How Trauma Lives in the Body: Somatic Experiencing & the Nervous System
Published: March 2025 | Last reviewed: August 2025
Please note: This post discusses trauma and related emotional experiences. If reading this brings up difficult feelings, please visit our Resources page or get in touch, we're here to help.
Verinder Sharma | Somatic Experiencing Practitioner (SEP), trained in Compassionate Inquiry (Dr Gabor Maté - short course). Verinder works with individuals navigating trauma, anxiety, burnout, and nervous system dysregulation through online somatic therapy sessions in English and Spanish.
Trauma doesn't only live in the mind. It lives in the body too, in tightened shoulders, a restricted breath, a gut that won't settle. And this is exactly where somatic therapy begins: not with the story of what happened, but with what the body is still carrying, what happened inside us as a result of the event.
In this post, you'll learn how trauma is held in the nervous system, why the body responds the way it does, what Somatic Experiencing therapy is and what it helps with, and what a typical session looks like, so you know what to expect before you begin.
elixir /ɪˈlɪksɪə,ɪˈlɪksə/
|| The Soma Experience ||
noun
A magical or medicinal potion that heals or cures
What Does The Body Have to Do With Trauma?
Deep into my own healing journey, a senior member of Dr Gabor Maté's team told me that Gabor had recommended Somatic Experiencing as a modality worth learning, that given my trauma story, I would make a good therapist. So I decided to experience some sessions for myself.
When I arrived, the therapist asked me to connect to my body before choosing where to sit. I remember thinking: what for? What does the body have to do with my trauma? I assumed I was there to talk. But apparently not.
That moment changed how I understood healing entirely.
As Dr Peter Levine writes in Waking the Tiger:
“The body has been designed to renew itself through continuous self-correction. These same principles also apply to the healing of psyche, spirit, and soul.”
― Peter A. Levine, Waking the Tiger: Healing Trauma.
Trauma affects the mind, yes. But the body remembers too. That's why it tenses. Why the breath restricts. Why certain places, smells, or voices bring a wave of something you can't quite name. As Dr Bessel Van der Kolk puts it in his landmark book: The Body Keeps The Score.
The brain and body are not separate systems. They are connected through the central nervous system, and it is here, at the level of the body, that trauma is held.
Why the Nervous System Holds Trauma
The central nervous system connects the brain and the body through the brain stem, our oldest and deepest neurological structure, sometimes called the reptilian brain. This is where our most fundamental survival functions are regulated: hunger, sleep, reproduction, and the fight, flight, or freeze response.
The autonomic nervous system, a branch of the central nervous system, operates without conscious instruction. You don't tell your body to breathe, to digest, or to freeze in danger. It simply does.
And it is here, in this automatic, pre-conscious part of the nervous system, that trauma lives.
Trauma isn't the event itself. It is the incomplete fight, flight, or freeze response, the survival impulse that was activated but never fully discharged. The body got ready to act, and then couldn't. That incomplete energy doesn't simply disappear. It remains in the system, continuing to seek resolution, manifesting over time as anxiety, depression, chronic pain, digestive issues, high blood pressure, addictions, and more.
The body speaks to us through sensations, tightness, heat, trembling, numbness, constriction. These sensations are the common language between the body and the brain stem. Thought and language are processed in the outer layers of the brain — they come after the sensations, interpreting what the body is already communicating.
When we learn to pay attention to those sensations, to stay with them with curiosity rather than avoidance, we engage the trauma at the level where it is held. The central nervous system, which has been refining its capacity to self-heal for millions of years, knows what to do. It simply needs the conditions: awareness, safety, and time.
“Having sessions with Verinder was one of the best things that happened to me during the pandemic lockdown. I was able to reconnect with emotions and parts of my body that I had completely forgotten. I learned to ground myself and to pay attention to my bodily sensations without shutting down.
I developed the capacity to connect with chronic pain and difficult sensations, and to process and understand the emotions behind them. I was truly not able to do this on my own before, so I definitely feel the change in my life after our therapy sessions since it has helped me navigate my daily life in a very different way.
To my surprise he could comfortably speak Spanish, which is my first language. In overall, I felt very comfortable and well guided throughout or sessions. Thank you a lot!”
- Indrani, Client
What is Somatic Experiencing Therapy?
Somatic Experiencing (SE) is a body-based approach to trauma therapy developed by Dr Peter Levine, who spent over 50 years studying stress and trauma, including as a stress consultant for NASA.
SE works with the nervous system through awareness of bodily sensations. In a session, there is talking, but it is regularly interrupted by moments of quiet attention to what is arising in the body. Rather than retelling the full story of what happened (which can re-activate the trauma response), SE works in small increments, helping the nervous system to process and discharge what it has been holding.
This is not top-down healing through the mind. It is bottom-up healing, beginning in the body, where the trauma lives, and allowing the nervous system's own intelligence to complete what was left unfinished.
Healing happens in the present moment. The event is in the past and cannot be changed. But how the body holds and responds to that event, that can change. And as it does, perception shifts, capacity grows, and life opens up again.
For more on how this compares to other approaches, see: What's the difference between CBT and somatic therapy?
