Why Somatic Therapy Doesn't Focus on What Happened During Your Week
- Raina LaGrand
- Jun 4
- 3 min read
Somatic therapy is an experiential method. Meaning that, during sessions, we aren't just talking about your week. We are actually working with your brain to experientially process patterns in your thoughts, emotions, and behaviors.
What does this look like in practice?
In practice, instead of me asking about your week, what happened, and how you feel about it, I invite you to track with me what's happening in your body. We'll zoom out and notice, not just what you're thinking, but also the quality of your thoughts, the speed of your thoughts, the tone of your thoughts, the emotion that might accompany those thoughts, the body sensations that tell you you're angry or sad, and more.
We open up a dialogue with these different aspects of your experience, which we call 'parts', similar to Internal Family Systems therapy (if you've heard about that).
Why do we do it this way?
Exploring these other layers of your experience - in the moment - helps us to reach the deeper, more emotional layers of your brain - not just the intellectual or analytical ones (though we won't ignore those!).
We do this because, in any given moment, there are two parallel realities. One is what literally happened when your boss assigned you ANOTHER task even though your to-do list is already beyond your capacity; the other is everything that experience reminds you of and means to you - and these are parts that might be beyond your consciousness, intellect, or verbal awareness.
What happens when we work experientially?
When we approach your therapy goals from this perspective, this means we can move beyond what you already know or what you want on the surface level (e.g. you might intellectually know that you have nothing to be ashamed of when your partner makes a request of you OR you might wish that you could feel less angry when your child throws a temper tantrum in public) and actually work with your emotional reality.
From there, we can explore what that emotional reality is worried about, what feels unsafe, what its function is, what it's protecting or afraid of feeling, and implement resources that will actually help those emotional parts of you feel safer or less impulsive, for instance.
Some of this is like adding a new layer to a chocolate cake - we'll add new insights and skills to your toolbox.
Sometimes, this involves a process called memory reconsolidation, where we explore long-held beliefs or limiting beliefs about yourself and the world that are being projected onto your day-to-day experiences. Or we may explore sequencing somatic trauma patterns that your brain is enacting in your muscles and fascia.
Working with your brain and body this way means that we aren't just changing your emotions and patterns for the sake of living a more functional life - it means we are actually getting to the root of things and making sustainable changes based on the very real reasons you feel the way you do or repeatedly engage in the same behaviors that you wish would change.
Let's try this together
If you have been in talk therapy for years, but you still feel stuck, somatic therapy might be a great fit for you. We can start by meeting for a free 20-minute consultation. I look forward to seeing your name pop up on my calendar!
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