What Is Somatic Therapy? How Body-Based Counselling Works

Somatic therapy is counselling that includes the body, not only thoughts and words: you learn to notice physical sensations such as a tight chest, shallow breathing or a jolt of alarm, and to work with them at a pace your nervous system can handle. It is not a single technique but a family of body-based approaches, often used alongside talk therapy for trauma, anxiety and long-running stress.

The word gets used loosely online, for everything from breathing apps to hands-on bodywork. This article explains what it usually means in a counselling room, what it does not mean, and what the research can and cannot tell you yet.

What “Somatic” Means in Counselling

“Soma” is the Greek word for body. Many people know the experience of understanding, logically, that they are safe while their body keeps reacting as if they are not: the racing heart before a routine meeting, the shoulders that never quite come down, the jaw that is clenched before you notice.

Talk therapy works with the story and what it means. Somatic approaches add another source of information: what your body is doing right now, in the room. The two work together rather than competing.

That does not mean every physical symptom has an emotional cause. Headaches, pain and fatigue have many causes and deserve a proper medical check. Somatic work sits alongside medical care, never instead of it.

What a Somatic Session Can Look Like

From the outside, a session with a somatic element looks a lot like ordinary counselling. You sit and talk. The difference is that the conversation pauses now and then to check in with the body. A counsellor might ask:

• Where do you notice that feeling right now: your chest, your stomach, your jaw?
• What happens in your body when you say that out loud?
• If you press your feet into the floor, does anything shift?

Common tools include grounding (noticing the room, the chair, the floor beneath you), paced breathing, small movements you choose yourself, and learning to tell tension from ease. The work is deliberately slow. The aim is to build your capacity to feel physical sensation without being flooded by it, not to relive a hard experience in detail.

You can say no to any exercise. That is not an obstacle to the therapy; being able to choose is part of it. Our article on what trauma-informed actually means explains why choice and pacing matter so much.

Does Somatic Therapy Involve Touch?

It depends on the method, which is why it is worth asking before you book.

Somatic Experiencing® is one specific, trademarked body-oriented trauma method. A 2021 review of its research found that practitioners and clients identified “use of touch” as one of its method-specific key factors. Some other body-based approaches use touch as well.

At The Counselling HUB, somatic work does not involve touch. You guide your attention to your own sensations, and any breathing or movement is something you do yourself. Wherever you see a counsellor, it is reasonable to ask directly whether touch is part of their approach and how consent is handled.

What the Research Says So Far

The honest answer is promising, but still early.

The review mentioned above, by Kuhfuß and colleagues in the European Journal of Psychotraumatology, identified 83 articles, of which 16 met its inclusion criteria. The authors report “preliminary evidence for positive effects” of Somatic Experiencing on PTSD-related symptoms, and initial evidence of a positive impact on emotional and physical symptoms and on measures of well-being. They also found that overall study quality was mixed, and concluded that the results “require more support from unbiased RCT-research.”

Two things follow from that. First, the review covers one specific method, not everything that calls itself somatic. Second, anyone telling you a body-based therapy is proven to resolve trauma is overstating the evidence. What can fairly be said is that paying attention to the body is a reasonable and increasingly studied part of trauma care, and it fits well alongside other established approaches.

Who Somatic Approaches May Suit

Somatic work is often worth exploring if you:

• understand your situation clearly but still feel stuck in a physical state of alarm or shutdown
• feel disconnected from your body, or numb
• find that going over a hard experience in detail leaves you feeling worse rather than better
• live with ongoing tension that seems tied to stress

If focusing on body sensations has felt overwhelming in the past, say so at the start. Beginning small, sometimes with nothing more than noticing your feet on the floor, is normal and entirely fine. Counsellors do not diagnose physical conditions, so keep your doctor involved in anything medical.

Somatic Therapy in Nanaimo and Across BC

At The Counselling HUB, somatic therapy is woven into counselling rather than offered as a separate program. It most often comes up in trauma counselling and anxiety counselling, combined with other approaches such as Internal Family Systems depending on what fits you. Progress looks different for everyone, and no counsellor can promise a timeline.

Sessions are available in person at our office on Wentworth Street in Nanaimo, and virtually anywhere in British Columbia. Grounding and breathing practices translate well to a video session from home, whether you are in Ladysmith, Duncan, Parksville or further up-Island.

If you are in crisis: if you are having thoughts of suicide or feel unsafe, call or text 9-8-8, the Suicide Crisis Helpline, at any hour. In an emergency, call 9-1-1.

If you are curious whether a body-based approach would suit you, get in touch. We can talk through what somatic work would and would not involve before you commit to anything.

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Fact-checked on September 16, 2026 against Kuhfuß, Maldei, Hetmanek and Baumann, Somatic experiencing – effectiveness and key factors of a body-oriented trauma therapy: a scoping literature review (European Journal of Psychotraumatology, 2021), and the 9-8-8 Suicide Crisis Helpline. This article is general information, not clinical advice, and does not establish a counselling relationship.