Healing isn’t just something we think about or talk through—it’s something we feel, sense, and slowly embody. While traditional psychotherapy has long focused on thoughts, patterns, and behaviors, somatic work gently brings the body into the room, recognizing it as a vital part of how we carry, respond to, and recover from pain.
When woven together, psychotherapy and somatic practices can offer a compassionate, integrative path toward healing—one that honors your story, your sensations, and your pace.
Many of us enter therapy hoping to “figure things out.” We’re seeking clarity, insight, or ways to manage the overwhelm. Cognitive approaches can be incredibly supportive—they help us name patterns, understand beliefs, and make sense of our histories.
Though sometimes, even with deep insight, we still feel stuck. That’s often because not all wounds live in the mind.
Our bodies carry what our minds may not fully remember. Anxiety can show up as tightness in the chest. Fear may linger as jaw tension or hypervigilance. Unprocessed grief might settle in the shoulders. When we invite the body into the therapeutic space, healing doesn’t just stay conceptual—it becomes something we can feel and move through, at a pace that feels safe.
Relational Somatic Therapy (from the Greek word soma, meaning body) centers the body as a wise, living part of our healing process. It doesn’t see symptoms as flaws to fix—but as signals that are asking to be listened to with care.
In a relational somatic session, you may be gently invited to notice sensations, track your breath, or follow impulses to shift, rest, or move. There’s no right way to respond—only the invitation to begin noticing what’s alive in your body, without judgment.
Where talk therapy can support us in understanding what happened, relational somatic therapy helps us feel how it lives in our system. It allows space for stuck survival energy to gently release, supports nervous system regulation, and creates new pathways for connection and choice—especially for those shaped by chronic stress or trauma.
At Sol Therapy, we recognize that cognitive and somatic therapies don’t have to be either/or. When gently woven together, they can support healing that feels deeper, more integrated, and more sustainable.
A session might begin with sharing a recent experience—perhaps a conflict or emotional trigger. As you speak, you might notice a tightness in your stomach or your hands clenching. Your therapist may pause and gently ask, “Would it feel okay to check in with that part of your body?”—offering space to sense into what’s happening inside.
This kind of moment bridges insight with presence. Over time, it becomes easier to notice when your body is trying to communicate something important—sometimes even before your thoughts can name it.
More Regulation
Somatic practices support nervous system balance, which may help ease anxiety, overwhelm, or shutdown.
Deeper Insight
Body cues often lead us toward emotional truths that words alone might miss.
A Sense of Empowerment
Learning to listen to your body can restore trust in your inner signals and support agency.
Whole-Person Healing
The goal isn’t to become someone else—it’s to feel more connected to who you already are.
Healing doesn’t live in just one part of us. It exists in the space where thoughts, emotions, and bodily sensations meet and begin to find relationship with one another. When therapy honors all three, it creates space not just for insight, but for meaningful transformation.
At Sol Therapy, we offer integrative, whole-person therapy that attends to both cognitive and somatic aspects of healing. Whether you’re making sense of past experiences or building nervous system safety—inviting in softness where there was tension, and slowly making space for more presence, joy, and rest—we’re here to support you—on your terms, and in your time.
If and when you’re ready, support is here. You’re not alone in this.
Author: Estee Ling
Co-author: Kathy Hughes
Image: Wirestock