Somatic Therapy: Nervous System Work with Brainspotting

What Is Somatic Therapy?

Somatic therapy works from the body upward, recognizing that the nervous system holds experiences long before the thinking mind can make sense of them. When stress or trauma becomes stored physically, people often feel stuck in cycles of anxiety, shutdown, hypervigilance, or emotional fatigue — even when they intellectually understand their patterns.

Somatic therapy brings the body back into the healing process. Instead of talking about what happened, we track how your system responds in real time, allowing patterns to unwind gently and organically.

a serene photo of fingers lightly touching a pool of water.

Somatic therapy can help when you feel:

constantly “on” or unable to rest
overwhelmed despite having insight
disconnected from your body or emotions
caught in repetitive emotional loops
easily overstimulated or shut down
exhausted from masking or managing

Somatic work doesn’t force change; it creates the conditions for your system to regulate, reorganize, and reconnect to its natural pace.

Brainspotting: A Somatic, Neurobiological Therapy

Brainspotting is one of the primary somatic therapies I use in my practice. It works by locating points in your visual field that correspond to deeper neural and emotional activation.

These “brainspots” allow access to experiences held beneath verbal awareness — including trauma, overwhelm, chronic stress, and survival responses that the body has been carrying for years.

How Brainspotting Works

During a session, we follow your:

eye position
body sensations
emotional waves
internal shifts

Your nervous system leads; we attune together.

Clients often describe Brainspotting as grounding, clarifying, and unexpectedly gentle — a way for the body to process without forcing or retelling painful stories.

Brainspotting Can Support:

trauma and PTSD
chronic anxiety or shutdown
sensory overwhelm (common in ADHD/autistic clients)
grief and major life transitions
relational wounds and attachment stress
creative blocks, performance anxiety, and burnout
patterns that feel stuck despite talk therapy

This modality aligns beautifully with neurodivergent nervous systems because it bypasses overthinking and allows the body to process at its own rhythm.

What Somatic Therapy Looks Like in Session

Somatic and Brainspotting sessions are collaborative, paced, and grounded in attunement. We may:

track sensations, impulses, or breath
explore where activation shows up in the body
notice what softens or shifts
use eye position to access deeper layers of the experience
work with parts of you that feel overwhelmed, protective, or disconnected
follow the nervous system rather than override it

This is not about pushing, reliving trauma, or forcing emotional expression.
It is about supporting your system in finding safety, presence, and coherence — at a pace it can genuinely sustain.

Who Somatic Therapy Is For

Somatic therapy can be especially helpful for people who:

have experienced trauma or chronic stress
feel stuck despite knowing “why” they are struggling
think deeply but struggle to feel regulated
find traditional talk therapy helpful but incomplete
are neurodivergent (ADHD, autistic, highly sensitive, late-identified)
live with persistent tension, fatigue, or emotional overload
feel disconnected from their bodies or from themselves

Somatic work is also valuable for clients who have hit a plateau in therapy and want to move beneath familiar patterns.

The Science Behind Somatic Therapies

Somatic therapies are grounded in research across neuroscience, psychology, and trauma studies, including:

1. The Nervous System

Trauma and chronic stress disrupt the autonomic nervous system, creating patterns of fight, flight, freeze, and collapse. Somatic therapy helps restore regulation and expands your capacity to feel grounded and present.

2. The Body’s Memory

Emotional experiences imprint on the body. Somatic therapies work directly with these imprints to release tension and reorganize stored activation.

3. The Mind–Body Connection

Thoughts, emotions, and physiology are intertwined. Somatic therapies address all layers simultaneously rather than isolating the mind from the body.

4. The Role of Attunement

Safe relational attunement — the therapist’s capacity to track your system without urgency — is one of the most powerful factors in somatic healing.

Is Somatic Therapy Right for You?

Somatic work is especially supportive if you’re looking for therapy that:

moves at the pace of your body
honors your intelligence without relying on analysis
offers depth without overwhelm
helps you feel more present and less activated
integrates the nervous system, emotions, and subconscious patterns

If you’re unsure whether somatic therapy or Brainspotting is the right fit, we can explore this together in consultation.

Why Somatic Therapy Matters

Many people come to somatic work after noticing that insight alone hasn’t solved their symptoms. This is not a failure — it is the nervous system asking for a different kind of support.