How Can Somatic Therapy Help with Anxiety?

calming therapy space for somatic work with anxiety, supporting nervous system regulation and body-based healing in Surrey, BC

When Talking Doesn’t Touch the Anxiety

If you’ve ever tried to talk yourself out of anxiety and failed, you’re not alone. For many people, anxiety isn’t rooted in thoughts that can be reframed. It’s rooted in physiology.

Your heart races, breath shortens, shoulders tighten, or your whole body goes numb. You might feel frozen, panicked, or like you’re constantly bracing for something, without knowing why.

These aren’t just “symptoms.” They’re your nervous system doing its best to protect you. But when that protection becomes constant, it turns into chronic anxiety and no amount of positive thinking can calm a system that doesn’t feel safe.

What Is Somatic Therapy?

Somatic therapy is a body-based approach to healing that focuses on what your body feels, senses, and remembers, not just what your mind thinks. It integrates body awareness into psychotherapy by tracking sensations, movement, posture, breath, and emotional expression.

Instead of analyzing thoughts, somatic work helps you notice how anxiety lives in your body. It gently supports your nervous system to shift out of chronic defense and into states of connection, groundedness, and inner security.

This approach is rooted in the understanding that trauma, stress, and anxiety shape how we move, breathe, and respond often below conscious awareness. When your body has been in survival mode, healing requires more than insight. It requires regulation.

Why Anxiety Isn’t Just “In Your Head”

Chronic anxiety is often misunderstood as irrational fear or exaggerated worry. But for many people, it’s a nervous system response, the result of past overwhelm, unresolved trauma, or prolonged stress.

Your body may be:

  • In a hypervigilant state from past danger (sympathetic activation)

  • Stuck in shutdown or collapse (dorsal vagal state)

  • Caught in the loop of fight, flight, freeze, or fawn

  • Bracing against sensory, emotional, or relational overwhelm

These aren’t just habits. They are survival adaptations. Even if your mind knows you’re safe, your body may still feel otherwise.

Somatic therapy helps reconnect your body and brain, not through force, but through presence. It teaches your system how to come out of protection and into regulation, one small moment at a time.

How Somatic Therapy Works for Anxiety

Somatic therapy sessions focus on creating micro-moments of safety that your nervous system can recognize and trust. This isn't about exposure or pushing through distress, it's about developing internal cues of steadiness and resource.

At Tidal Trauma Centre, your therapist may help you:

  • Track physical sensations without judgment

  • Notice patterns of bracing, collapse, or tension

  • Explore gentle impulses like stretching, grounding, or deepening breath

  • Use orientation practices to reconnect to the present moment

  • Learn how your body signals yes, no, and not yet

  • Move between activation and calm in a controlled, supported way

Over time, these moments build into something more lasting: a system that doesn’t have to live in chronic alert.

What Somatic Research Tells Us About Anxiety Relief

Somatic therapy isn’t just intuitive, it’s evidence-based. Clinical research shows that body-based modalities help reduce the physiological symptoms of anxiety by improving vagal tone, enhancing body awareness, and calming the stress response system.

Some of the most effective models include:

  • Somatic Experiencing (SE) – supports trauma resolution through body-based awareness

  • Sensorimotor Psychotherapy – integrates physical sensation with emotional processing

  • Polyvagal-informed therapy – works with the vagus nerve to shift out of survival states

These approaches are often combined with EMDR, Internal Family Systems (IFS), and DBT to support deeper emotional integration and nervous system healing.

What a Somatic Therapy Session Might Look Like

Somatic therapy is less about performance and more about permission. Each session is co-created based on your body’s pace, cues, and preferences. You’re not expected to “get somewhere.” You’re invited to notice what’s here.

A session might include:

  • Sitting with an emotion without needing to solve it

  • Tracking your breath, heartbeat, or muscle tension

  • Exploring how your body responds to stress or safety cues

  • Naming sensations like tingling, tightness, spaciousness, or numbness

  • Using movement, props, or positioning (with consent) to restore containment

  • Pausing frequently to ensure your body remains in its window of tolerance

You are always in control. You set the pace. The goal isn’t to dive into pain, it’s to develop capacity and connection, gently and gradually.

When Somatic Therapy Is Most Helpful

Somatic therapy can be especially effective for:

  • Clients with anxiety but no clear “why”

  • People stuck in loops of worry, tension, and exhaustion

  • Those who’ve outgrown traditional talk therapy

  • Clients with trauma-related anxiety or complex trauma

  • Individuals who feel numb, disconnected, or dissociated

  • Anyone whose body feels like it’s in survival, even when life is “fine”

If you’ve tried mindset work, affirmations, or traditional CBT and still feel hijacked by anxiety, your body may be telling a different story. Somatic therapy offers a way to listen.

Your Body Was Never the Enemy

Anxiety doesn’t mean your body is broken. It means your body has been protecting you, perhaps for longer than it needed to.

Somatic therapy offers a way to stop fighting your body and start listening to it. A way to reconnect with the wisdom underneath the tension, the stillness beneath the fear, the capacity hidden behind the collapse.

You don’t need to “figure it all out” before you begin. You just need to begin gently, with someone who knows how to walk slowly alongside you.

Contact us or fill out a New Client Form to be matched with one or more of our therapists. If you’re ready, book a free consult or appointment.

  • Talk therapy focuses on thoughts. Somatic therapy includes your body helping you identify and shift patterns stored in your nervous system, even when there are no words.

  • Not when it’s done properly. A skilled therapist will titrate the work, meaning they go slowly, in manageable steps, so your system stays within its capacity. Most clients find it gentler than pushing through fear with logic alone.

  • Yes. Modalities like Somatic Experiencing, Sensorimotor Psychotherapy, and polyvagal-informed approaches are supported by growing bodies of research in trauma and anxiety treatment.

  • No. Anyone with chronic stress, anxiety, or nervous system dysregulation can benefit from somatic therapy, whether or not they identify as having trauma.

  • Yes. Somatic therapy is available both in person at our Surrey office and online across British Columbia. Breathwork, grounding, and body awareness exercises can be easily adapted for virtual sessions.

Disclaimer: The content on this website is for informational purposes only and does not constitute medical, psychological, or mental health advice. It is not a substitute for professional care. Always consult a qualified healthcare provider for diagnosis and treatment.
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EMDR vs Somatic Therapy: Which One Is Right for You?

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IFS and the Inner Critic: Anxiety’s Protective Edge