Ready to find out if Somatic Experiencing is right for you? No pressure, no commitment, just a conversation.
What does Somatic Experiencing Therapy Help With?
Because SE works with the central nervous system, which connects the brain and the entire body, it can help with a wide range of conditions rooted in stress and trauma, including:
Anxiety and chronic stress
Depression
PTSD and CPTSD
Childhood and developmental trauma
Grief and loss
Chronic pain linked to trauma
Trauma from medical procedures, accidents, or surgery
Addictions and compulsive patterns
Emotional numbness or disconnection
Burnout
Trauma is closely linked to conditions such as PTSD, anxiety, and depression. If you recognise any of the above in yourself, you are not alone, and recovery is possible. Read more about what trauma is and how it presents.
What Does a Somatic Experiencing Session Look Like?
This is one of the most common questions people ask before beginning, and one of the most important to answer clearly, because SE looks different from most therapy people have experienced before.
Every therapist holds sessions a little differently. Here is how I work:
Stage 1: The Free Consultation Call
Before any therapy begins, I offer a free consultation call. This is a chance for you to ask questions, understand how SE works, and sense whether I'm the right fit for you. We don't go deeply into your trauma story at this stage, activating the nervous system before we've established safety and trust doesn't serve you.
You take as much time as you need to decide.
Stage 2: A Typical Session
If you choose to go ahead, a typical session follows this structure:
Grounding Every session begins with a short grounding exercise, something to help you arrive in your body, mark the start of our time together, and settle any anxiety about the session itself.
Resource Inquiry We explore what already helps you feel calm and centred. These are your resources, we return to them throughout the session as anchors.
Pendulation This is the heart of the SE process. We move gently between sensations associated with the trauma and sensations associated with calm, never pushing into overwhelm, always staying within what is manageable. This gradual movement allows the nervous system to discharge trauma energy in small, safe doses.
Closing the Session We bring you back to a settled, grounded place in the body before ending, so you leave integrated, not activated.
Session Review We briefly review what came up, what we did, and why, so you leave with awareness, not just experience.
Homework Each session ends with a small, body-based practice to integrate between sessions. This is an important part of the work.
There is much more to the process than can be captured in a list, the only real way to understand it is to experience it.
How to Find a Somatic Experiencing Therapist
Finding the right support when you are already overwhelmed can feel like one challenge too many. Here are some directories to help:
SEAUK Directory — the Somatic Experiencing Association UK. My profile is listed here.
Somatic Experiencing International — Dr Peter Levine's global foundation, with practitioners listed worldwide.
BAATN — the Black, African and Asian Therapy Network, the UK's largest directory of therapists of Black, African, Asian, and Caribbean heritage.
You can book directly with me for a free consultation.
A Grounding Practice to Try Now
You don't have to wait for a session to begin connecting with your body. Try this:
If you're standing, bring your attention to the soles of your feet. Feel your weight pressing gently downward. If that's difficult to focus on, rise onto your tiptoes and then slowly lower back down.
If you're seated, press your feet firmly into the floor. Notice the sensation of contact, the pressure, the temperature, the solidity beneath you.
Stay there for a moment. Notice what happens next.
This is the beginning of somatic awareness.
Frequently Asked Questions About Somatic Therapy & the Body
Why does trauma live in the body and not just the mind? Because trauma is a physiological event, a survival response that was activated and never fully completed. The nervous system, not just the mind, holds the incomplete energy of that response. Talking alone cannot always reach it.
Can somatic therapy help if I've already tried talking therapy? Yes, many clients come to somatic therapy after finding that talking about their experiences didn't bring the relief they hoped for. SE works at a different level: the body, not the narrative.
Do I have to talk about what happened in detail? No. In SE, we deliberately avoid extended retelling of the trauma story, as this can re-activate the nervous system. We work in small moments, with your body's experience in the present as our guide.
Is online somatic therapy as effective as in-person? Yes, research and clinical experience both support the effectiveness of online somatic therapy. Many clients find that working from a familiar environment actually supports a sense of safety. Sessions with Soul Somatic Therapy take place online, with clients across the UK and internationally.
What does "pendulation" mean in Somatic Experiencing? Pendulation is the rhythmic movement between a place of activation (where trauma is felt) and a place of resource (where the body feels calm or safe). This gradual oscillation allows the nervous system to process trauma without becoming overwhelmed.
How many sessions will I need? This varies depending on your history and nervous system. Some people notice significant shifts within a few sessions; others benefit from longer-term work. We explore this together during your free consultation.
Summary
Trauma is not only a memory held in the mind, it is an incomplete survival response held in the body, in the nervous system, in the very sensations we live with every day.
Somatic Experiencing works with the body's own intelligence to complete what was left unfinished, gently, safely, and at a pace that honours your nervous system. As the body begins to settle, the mind follows. Life opens. Capacity returns.
Awareness is the elixir to transformation.
Book a free consultation to find out more about online Somatic Experiencing sessions.
Related reading:
Awareness - is the elixir to transformation.
|| The Soma Experience ||
elixir /ɪˈlɪksɪə,ɪˈlɪksə || The Soma Experience ||
“A magical or medicinal potion that heals or cures”
