“Nothing I accept about myself can be used against me to diminish me.” – Audre Lorde

The Heart of the Work

I want to dive deeper into what makes somatic therapy different from traditional talk therapy. Many of my clients—especially those with a history of trauma—come to somatic work because they have tried things like Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) and they want to go deeper. For some, it can feel minimizing to try to “rethink” their thoughts while working through painful experiences. These therapies absolutely have value, and will refer people to them when needed. However, somatic therapy really focuses on how the nervous system is functioning. Many traumatized people have their default state in a fight, flight, freeze, fawn state. This is because it protected you at some point. People turn to therapy often because they are ready for support to move out of a survival response and into a more restful state. To get here, we have to learn together what your system needs to move from survival to rest. Peter Levine calls this pendulation. It is the art of moving from sensations that are pleasant to ones that are uncomfortable. He found that in moving in between, the nervous system will spontaneously show a sensation, thought, emotion, impulse, or memory, and this is where we begin to presence healing.

The other way I love to work is relationally. Everything we do is in relationship. To our boss, partner, friend, receptionist, God, the land etc. How we show up in the world, and what we need but have learned never to ask for. How we relate to ourselves, how it feels inside to be you. When you come to therapy, I listen for how you are doing relationship with me and what that teaches me about how to support you.

Sometimes it sounds 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 looks 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.

Human connection comes first. From there, I bring years of study and training. I earned my Master’s in Somatic Psychology at the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS).

In Nova Scotia, many people first encounter somatic therapy through Peter Levine’s Somatic Experiencing (SE), as local training programs often focus on this approach. But SE is just one of many somatic modalities. Others include Hakomi , Sensorimotor Psychotherapy, Relational Somatic Healing (one of my favorite teachers), Body-Mind Centering (another favourite), Authentic Movement, Somatica, and focusing-oriented or polyvagal-informed approaches. Each offers a slightly different way to work with the body, release tension, and reconnect with your own wisdom.

What I find fascinating—and a little ironic—is that 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.

What can Somatic therapy do for me?

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.

Here’s what somatic therapy can do for you:

• Release stuck energy that your body has been holding onto.
• Regulate your nervous system and create a sense of calm. We want your default mode to be rest not survival. Think of when your computer is over heating and the fan comes on to cool it down, it works harder to cool it down. Then it can rest. When stuck in survival mode your fan is always on. We want your system to work when its needed but all the time.
• Reconnect with parts of yourself that may feel inaccessible.
• *Accept dysregulation* and build alignment with your nervous system. This is not common practice among somatic therapists, but it is central to my work.

* 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 fascinated by what happens when I ask clients 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 safety so the body can express what’s been held, whether it’s tightness in the chest or a knot in the stomach. These places hold memory and wisdom, trying to express exactly what is needed to move through it.

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