SERVICES - SOMATIC THERAPY
Somatic Therapy in New York City
Your body holds onto things your mind has already tried to move past. Somatic therapy works with what is still stuck, at the nervous system level, not just the cognitive one.
ABOUT SOMATIC THERAPY
For when talk therapy alone isn't reaching it.
In-person in Manhattan or virtually across NY, NJ & TX.
The tension in your chest before a hard conversation. The way your shoulders pull in when you feel unsafe. The numbness that settles in after loss. These are not just sensations. They are your nervous system doing exactly what it was built to do.
Somatic therapy works with the physical experience of emotion rather than just the cognitive one. It is especially effective when talk therapy has helped but something still feels stuck, or when trauma symptoms feel more physical than cognitive.
Our therapists draw from Somatic Experiencing (SE) developed by Dr. Peter Levine, and can weave somatic work into EMDR, psychodynamic therapy, and DBT so your treatment addresses both mind and body.
WHAT WE WORK WITH
When the body needs to be part of the healing.
Somatic therapy is particularly effective for experiences that live in the body as much as the mind. If you do not see your concern listed, reach out.
Trauma and PTSD, including complex and developmental trauma
Chronic stress and burnout
Anxiety, especially physical symptoms like chest tightness or racing heart
Depression and emotional numbness
Grief that feels physically heavy or stuck
Sexual trauma and body shame
Dissociation and disconnection from your body
Chronic tension with an emotional component
WHAT TO EXPECT
What a somatic therapy session actually looks like.
People often wonder what somatic therapy involves in practice. It is still talk therapy, but your therapist will also invite you to pay attention to what is happening in your body as you speak.
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As you speak, your therapist may ask things like "Where do you feel that in your body?" or "What happens when we stay with that sensation?" You are never pushed.
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Breath, posture, tension, and sensation become information. Your therapist helps you track and work with what your body is doing in real time, gently and without pressure
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Over time, stuck responses begin to shift. The charge that has been held in your body starts to release. Most people describe it as a gradual but unmistakable feeling of settling.
How we work.
Working with your nervous system, not around it.
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Somatic Experiencing (SE)
Developed by Dr. Peter Levine, SE is a well-established, evidence-based approach to trauma and nervous system regulation. It helps release trauma responses that have gotten stuck in the body, without requiring you to narrate the event in detail.
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Somatic Work Woven into EMDR and DBT
Somatic awareness integrated into EMDR, psychodynamic therapy, and DBT, so your treatment addresses both mind and body at the same time. Not separate modalities, but one cohesive approach.
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Sensorimotor Psychotherapy
A body-centered approach that uses physical posture, gesture, and movement as gateways into processing trauma and emotional experience held in the body.
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Trauma-Informed Mindfulness
Cultivating present-moment awareness of bodily experience, used to build the capacity to stay with difficult sensations without becoming overwhelmed by them.
For when thinking your way through it is not enough.
Somatic therapy tends to be a good fit if any of these feel true:
IS SOMATIC THERAPY RIGHT FOR YOU?
✓ Talk therapy has helped but something still feels stuck
✓ Anxiety or trauma symptoms feel more physical than cognitive
✓ You disconnect from your body under stress or in hard conversations
✓ You want to process trauma without having to narrate every detail
✓ Chronic tension or physical symptoms seem connected to emotional experience
✓ You understand something intellectually but still feel it in your body
✓ You are curious about working with your body alongside your mind