How somatic trauma therapy frees what your mind cannot forget

When your body speaks the truth you have been trying to ignore

Somatic Trauma Therapy often becomes relevant long before you consciously search for it. You wake up already tired, and your chest feels heavy before the day even begins. This is often the moment when Somatic Trauma Therapy shifts from a general idea into something your body quietly longs for.

You tell yourself to keep going. You remind yourself that you are capable, strong, and resilient. Yet your body keeps telling the truth your mind has tried to move past. Your shoulders tense. Your breath shortens. Your throat tightens when you want to speak.

In case you are new here, I am Chelsey Reese, and I support women of color who have spent years carrying the emotional weight of everyone around them while slowly disconnecting from their own needs. My work centers on your body, your truth, and your lived experience. If you want to understand who we are and what guides this work, you can explore my approach as a relational & somatic therapist. If this topic speaks to something inside you, you can also explore more profound body-based healing through somatic trauma therapy.

Your body holds the memories your mind tries to move past

What does somatic mean, and why does your body remember

To understand Somatic Trauma Therapy, it helps first to understand what "somatic" means. Somatic refers to the body and lived experience as felt, not just remembered. Your body reacts before your thoughts can catch up.

Somatic work for trauma recognizes that your nervous system stores experiences as sensation. Even when your mind knows the danger has passed, your body may still respond as if it has not. 

Research on body-oriented approaches continues to grow. A review of somatic therapies looked at dozens of studies and found consistent early evidence that working with the body can reduce trauma-related symptoms and support overall well-being. This helps explain why healing often happens when the body is included, not just the mind.

• Sensation as a form of memory
• Survival states such as fight, flight, freeze, or collapse
• Body signals that communicate safety or threat
• Patterns shaped by lived experience rather than logic
  

The quiet physical signs of trauma you have learned to dismiss

How somatic release therapy reveals what you normalized

Somatic release therapy often begins with noticing what you have learned to ignore. Many people learned early that slowing down or feeling deeply was not safe, so the body adapted by holding tension quietly.

Common somatic indicators include:

• Tightness in the throat or jaw
• Knots or discomfort in the stomach
• Chronic hypervigilance
• Emotional numbness or shutdown
• Persistent exhaustion

The churning in your stomach is your body protecting you in the only way it knows how.

Why your nervous system cannot be reasoned out of its pain

What is somatic therapy, and why is insight alone not enough

Somatic Trauma Therapy recognizes that cognitive insight and physiological safety are not the same. You can understand your story and still feel your body reacting as if danger is present.

Your nervous system learned these responses through experience, not logic. This is why talking about trauma does not always release it from the body.

How unresolved emotions become physical patterns

Somatic work for trauma and stored survival responses

Somatic work for trauma shows how emotional suppression becomes a physical habit. Each time you silenced yourself to keep the peace, your body learned to brace.

These patterns often show up as:

• Shallow or restricted breathing
• Collapsed posture
• Chronic alertness even during rest
• Your body remembers every moment you had to be strong when you needed care.
  

Healing begins when your body is invited into the conversation

Why somatic trauma therapy creates absolute safety

Somatic Trauma Therapy invites your body into healing instead of asking it to be overridden. When sensation is met with curiosity rather than judgment, your nervous system begins to soften.

Healing begins when you stop overriding your body and start listening to its signals.

Somatic therapy techniques that help your body release what it has held

Somatic release therapy in practice

Somatic therapy techniques support the body in completing responses it never had space to finish. These practices restore regulation rather than forcing catharsis.

• Breathwork that supports nervous system regulation
• Grounding practices that anchor you in the present
• Gentle movement to release stored tension
• Body scans that build awareness
• Co-regulation that allows safety to be felt in connection

You can explore this work more deeply through somatic trauma therapy.

Learning to hear your body without judging yourself

What does somatic mean when applied to compassion

Your body is not dramatic. It is honest. Somatic work for trauma helps you meet sensation with compassion rather than criticism.

As judgment softens, your body no longer needs to shout to be heard.

Releasing patterns of overgiving and finally choosing yourself

How somatic trauma therapy supports people pleasers

Somatic Trauma Therapy often reveals how people pleasing lives in the body as a survival response.

• Common patterns include
• Saying yes when your body says no
• Carrying responsibility that was never yours
• Staying hyper alert to others’ needs
• Ignoring exhaustion until burnout
• As safety returns, these patterns begin to loosen.

If your body is asking for relief, it is time to listen

Begin your healing through somatic trauma therapy in Los Angeles, where your body finally feels safe to rest somatic trauma therapy.