Somatic Experiencing for Anxiety: Body-Based Therapy for Emotional Regulation
Anxiety doesn’t just live in the mind – it’s also held in the body. If you’ve experienced anxiety, you may know this already. A racing heart, tense muscles, and sudden nausea are some of the ways anxiety can show up.
Traditional talk therapies can help you understand the ways anxiety can affect your thoughts. Still, some might still fall short when it comes to addressing the physical sensations that keep anxiety in the body.
This is where somatic experiencing for anxiety enters the conversation. A powerful body-based therapy for anxiety, somatic experiencing helps people to reconnect with their bodily sensations, gently processing and releasing stored tension and trauma. It can support healing by bringing the nervous system back into balance, and provide anxiety relief through body therapy.
Whether you are curious about body-focused therapy or seeking new tools for trauma recovery, somatic experiencing offers a grounded way forward. A mental health professional can talk to you about whether somatic experiencing treatment for anxiety is the right fit for your needs. This article can also work as a useful guide, exploring:
- What somatic experiencing is
- How somatic experiencing helps with anxiety and trauma
- What to expect in a somatic experiencing session
- Who can benefit from SE and how
- Finding professional support
What Is Somatic Experiencing?
SE is different from traditional talk therapies. For instance, most talk therapies, such as cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), start with the mind. They encourage you to become aware of your thoughts and behaviors, to connect the dots, notice patterns, and make changes based on your understanding.
In contrast, somatic experiencing treatment for anxiety focuses on the body as the main path to healing. It is a gentle yet empowering approach to healing that encourages you to be more aware of your bodily sensations. For instance, it teaches you how to reconnect with your body, feel safe within it, and release stress and “stuck” energy.2 This is where somatic experiencing and trauma recovery go hand in hand.
Although SE is less mainstream than other therapies, such as CBT, its benefits are increasingly being researched. For instance, a variety of studies back up the finding that somatic therapy can improve symptoms of trauma and anxiety.3-6 However, it is important to take into account that, to date, these studies included a relatively small number of participants. Therefore, more research is still needed to concretely confirm somatic experiencing’s true effectiveness.
Understanding How the Body and Anxiety Are Connected
When you feel anxious, your nervous system gets triggered to potential danger. Your body prepares to either face the threat, escape from it, or freeze in place to avoid detection. The fight and flight responses are more commonly known, but the freeze element can feel like being paralyzed by fear – like a deer caught in the headlights.
Therefore, when anxiety hits, you might notice your heart racing or pounding, tenseness in muscles, tightness around your chest, shortness of breath, dizziness, nausea, and a trembling sensation.7 These are ways that anxiety shows up physically, and the ways that the body responds to danger.
However, with chronic anxiety or past trauma, the nervous system can get stuck in a high-alert state. The threat or danger feels constant, and your body continues to prepare itself to react. As a result, you may find yourself being triggered by small things or constantly feeling on edge, which becomes exhausting.
This is where body-focused anxiety therapy, like somatic experiencing, can make a difference. It works with your body’s signals to release stored stress, such as the energy from “freezing” that doesn’t get used, and gets the nervous system back on track.8 You begin to recognize how anxiety appears in your body, and can learn to respond in mindful, grounded ways.
Understanding the body-anxiety connection is key to long-term healing. With body awareness therapy for anxiety, you can learn how to regulate your emotions and anxiety from the inside out, turning anxious energy into a sense of calm.
How Somatic Experiencing Works for Trauma and Anxiety
Emotional regulation with somatic experiencing uses several techniques to allow you to access upsetting emotions safely. Some of the most commonly used include:2
Body awareness: Paying attention to areas in your body that hold tension, such as through a body scan exercise- Pendulation: Guiding you from a relaxed state to an aroused emotional state (anxiety), and then back to relaxation
- Titration: Walking you through a traumatic memory in manageable stages while paying attention to and addressing any physical sensations as you go
- Resourcing: Helping you remember your personal resources, including your inner strength, and using them to bring feelings of safety and calm
Over time, you’ll recognize how your body reacts to stress and learn ways to regulate your energy and reactions, such as through grounding exercises. Essentially, you begin to rewire your nervous system’s response to your environment, altering the threat detection settings so that it only triggers when needed.
Benefits of Somatic Experiencing for Anxiety
Benefits of somatic therapy for anxiety and emotional healing include:6,9
Relief from trauma-related, depressive, and anxiety symptoms- Higher quality of life
- Reduced discomfort (both physical and psychological)
- Lower stress levels
- Less irritability
- Better concentration
- Improved confidence
- Increased feelings of hope
- Feeling more connected to your body through awareness
What a Somatic Experiencing Session Looks Like
Using somatic experiencing to reduce anxiety is different. The emphasis will be more on your internal experience – how stress and feelings appear in your body – than on talking through trauma. Some talking is still involved in SE, as your therapist will need to have an idea of what has brought you to seek support from them. However, there’s no pressure to dive into the details of events.
