What Is Somatic Work? A Beginner’s Guide to Understanding the Body-Mind Connection
I’m Fine…Or So I Thought: When Your Body is Telling Another Story
For years, it was really hard for me to know that I wasn’t doing okay until it was really, really obvious—my body was silently carrying the weight of stress and trauma long before I realized it. At the time, my closest relationship was probably with my chiropractor because, in all honesty, we saw a lot of each other. I’d hobble into her office walking like a Disney witch, and when she’d ask how I was doing I’d reply with a very casual, “Oh, I’m fine.” And really, I thought I was actually fine.
If I was pressed, I could see that from the outside it probably looked like there was a lot going on in my life. I was a single mom of a precious little boy, working full-time, and in my spare time doing side jobs to account for all the child support I wasn’t getting and all the legal fees I was racking up to keep my son safe from his biological father. But I thought I was doing pretty well because I was managing it without disproportionate moments of weeping in my car on my lunch break—and I was seeing a therapist. In my mind, I was basically crushing it. On the outside, I didn’t look like it was too much… unless you asked my chiropractor.
Stress in Disguise: How My Body Kept Telling Me the Truth
At some point, she started to be more direct in her questions:“Hey, catch me up on what’s happening in your life right now. Are you stressed? Your muscles are really angry,” she’d say as she broke a sweat trying to loosen up my trapezius muscles enough that my shoulders wouldn’t be in my ears for a few hours. I wish I could tell you that it only took a few of these conversations for me to make the connection but it actually took a much longer time than I’d like to admit.
Looking back, it is glaringly obvious that my nervous system was in survival mode. Every fiber of my being was bracing for impact—what scary thing was going to happen next? Would I have enough money for bills after I paid my lawyer? My muscles were tense, I had constant headaches and migraines so bad that sometimes I had to get injections, and a lot of other physical symptoms that I just chalked up to “weird stuff” like randomly feeling dizzy, nauseous, or casually breaking out in full-body hives.
Now I know that these were all signs that my nervous system was screaming for help, the ability to slow down, and for a break from constant stress.
Advice to My Younger Self: Listen to Your Body
My body was carrying the story of my stress and trauma long before I knew I needed to acknowledge it. Back then, I felt frustrated and weak when I couldn’t just get through a workday without any of those weird symptoms flaring up. I thought something might be seriously wrong with me because I felt exhausted all the time but couldn’t get to sleep at night when I needed to, along with a bunch of other things.
If I were sitting across from that younger version of myself today, here’s what I would tell her: Your body is not broken. It is not betraying you—it’s protecting you. All the muscle tension, the constant feeling of being on edge, and yes, even the “weird symptoms” were not weakness. They were signs that your nervous system had been working overtime to keep you safe. Somatic work and a lot of love for my nervous system would have been a game changer for me in those days.
What Somatic Work Is: Understanding the Mind-Body Connection
At this point you might be wondering what somatic work is and why it would have changed my life back then. Simply put, somatic healing is just learning to notice and care for the ways stress and trauma show up in your body. Or, as my mentor puts it: we’re inviting the nervous system to the conversation.
It’s about creating space for your nervous system to feel safe enough in the present moment so you can repair and come back to a place of balance. Back in those early days of motherhood, I thought I was doing everything I could to heal from my traumatic experiences and shield my son from any potential trauma. I went to therapy weekly and really put in the effort to make actual changes in my life.
Now I can see that talk therapy helped me in some ways, but not all. At the time, I needed a space where I could share what was happening in my world and have someone be with me in the hard places—it felt isolating to be in my 20s dealing with things that no one my age or in my life had dealt with—but what I didn’t know is that I also needed a lot of help communicating safety to my nervous system. In that season of my life, I was only dealing with the thoughts and emotions and situations I had language for. I hadn’t made the connection that those hard and scary things didn’t just happen to my brain. My body had lived through those things too.
Trauma and the Body: How Somatic Work Helps Reconnect
Trauma does a great job of disconnecting us from our bodies, and my story is no exception. Back then, I assumed that because I had an outlet to talk about what was going on and logically process everything that had happened and figure out how to deal with the aftermath, all the other “weird symptoms” must be unrelated. The truth is that every part of us—mind, body, nervous system—is connected to our story. If we really want to heal, we can’t leave the body behind. We have to work with our nervous systems to help them understand, in ways the body can actually take in, that our old stories are in the past and that we’re safe in the here and now.
That’s what somatic work offers: a way to gently reconnect with your body, so that healing isn’t just something you think about. It becomes something you actually feel and experience.
Signs Somatic Work Might Help You
So in case you’re living your own version of this story and are wondering, here are a few signs that somatic work might be helpful for you:
You feel “on edge” most of the time, even when things are calm.
Your body often feels tense, achy, or heavy without clear cause.
Sleep feels hard to come by. You’re tired and wired all at once or still tired after a full night of sleep
Stress shows up in your digestion, headaches, or other physical symptoms.
You find yourself cycling between overwhelm, shutdown, or irritability.
You’ve tried talking it through (therapy, journaling, prayer) but your body still feels like it’s carrying the weight.
If my story resonated with you or if you’re wondering what next steps to take because your nervous system needs a little care, I’d love to chat and see how I can support you. Click the button below to contact me or to schedule a free consultation call.
