity to get to know my body and listen to what it has to teach me."
Somatic therapy is a nervous system and body-based approach to healing, helping to process, regulate, and restore a baseline of safety and connection within the body.
Through childhood and life experiences, we learn to adapt in order to survive, belong, and cope. We may suppress emotions or bodily signals, wear masks to be accepted, abandon parts of our authentic selves, develop limiting beliefs, or live in a constant state of alertness or disconnection. We may also experience events that our nervous system didn’t have the capacity to process at the time—whether or not we consciously label them as “traumatic.”
somatic therapy
Coming home to the wisdom of your body.
When these experiences go unaddressed, they don’t simply disappear. Instead, they often remain stored in the body and nervous system, contributing to ongoing dysregulation, emotional reactivity, overwhelm, anxiety, depression, and even physical pain or chronic health issues. Over time, this can pull us away from feeling safe, grounded, and at home within ourselves.
...maybe you can relate?
At its core, somatic therapy is about slowing down and tuning in—gently learning to listen to internal signals and reconnect with yourself in a way that feels safe and supportive to you. It allows you to process what is begging to be addressed, rewrite the stories and narratives holding you back, and align with the light and truth of your soul. This process is always guided by your nervous system, moving at a pace that honors your capacity in each moment. Over time, it can help ease pain, overwhelm, and coping patterns that pull us away from feeling at home within ourselves, with others, and in the world.
Somatic therapy helps bring us back.
This is not about forcing change. It is about creating the conditions for healing and alignment to unfold naturally.
Traditional talk therapy is often considered a top-down approach, working primarily with the mind, whereas somatic therapy is a bottom-up approach, focusing on the body and nervous system while also supporting deeper mind–body integration.
How Somatic Therapy Differs from Traditional Talk Therapy
- Sensations, impulses, and reactions in the body
- Subtle shifts in posture or movement
- The breath and grounding in the present moment
- Practices that support nervous system regulation (calming or activating, depending on your state)
- Movement, sound, or verbal practices
The mind is great at analyzing, intellectualizing, and trying to make sense of our experiences–and this can be helpful up to a point. But the body holds a deeper knowing and wisdom about how we’ve learned to cope, what we’re actually feeling under the surface, and what we need in order to return to a regulated state of safety. Many of these insights live beneath conscious awareness–beyond the thoughts and stories in our mind–which can be difficult for the mind to access or are often pushed away through overthinking or self-judgement. By gently letting the mind step aside and exploring places it can’t always reach or see clearly, we allow the body to communicate, process, and regulate. In many instances, the mind may have reached a point of clarity, yet the energetic burden may still be present and stored in your body–we often have to be intentional to also move that energy through and out of the body, so it can be fully released from your system.
While there can be a lot of overlap with talk therapy, rather than relying primarily on verbal discussion, in somatic sessions we focus more on:
Somatic therapy is a beautiful complement to talk therapy, and is how I use it in my own life.
Somatic therapy is about connecting with the body, which may feel natural and accessible at times, and more challenging at others. While contacting suppressed emotions or unresolved experiences can feel uncomfortable, you are never forced to relive anything that feels too much. Choice, consent, and collaboration are central to this work. The hope is that we create an environment for you to feel safe enough to make contact with your human emotions, at your pace.
Somatic work is often subtle and slow. At times, the body simply wants to be acknowledged. At other times, sessions may include emotional release, insight, or catharsis. There is never any agenda nor destination you are expected to reach—we let the body and nervous system lead.
The goal is not necessarily to “feel better” immediately—it is to feel more fully.
- Improved nervous system regulation and emotional resilience
- Release of stored stress, trauma, and emotions held in the body
- Greater sense of safety, presence, and embodiment
- Deeper connection to your body’s cues, sensations, and inner wisdom
- Increased self-awareness, self-trust, and clearer boundaries
- Healthier thought patterns and reduced fear-based reactivity
- Reduced symptoms of anxiety, depression, chronic stress, and burnout
- Relief from physical tension, chronic pain, fatigue, and stress-related symptoms
- Better sleep and increased energy as the body moves out of survival mode
- Greater capacity to navigate triggers, cravings, and compulsive patterns
- Improved relationships through stronger co-regulation and emotional availability
- Long-term healing and integration, rather than short-term coping
Benefits
"Aly is someone I can truly feel safe with. Somatic work can be vulnerable and in order for me to trust someone and open up, it's important for me to work with someone who is authentic and embodied. Her presence comes from a non-judgemental space and she holds so much compassion and kindness that it made it easy for me to sit with the harder feelings and really look at parts of myself I had been avoiding. It's been such a gift to my nervous system working with her. I would confidently refer my closest friends & family to her because I know they’d be in great hands"
- Cailtin
My path to somatic therapy grew from both my own healing journey and my desire to more fully support others. Through my work with hundreds of individuals as a health coach, I saw how unprocessed emotions, limiting beliefs, and nervous system dysregulation often kept people stuck—even after meaningful lifestyle changes. I wanted the knowledge and tools to help fill this gap and truly support whole-self healing.
My personal and professional experience with somatic therapy
I received my somatic therapy certification through The Somatic Arts Academy in 2025 and have been deeply grateful to be doing this work ever since. Being present with people in the depths of their human and emotional experience is both an honor and a responsibility I hold with great care. This work has supported not only my clients, but my own nervous system regulation, emotional healing, and deeper alignment with my soul’s truth.
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