Why Talk Therapy Isn’t Helping Your Trauma
If you’ve been in traditional talk therapy but feel like you’re not making the progress you’d hoped for, you’re not alone. While talk therapy can be profoundly helpful for many, it isn’t always the most effective method for addressing trauma. Trauma often resides not just in our thoughts, but in our bodies—and healing requires more than just talking about it. This is where somatic therapy can offer a transformative alternative.
Why Talk Therapy Might Not Be Enough for Trauma
Talk therapy focuses on understanding and reframing thoughts and feelings, often through conversation with a therapist. While this can be valuable, trauma doesn’t always respond to intellectual exploration alone. Trauma is stored in the nervous system, creating patterns of hypervigilance, numbness, or emotional overwhelm that don’t always shift with insight alone.
Here are some reasons why talk therapy might not be enough for trauma:
Disconnect Between Mind and Body: Trauma often creates a disconnect between what we know intellectually and what we feel physically. You might understand why you react a certain way, but still feel powerless to change it.
Difficulty Accessing Emotions: Trauma can cause emotional numbness or avoidance. Talking about an experience might not access the deeper layers of pain, fear, or grief stored in the body.
Over-Reliance on Cognitive Processing: Trauma responses often bypass the rational brain entirely, instead activating the fight, flight, freeze, or fawn responses. Trying to talk your way through these deeply ingrained patterns can feel frustrating or ineffective.
How Somatic Therapy is Different
Somatic therapy takes a body-based approach, recognizing that trauma lives in the nervous system as much as in the mind. Instead of focusing solely on thoughts and feelings, somatic therapy helps you tune into physical sensations, body awareness, and movement to release stored trauma and create a sense of safety and regulation.
Here’s how somatic therapy differs from talk therapy:
Focus on the Body: Somatic therapy emphasizes the body’s role in healing. Sessions might include mindfulness, breathwork, or gentle movement to help clients reconnect with their physical sensations and release stored tension or trauma.
Working with the Nervous System: Somatic therapy is rooted in understanding how the nervous system responds to stress and trauma. By addressing patterns of activation or shutdown, clients can learn to regulate their responses and feel more grounded.
A Non-Verbal Path to Healing: While words are often part of somatic therapy, they’re not the sole focus. The therapist may guide you to notice where you feel tension, warmth, or constriction in your body and use this awareness to facilitate healing.
Integration of Mind and Body: Rather than separating thoughts from sensations, somatic therapy helps bridge the gap, creating a holistic approach to healing that honors the body’s wisdom.
What Does Somatic Therapy Look Like?
In my practice, somatic therapy is a collaborative and deeply respectful process. Here are some examples of what a somatic session might include:
Grounding Exercises: We might start with a grounding exercise, such as noticing the feeling of your feet on the floor or your breath moving in and out, to help you feel present and safe.
Body Awareness: I may ask questions like, “Feel the pull to please me right now” or “How does the feeling of pride feel in your body right now?” This helps bring attention to the physical experience of emotions.
Titration and Pendulation: These techniques involve gently moving between a state of activation (where the trauma resides) and a state of regualtion, allowing the nervous system to process and release stored energy without becoming overwhelmed.
Movement or Breathwork: Depending on what feels right for you, we might incorporate gentle movements or specific breathing techniques to release tension and support regulation.
Empowering Choice: Somatic therapy emphasizes client agency. You’re always in control of the process, and sessions are guided by your comfort level and readiness.
Benefits of Somatic Therapy
Somatic therapy offers a range of benefits, particularly for those healing from trauma:
Addresses the Root Causes: By working directly with the nervous system, somatic therapy helps resolve the physiological imprints of trauma, leading to deeper and more lasting healing.
Improves Emotional Regulation: Clients often find they’re better able to handle stress, set boundaries, and respond to triggers without becoming overwhelmed.
Reconnects You with Your Body: Trauma often leads to disconnection from the body. Somatic therapy helps rebuild this connection, fostering a sense of safety and wholeness.
Reduces Physical Symptoms: Many clients experience relief from chronic pain, tension, or other physical symptoms linked to trauma.
Promotes Empowerment and Agency: By tuning into your body’s signals and learning to respond with care, somatic therapy helps you feel more in control of your healing journey.
Is Somatic Therapy Right for You?
If you’ve tried talk therapy and feel stuck, somatic therapy might be worth exploring. It’s especially effective for:
Complex Trauma: Addressing deeply rooted patterns that stem from childhood or prolonged trauma.
Chronic Pain: Uncovering and releasing the emotional or stress-related components of physical symptoms.
Anxiety and PTSD: Calming an overactive nervous system and finding new ways to respond to triggers.
Eating Disorders: Rebuilding trust and connection with your body.
Burnout and Stress: Restoring balance and resilience in the face of overwhelming demands.
How I Use Somatic Therapy in My Practice
As a somatic trauma therapist, I specialize in helping clients heal from trauma, chronic pain, and eating disorders by working with the nervous system. In our sessions, we’ll use gentle, non-invasive techniques to explore what’s happening in your body and create a sense of safety and relief. Whether it’s through grounding exercises, breathwork, or mindful movement, I’ll guide you in reconnecting with your body’s wisdom and finding the healing you deserve.
If you’re ready to explore a new path to healing, somatic therapy can provide the tools and support you need to move forward with confidence and self-compassion.
About the Author
Martha Carter is a licensed therapist providing virtual services in Colorado. She is trauma-informed and trained in somatic, neurobiology-based modalities to help people with all types of trauma, chronic pain, and eating disorders heal from the inside out.
(Colorado residents only)
