When Talking Isn’t Enough: How Somatic Therapy Helps You Feel Safe in Your Body Again
You don’t just “think” anxiety. You feel it.
Tight chest. Restless legs. A pit in your stomach.
Anxiety rarely shows up as just a racing mind. It often lives in your body, vibrating under your skin, stuck in your throat, or buzzing behind your eyes. That’s why, for many people, mindset shifts alone aren’t enough to calm the overwhelm.
If you’ve ever said, “I know I’m safe, but I don’t feel safe,” you’re not alone! And Somatic Experiencing might be the missing piece in your healing process.
What Is Somatic Experiencing?
Somatic Experiencing (SE), developed by Dr. Peter Levine, is a body-based therapy designed to help people release stored survival energy—like anxiety, panic, or fear—that can get trapped in the nervous system after overwhelming or prolonged stress.
Rather than diving straight into stories or thought patterns, SE gently invites the body into the conversation. It helps you slow down, notice your physical sensations, and work with your nervous system to complete the stress cycle your body never got to finish.
Why Anxiety Lives in the Body
When something feels threatening—whether it’s a real danger or just feels like one—your body’s nervous system goes into its threat defense mode, preparing to respond. These modes are commonly known as fight, flight, or freeze, and when they show up, you’re not doing something wrong—your body is doing exactly what it’s designed to do!
But what happens when you can’t escape the stressor? When you push through the workday, silence your tears, or scroll past your anxiety?
Those sensations—tightness, racing, tingling, tension—don’t just disappear. They linger. And over time, your nervous system gets stuck in “on” mode, even when nothing’s wrong. That’s where Somatic Experiencing comes in: not to force calm, but to guide your body back to safety.
How Somatic Experiencing Helps
In a Somatic Experiencing session, the focus isn’t on pushing away anxiety, but on building your capacity to be with it in small, manageable doses. Here’s what that might look like:
1. Resourcing
While most of us want to jump straight to the difficult sensation, we actually need to start by strengthening your sense of safety. This could be orienting to the things around you in the room, feeling your feet on the ground, or even recalling a calming or pleasant memory. These “resources” give your system anchors to come back to. As you focus on a resource, you may be asked to notice sensations in your body and any shifts you experience as you take in the room, feeling of the floor, or memory.
2. Tracking Sensations
From there, we start tuning into your body with curiosity. You might be guided to share about a more difficult, or unpleasant, sensation in the body or to share about a difficult situation you’re dealing with. Then we notice, “Where do I feel this anxiety?” Maybe it's a fluttering in your belly or pressure in your chest.
From there, we gently follow what changes—sensations often shift, release, or move when given attention.
3. Pendulation
This is the art of moving between a challenging sensation and a supportive one. We don't stay stuck in discomfort—we go back and forth, helping your nervous system learn that it's safe to move out of anxiety. This is a slow and intentional process, and if we’re thinking of the rings of a tree, where the most intense sensation is at the center, you might even only move between the two furthest out rings to start. This helps our nervous systems build the adaptability they need.
4. Completion
Often, what anxiety needs isn’t to be analyzed, but to be completed. In the pendulation process, there will often be a “release” that is the body completing the stress energy. That might mean a spontaneous deep breath, a tingling sensation in your arms, or even an urge to stretch or shake. These are signs your body is letting go of something it’s held onto for too long.
What Clients Say After Somatic Work
You might be feeling nervous or even skeptically; that’s totally normal (and how I felt before doing SE myself)! However, after even just one session, clients will often share:
“I finally feel like I can breathe.”
“My thoughts haven’t changed, but they don’t feel as loud anymore.”
“It’s like my body relaxed for the first time in years.”
Somatic Experiencing isn’t about fixing you—it’s about helping you reconnect to the wisdom your body already holds.
Is Somatic Work Right for You?
Somatic Experiencing is gentle, trauma-informed, and ideal for those who:
Feel anxious “for no reason”
Struggle to relax, even when things seem calm
Have tried talk therapy but still feel dysregulated
Are curious about mind–body work or want to build emotional resilience
If that sounds like you, you're not alone—and you don't have to figure this out by yourself.
Ready to Try a New Way of Healing?
At Pace Yourself Counseling Collective, we offer therapy that honors both your mind and body. Whether you're navigating disordered eating, anxiety, or past trauma, Somatic Experiencing can help you feel more grounded, clear, and at home in yourself.
With in-person sessions available in Buckhead & Sandy Springs, GA, and virtual therapy available across Georgia, it’s easy to get started. Reach out today to schedule your free consultation call.
Want to try for yourself? Download our free 5-Minute Somatic Orienting Practice here to start exploring what safety feels like in your body.
You don’t have to think your way out of anxiety.
Sometimes, the first step is learning to feel your way through.