Healing the Body, Healing the Collective: How Somatics Goes Beyond Talk Therapy
Traditional talk therapy often begins with words—analyzing, dissecting, and trying to make sense of the stories inside the mind. This approach is valuable; it provides language for the unspeakable and helps us find clarity in the chaos of our thoughts. But words, as essential as they are, can only take us so far. The body speaks a different language, one that talk therapy alone cannot translate.
Somatic therapy provides clients with the language to understand the story inside their body. The body doesn’t merely carry the mind’s experiences—it holds its truths. Every clench of a jaw, every drop of a shoulder, every flutter of a chest tells a story of survival, pain, or longing. The body is not just where the mind resides; it is where the mind’s stories are lived, shaped, and remembered.
Unlike traditional therapy, which centers the mind, somatic therapy views the body as an equal partner in healing. It honors the principle of mind-body holism rather than the dualism inherited from Descartes, who famously declared, “I think, therefore I am.” This separation of mind from body has shaped centuries of Western thought, reducing the body to a mere vessel for the brain’s activities. Somatics rejects this fragmentation. Instead, it recognizes that the mind and body are inseparable, constantly informing and shaping one another.
Somatic therapy understands that trauma, pain, heartbreak, and joy do not just live in our memories; they lodge themselves in the body—in the tension of a clenched jaw, the collapse of a chest, the grip of a stomach that cannot fully relax. It draws on frameworks like interpersonal neurobiology and polyvagal theory, which reveal that our nervous systems are not isolated systems but deeply relational ones. Our bodies are shaped not just by what we’ve endured but by the relationships we’ve had, the safety we’ve felt, and the systems we’ve lived within.
Because of this, healing must address more than the individual. If we honor that our bodies are shaped by the societies around us, then we must also acknowledge that somatic therapy is deeply political. Regulating the nervous system or learning tools to “calm down” can only go so far when the larger systems creating stress and disconnection—patriarchy, capitalism, racism—remain untouched. Somatics doesn’t stop at personal healing; it invites us to see how our pain is shaped by systemic forces and how collective healing is inseparable from individual work.
Your body is your first home. The earth is the home of your body. And the earth is home to all of us. This is what somatics teaches us: the body and the collective are inseparably connected. Healing the relationship you have with your body—seeing it as a source of wisdom, connection, and belonging—not only transforms your own life but also ripples outward to those around you. When you heal your body, you create space for deeper, more authentic connections. Healing the relationship with your body is healing the collective.