The Essence of Somatic Therapy: Our 3 Step Process Model
By Adam Carney, Co-Founder of the Institute For Integrative Trauma
If you’re curious about somatics, it’s important to consider: What are we really talking about? The term somatics means many things to many people, sometimes bordering on vague and undefinable.
I’d like to share with you the framework that we use at the Institute For Integrative Trauma for understanding the somatic process. It’s based on three “process steps,” which we use to help give our students some directionality in their client sessions.
To understand this work, I find it helpful to look beyond the technical aspects (what breath technique do I lead?) and instead start to examine the energetic layers of what someone experiences in a somatic therapy session. At its core, Somatics is not a technical process. However, it often clicks for students when they internalize this three-step process.
At its core, somatic practice is about creating a space for people where they feel safe, calm, and supported as they explore and release what they’ve been carrying—often for a lifetime. It’s a delicate and skillful process of unfolding, bringing forth hidden parts, and finding freedom from stored pain or inner conflicts.
The Art of Holding Space: Going Beyond Traditional Therapy
The first step in the somatic process is always to establish trust and safety. Trust and safety are not black and white: there is a huge spectrum of trust, and somatics recognizes that our ability to create safe space is directly related to our own internal process.
In conventional therapy, the role of the practitioner is to act as a neutral reflection point to allow clients an external reference point to help process their inner world. However, inevitably, the limitations—judgments, expectations, and unconscious biases of the practitioner will affect this therapeutic relationship.
Somatics is unique in its emphasis on embodiment and self-regulation. How can we expect clients to feel regulated if we, as practitioners, are not regulated? How can we expect clients to open up to us if we are harboring any level of unconscious projection or bias? Somatics recognizes that we are not just external reference points for our clients; we are actively in a process of nervous system attunement every time we sit in the chair.
We must do our own work on our inner world before we can guide others into theirs. This is more of a spiritual and self-growth process than a technical one.
The art of spaceholding is learning to strip ourselves of these judgments, expectations, and biases towards ourselves and others. When we work through our own judgments, release our expectations, and remove projections, we create a space where clients naturally feel they can open up. Only then will clients share and release deep-rooted emotions and thoughts, often for the first time.
Practitioners often make the mistake of assuming it’s a limitation of their technical therapeutic skill. We find that, more often than not, their limitations with their clients are actually a direct reflection of the depth of their inner relationship, which is reflected in their clients.
This principle may not be new—therapy has long recognized the importance of a non-judgmental, empathetic space. But there’s something else, a step beyond traditional talk therapy, that we venture into with somatics. And that is the capacity not just to hold space, but to invite a person into a process that goes deeper than expression and release.
2. The Psycho-Somatic Release
When clients finally have the opportunity to release their long-held emotional burdens, it’s as if their deep psyche is purging stored “garbage” that needs to come out. This release may manifest in various ways—through words, movement, breath, or even imagery, like a Rorschach inkblot test, where the psyche brings forward whatever needs to be seen and released.
This is indeed a form of catharsis, the body releasing stored energy that it’s been harboring for years or longer. This moment of release is often what people associate with somatics and perceive as the goal and endpoint.
However, without the third and most critical step, this catharsis can become somewhat of a cycle in itself, an endless searching and purging in the body without true reintegration and healing.
3. The Reawakening of Intuition: The Heart of Somatic Work
Once someone has cleared these inner burdens and let go of what they no longer need to carry, they arrive at a place of openness, and in that openness, something extraordinary happens. Their intuition begins to reawaken. We propose in our training that this reawakening of intuition is the very essence of somatic work.
When someone’s intuition is active, they no longer need answers handed to them, nor do they rely on external tools to find direction. Their own intuitive voice starts to guide them as only they can, moving them towards a life that feels aligned and authentic. And as practitioners, we don’t need to provide solutions because the client’s intuition has come back online. It’s the ultimate goal in somatics—the point where we, as facilitators, can step back and witness them navigate with newfound clarity and confidence.
Moving into this space of intuitive knowing brings us to the edge of what we understand. Intuition is inherently elusive, difficult to pin down with science, and resistant to categorization. But there are patterns within intuition: it brings us toward benevolence, harmony, and virtue. It seems to be a part of our human software—a guiding compass that connects us to something greater than ourselves, something we may never fully understand.
And it’s this adventure, this space between the known and the unknown, that makes somatic work so exciting. It pushes us to transcend the confines of traditional training, to move beyond simply learning techniques or protocols. Instead, we’re here to discover and to be discovered by our intuition.
This isn’t an easy process, and it requires dedication from both the practitioner and the client. It begins with our own relationship with intuition. Before we can lead others to reconnect with their own inner voice, we must go through the same journey of release, healing, and connecting with intuition within ourselves.
The Process Of Somatic Discovery
I’ve come to dislike the word “training”. When I think of training, I picture structured lessons and academic learning. It implies that we as trainers have a set of fixed knowledge that you are here to attain, and us here to certify.
I much prefer the word “Discovery” to describe the process of learnings omatics. You’re not doing training just to absorb some terms and techniques. You’re here to uncover something unique within yourself—the capacity to awaken your intuition and to understand how this intuitive process can help awaken others.
Through this process, we’re not just teaching somatics. We’re cultivating a community of practitioners who understand that the true journey of healing involves guiding others to reconnect with their own inner wisdom. It’s a tall order, yes. It’s not something that can be mastered quickly. But it is the most meaningful work on earth to help another human reconnect to their intuition.
We recognize the importance of fostering true resilience and adaptive skills rather than over-pathologizing the natural spectrum of human experiences. Therapy, at its best, should empower individuals to navigate life’s challenges from a place of strength and self-understanding.
Our goal in our trainings is to bring you through that journey. To help you clear your own stored burdens, to unlock your intuition, and to empower you to master that process so you can hold the same space for others.