Somatic Experiencing in Cincinnati

Reconnect with Your Body. Release What’s Been Held Inside.

What Is Somatic Therapy?

Somatic therapy is a holistic approach to healing that integrates body and mind to help release the physical tension left behind by trauma.The word somatic comes from the Greek word soma, meaning “living body.”

When we go through traumatic experiences, our bodies sometimes don’t have the chance to respond or complete the natural stress cycle. The survival energy that was mobilized during the event can stay trapped in our nervous system, showing up later as tension, anxiety, or chronic stress.

For example, after an unexpected car accident, your body may not have had time to brace or react. Even long after the event, your muscles may still hold tension, or you might feel on edge without knowing why. Somatic therapy helps your body finish that incomplete response, allowing it to discharge the stress that’s been locked inside.

How Our Nervous System Holds Onto Trauma

When trauma occurs, your body’s stress response — fight, flight, or freeze — activates to protect you.
If you weren’t able to fully fight or flee, that energy can remain “stuck” in your system. Over time, it may manifest as:

• Chronic muscle tension or pain

• Difficulty relaxing or sleeping

• Digestive issues or headaches

• Anxiety or panic symptoms

• Emotional numbness or irritability

Somatic Experiencing helps your nervous system discharge that stored survival energy, allowing your body to return to a natural state of calm and self-regulation.

This approach doesn’t require re-telling your trauma story — instead, it focuses on what’s happening in your body right now, helping you heal from the inside out.

How Somatic Experiencing Works

Somatic Experiencing (SE) focuses on tracking physical sensations and allowing your body to gently complete the movements or impulses that were interrupted during trauma.

In a session, you’ll be guided to notice sensations — tightness, warmth, shaking, or release — and learn how to let your body safely express them. This process helps reset your nervous system, bringing your body back into a state of balance.

Rather than reliving traumatic memories, SE allows the body to renegotiate them through awareness, movement, and grounding techniques. It’s gentle, effective, and deeply restorative.

Somatic Experiencing helps you:

• Release long-held physical tension

• Reduce anxiety and hypervigilance

• Reconnect with your body’s natural rhythms

• Build resilience and a sense of safety

• Feel calmer, more grounded, and more at ease

The Healing Process: What to Expect

In your first session, your therapist will guide you through gentle awareness exercises to help you tune into your body’s sensations. You’ll learn how to notice where you hold stress or discomfort — and how to let it shift and release at a pace that feels safe.

Each session is collaborative and goes at your speed. The focus isn’t on pushing through pain, but on supporting your body’s innate wisdom to complete what it started. Over time, many people describe feeling lighter, more centered, and more connected to themselves.

Somatic therapy can also complement other approaches, such as EMDR or Internal Family Systems (IFS), creating a comprehensive path toward healing both mind and body.

How Somatic Experiencing Helps Anxiety

Somatic therapy is not only for trauma — it’s also effective for chronic anxiety and stress. By identifying where anxiety “lives” in your body (such as tightness in your chest, a lump in your throat, or tension in your stomach), you can learn to release it physically, not just mentally.

As you reconnect with your body and calm your nervous system, you’ll begin to experience less reactivity and more peace in your day-to-day life.

Start Somatic Experiencing in Cincinnati

You don’t have to stay stuck in a cycle of tension and overwhelm. With Somatic Experiencing, you can learn to trust your body again — and give it the chance to finally complete the healing process it began long ago.

If you’d like to learn more, call, email, or fill out our contact form to schedule a consultation. We’d be honored to help you reconnect with your body and rediscover your natural calm.

Sheldon Reisman is trained in Somatic Experiencing and offers this specialized therapy for trauma, anxiety, and nervous system regulation. Kelsey Harlow is trained in and used somatic therapy in her work with clients.