Somatic Therapy in BC | Somatic Experiencing with Trained Therapists
Somatic therapy helps you heal from trauma, anxiety, and depression by addressing the connection between your mind and body. Our BCACC-registered somatic therapists in BC offer somatic experiencing and other body-centered therapies online throughout British Columbia for children, teens, adults, couples, and families.
Through somatic therapy, you'll learn to recognize and release emotions and trauma stored in your body, moving beyond talk therapy alone to access deeper healing. Whether you're struggling with PTSD, chronic stress, relationship issues, or the lingering effects of past trauma, your somatic therapist will guide you in processing difficult experiences through body awareness and gentle release techniques.
Accessible from anywhere in BC, including Vancouver, Victoria, and beyond, our online somatic experiencing therapy makes transformative mind-body healing convenient and effective.
What is Somatic Therapy and Somatic Experiencing?
Somatic therapies are forms of psychotherapy that focus on the connection between the mind and body. These therapies address thoughts, emotions, and physical sensations to help process trauma. They operate on the belief that emotions from traumatic experiences can become trapped in the body, affecting future responses and making individuals feel as though the trauma is still occurring. The goal is to release these trapped emotions so individuals can process their memories and regain a sense of safety.
Somatic therapies operate on the understanding that traumatic experiences don't just affect your thoughts and memories; they become encoded in your body. When trauma occurs, your nervous system may remain in a state of high alert, making you feel as though the danger is still present even years later. Physical symptoms like chronic pain, digestive issues, difficulty breathing, or unexplained tension often reflect unprocessed emotional experiences.
Common types of somatic therapies used with children and youth include Sensorimotor Psychotherapy and Somatic Experiencing, which both emphasize bodily sensations and emotional responses. These therapies aim to help individuals recognize and release distressing reactions triggered by trauma, promoting healing and improving self-regulation.
Types of Somatic Therapy: Somatic Experiencing and More
Several evidence-based approaches fall under the somatic therapy umbrella, each with its own techniques for accessing body-based healing:
Somatic Experiencing (SE)
Developed by Peter Levine, somatic experiencing focuses on tracking bodily sensations and completing the body's natural fight-flight-freeze responses that were thwarted during trauma. Your somatic therapist using SE will help you notice subtle physical sensations, follow them as they shift and change, and allow your nervous system to naturally discharge traumatic activation. Somatic experiencing is particularly effective for shock trauma like accidents, medical procedures, or single-incident traumatic events.
Sensorimotor Psychotherapy
This approach combines somatic therapy with cognitive processing, helping you understand how your body organizes around trauma while developing new physical patterns of safety and empowerment.
Body-Centered Psychotherapy
Various body-centered approaches use breathwork, movement, touch (when appropriate and consented to), and body awareness to access and release stored emotions.
Your somatic therapist will choose techniques based on your specific needs, trauma history, and comfort level with body-focused work. Many somatic therapies can be effectively delivered online through guided awareness exercises, even without physical touch.
What Your Somatic Therapist Can Help You Treat
Somatic therapy is effective for treating Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and can also help with various mental health issues, including:
Trauma and PTSD: Whether you experienced childhood abuse, sexual assault, accidents, medical trauma, combat, or natural disasters, somatic therapy helps your nervous system release the activation that keeps you stuck in survival mode.
Anxiety and Panic: When anxiety lives in your chest, tightness, racing heart, or shallow breathing, somatic experiencing teaches you to work directly with these sensations rather than just trying to think differently.
Depression: Chronic fatigue, heaviness, and numbness often have somatic components that talk therapy alone can't reach. Your somatic therapist helps you reconnect with your body and access emotions that may be suppressed.
Chronic Pain and Illness: Many people discover that physical symptoms have emotional roots or are maintained by nervous system dysregulation that somatic therapy can address.
Eating Disorders: Body disconnection and distorted body image often improve when you develop a healthier, more compassionate relationship with your body through somatic work.
Grief and Loss: The physical sensations of grief, the heaviness, the ache, the emptiness, can be processed through somatic therapy when words aren't enough.
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder: Compulsive behaviours often serve to manage uncomfortable body sensations and anxiety that somatic experiencing can address at the root level.
Relationship and Attachment Issues: Early relational trauma shapes how safe you feel in your body around others. Somatic therapy helps you develop new patterns of co-regulation and connection.
Stress and Burnout: Chronic stress lives in your tight shoulders, clenched jaw, and exhausted nervous system. Somatic experiencing teaches you to recognize and release this tension before it becomes debilitating.
Substance Use Challenges: Many people use substances to escape uncomfortable body sensations. Somatic therapy gives you tools to tolerate and process those sensations without numbing.
The therapy is adaptable for children, making it playful and age-appropriate.
Duration of Therapy
Somatic therapy can be short-term for specific traumas or longer-term for developmental issues. It can be combined with traditional talk therapy in both individual and group settings.
Start Somatic Therapy in BC Today
Ready to heal trauma at the level where it lives—in your body? Our trained somatic therapists offer somatic experiencing and other body-centered therapies online throughout British Columbia, making specialized mind-body healing accessible whether you're in Vancouver, Surrey, Victoria, Kelowna, or anywhere across BC.
We work with children, teens, adults, couples, and families dealing with PTSD, anxiety, depression, chronic pain, and unresolved trauma. We accept CVAP, ICBC, and WorkBC claims, which is especially helpful if your trauma resulted from an accident or injury. Services are available in English and Portuguese.
Through gentle, body-based somatic therapy, you'll release what's been stored, regulate your nervous system, and rediscover a sense of safety and calm. Book your somatic experiencing session today and begin healing from the inside out.
Terapia somática disponível em português