When people think of therapy, they often imagine sitting on a couch, talking through problems with a compassionate listener. That’s one way — and a powerful one — to heal. But it’s not the only way.
Healing doesn’t always start in the mind. Sometimes, it begins in the body.
In this blog, we’ll explore two different approaches to therapy: talk therapy and Somatic Experiencing (SE). While they work in different ways, both are grounded in helping us feel safe, connected, and whole — and together, they can be a deeply effective path to recovery.
🧠 Talk Therapy: Making Sense of Your Story
Talk therapy — whether it’s psychodynamic, cognitive behavioral, or humanistic — helps people explore their thoughts, feelings, and behaviors through conversation. It offers insight, perspective, and language for things we may have never fully understood.
Why It Works:
Clarity: Talking things through helps us identify patterns, make sense of past events, and challenge unhelpful beliefs.
Connection: A good therapeutic relationship itself can be healing. Feeling seen, heard, and supported by another human being is powerful.
Empowerment: By understanding ourselves better, we can make more intentional choices and move forward with confidence.
Who It Helps:
Anyone experiencing anxiety, depression, grief, life transitions, relationship issues, or simply a desire to understand themselves more deeply.
🧘 Somatic Experiencing: Listening to the Wisdom of the Body
While talk therapy works with the mind, Somatic Experiencing focuses on the body — where trauma and stress often live long after the events that caused them. Developed by Dr. Peter Levine, SE is a gentle, body-based approach that helps release stored survival energy and restore balance to the nervous system.
Why It Works:
Regulation: Trauma can “trap” our nervous system in fight, flight, or freeze. SE helps us move out of those stuck states by releasing built-up tension and energy.
Safety: SE works slowly and carefully, helping you stay grounded and present instead of overwhelmed.
Nonverbal Healing: Some things are hard — or even impossible — to put into words. SE gives your body a voice, allowing healing even when you can’t (or don’t want to) explain everything.
Who It Helps:
People with trauma (including developmental or childhood trauma), chronic stress, panic, dissociation, or anyone who feels stuck despite years of talk therapy.
🌿 Why Both Can Work — And Work Even Better Together
The mind and body aren’t separate. Emotions live in both.
Talk therapy helps us understand our stories. Somatic Experiencing helps us release them. Together, they provide a more complete picture of healing.
You might use talk therapy to identify a harmful belief — like “I’m not safe in relationships” — and SE to notice how your body contracts or shuts down when someone gets close. Over time, talk therapy helps you reframe that belief, while SE helps your body feel what safety and connection are like.
In other words: talk therapy changes the narrative, and SE changes the nervous system.
🧘 In Summary
Talk Therapy Does Well | Where Somatics Steps In |
Builds self-awareness | Rebuilds nervous system regulation |
Helps tell your story | Helps release your story |
Unpacks meaning & beliefs | Processes sensations & survival energy |
Creates insight | Creates embodied change |
Works with thoughts | Works with instincts |
🛤️ Final Thoughts: There’s No One Right Way
Healing is not one-size-fits-all. Some people thrive with talk therapy alone. Others find Somatic Experiencing to be the key that unlocks long-held tension or trauma. Many benefit from a combination of both.
The most important thing is finding an approach — and a therapist — that feels safe, supportive, and attuned to your needs.
If you’ve ever felt like your mind “gets it,” but your body still reacts with anxiety, fear, or shutdown — it might be time to explore the body’s role in healing. And if you’ve been working through deep sensations or trauma somatically, talk therapy can help you connect the dots and integrate what you’re learning.
Both are tools. Both are valid. And both can help you come home to yourself.