In sessions, you’ll discover the importance of both the mind and the body in anxiety recovery and how the two are connected. Somatic experiencing techniques for anxiety will be introduced, such as body awareness, to help identify physical sensations you experience and understand how they connect to anxiety. You’ll also be encouraged to explore your feelings and learn ways to feel safe in your body, such as through imagery or grounding practices.10,11
Throughout therapy, your exploration will go at a pace that feels safe and comfortable for you – with guidance from your therapist. Yet, perhaps the greatest benefit of somatic therapy for anxiety is that you can expect to come away with tools you can use at home to promote continued well-being.12
Who Can Benefit From Somatic Experiencing?
Trauma- Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
- Grief or complicated grief
- Depression
- Anxiety
- Chronic stress
- Trust and intimacy issues
- Chronic pain related to emotional distress
- Self-esteem problems
Integrating Somatic Experiencing Into Your Healing
While somatic experiencing can be a useful therapy on its own, you can also use it alongside other practices to enhance the benefits. For example, combining it with mindfulness to improve your overall well-being. Additionally, if you tend to feel overwhelmed by sitting still when meditating, SE could help you to understand why that is.
Somatic experiencing can also be carried out alongside traditional talking therapy. While talking therapy will help you to understand why you feel anxious, SE can support you in feeling physically safe and letting go of anxious energy stored in your body. In other words, combining these two distinct styles of therapy can give you a well-rounded approach to healing.
It’s good to keep in mind that, just like talking therapy, somatic therapy is a process, not a quick fix. True healing takes time, and the time required varies from person to person, as no two individuals have the exact same experiences.
Seeking Anxiety Support Through Mission Connection
Living with anxiety can feel overwhelming, especially if traditional methods aren’t fully addressing the physical symptoms. Somatic experiencing brings a fresh alternative to finding relief by tuning into the body’s inner wisdom. Whether you’re navigating chronic stress, trauma, or day-to-day anxiety, somatic therapy for emotional regulation can bring a deep and lasting transformation.
At Mission Connection, we can create an individualized treatment plan to support your complete healing, including the mind, body, and soul. We understand that no two people are the same. This is why we offer a wide range of services, from assessments through to therapy, medication management, and even residential care, to support you during recovery.
We know that the cost of mental health treatment can be a worry to some people, especially if they experience anxiety. For this reason, we offer a comprehensive range of payment options, which can be found on our costs page.
Are you ready to take the next step toward anxiety recovery? Contact us today to learn more about how we can support you on your healing journey.
References
- Blanchfield, T. (2024, February 7). How does somatic experiencing therapy work? Verywell Mind. https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-somatic-experiencing-5204186
- Salamon, M. (2023, July 7). What is somatic therapy? Harvard Health. https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/what-is-somatic-therapy-202307072951
- Parker,, C. Doctor, R. M., Selvam, R. (2008). Somatic therapy treatment effects with tsunami survivors. Traumatology, 14(3), 103-109. https://doi.org/10.1177/1534765608319080
- Brom, D., Stokar, Y., Lawi, C., Nuriel‐Porat, V., Ziv, Y., Lerner, K., & Ross, G. (2017). Somatic Experiencing for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: A Randomized Controlled Outcome study. Journal of Traumatic Stress, 30(3), 304–312. https://doi.org/10.1002/jts.22189
- Winblad, N. E., Changaris, M., & Stein, P. K. (2018). Effect of Somatic Experiencing Resiliency-Based Trauma Treatment training on quality of life and psychological health as potential markers of resilience in treating professionals. Frontiers in Neuroscience, 12. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnins.2018.00070
- Kuhfuß, M., Maldei, T., Hetmanek, A., & Baumann, N. (2021). Somatic experiencing – effectiveness and key factors of a body-oriented trauma therapy: a scoping literature review. European Journal of Psychotraumatology, 12(1). https://doi.org/10.1080/20008198.2021.1929023
- Chand, S. P., & Marwaha, R. (2023, April 24). Anxiety. StatPearls – NCBI Bookshelf. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK470361/
- Raypole, C. (2020, February 28). How somatic experiencing can help you process trauma. Healthline. https://www.healthline.com/health/somatic-experiencing
- Ramirez-Duran, D. (2025, July 2). Somatic Experiencing Therapy: 10 Best Exercises & Examples. PositivePsychology.com. https://positivepsychology.com/somatic-experiencing/
- James, G. (2024, June 13). What happens in a somatic experiencing session? Counselling Directory. https://www.counselling-directory.org.uk/articles/what-happens-in-a-somatic-experiencing-session
- First Session. (2025, June 13). What Is Somatic Experiencing (SE). First Session. https://www.firstsession.com/resources/somatic-experiencing
- Levy, S. (2024, October 29). 8 key insights for your first somatic therapy session. Somatic Therapy Partners. https://somatictherapypartners.com/first-somatic-therapy-session-8-key-insights/
