“Nothing I accept about myself can be used against me to diminish me.” – Audre Lorde
Many people come to somatic therapy after trying talk therapy or other approaches that helped them understand their experiences but didn’t fully change how those experiences felt in their bodies. Somatic therapy explores the connection between body sensations, emotions, relationships, and the nervous system.
Somatic therapy is a body-based approach that focuses on how trauma lives in your body—not just in your thoughts or emotions. Unlike traditional talk therapy, it helps you notice sensations, tensions, and patterns in your body that carry your story. I work virtually as a somatic therapist in Nova Scotia and across Canada.
Somatic therapy is a body-based, nervous-system–focused approach to healing that includes several modalities, such as Somatic Experiencing , Hakomi , Sensorimotor Psychotherapy, Body-Mind Centering , Authentic Movement, Somatica, Focusing-Oriented Therapy, and polyvagal-informed approaches. These methods all pay close attention to how sensations, emotions, and nervous-system responses shape our experience.
How relational therapy can help you
Everything we do is in relationship—to our boss, partner, friend, receptionist, God, the land, and ourselves. How we show up in the world is deeply shaped by what we need, what we’ve learned not to ask for, and how it feels inside to be you. When you come to therapy, I pay attention to how you are in relationship with me and what that reveals about how to support you.
Sometimes that might sound like:
“I’m noticing I feel pressure to say the right thing with you, and I hear how hard you are on yourself, and I wonder if you are with others too. Let’s pause and notice how this shows up between us—it seems to keep closeness away, and I wonder if we can explore this.”
Other times, it might sound like:
“I know you know I’m serious when I say what happened to you is not okay. I believe you. Do you want to face the sensations of anxiety that show up around this today? We can go there together. You’re not alone—and I’ll stay with you as you notice what shows up in your body. I am not going anywhere.”
These moments look different depending on the person and the situation. I share them so you can imagine how relational therapy creates space for deeper healing within safe, caring connection.
Somatic therapy is finally gaining recognition because of evidence-based research like Polyvagal theory and trauma studies. It’s as if we needed scientific proof before people would say, “Oh, yes—listening to your body actually matters.” At its core, though, this work simply reconnects us with what’s always been natural: connection, safety, and aliveness. Indigenous cultures have held this wisdom all along, long before colonization disconnected many of us from our own bodies.
Here’s what relational somatic therapy can support you with:
- Release stuck energy your body has been holding.
- Shift from constant survival mode into more ease by helping your nervous system spend more time in rest instead of chronic overdrive—so your system can respond when it’s needed, without always running like an overheated fan.
- Reconnect with parts of yourself that may feel distant, numbed out, or hard to access.
- Accept and understand dysregulation while building alignment with your nervous system, rather than forcing yourself to appear “calm” when that doesn’t feel true.
Even somatic therapy isn’t neutral—it’s been shaped by white cultural norms, just like other approaches. For some clients, especially those affected by systemic oppression like my BIPOC clients, this can show up as pressure to “regulate” emotions that are completely valid—like anger—which can feel silencing or retraumatizing. Therapy works best when it honors what you feel, gives you agency over your body and emotions, and doesn’t ask you to conform to harmful expectations. Somatic work is about supporting authentic expression, not suppressing justified feelings or fitting anyone into a mold.
I’m always curious what opens up when I ask a simple question: “As you tell that story, can we pause and notice what’s happening inside? Any sensations, feelings, or emotions behind the words?” Often, this uncovers a deeper truth. From there, we create enough safety for your body to express what’s been held—whether it’s tightness in the chest or a knot in the stomach—so those places of memory and wisdom can finally move, soften, and be met with care.
