Discover simple, evidence-informed somatic therapy exercises clinicians can use in session to help clients regulate their nervous systems, release trauma, and reconnect with the body.
Introduction
Trauma often lingers not only in the mind but in the body and nervous system. Even when clients understand their trauma cognitively, unresolved physiological responses may persist—showing up as anxiety, hypervigilance, chronic tension, or emotional dysregulation.
Somatic therapy exercises offer clinicians accessible tools to help clients reconnect with bodily awareness, discharge survival energy, and restore regulation. These practices can be integrated into sessions alongside talk therapy, cognitive-behavioral strategies, or trauma-focused modalities.
1. Grounding Through Orientation
Purpose: Reduce hyperarousal and bring the client into present-moment safety.
How to Practice:
Ask the client to slowly look around the room, naming five objects they see.
Invite them to notice colors, textures, and shapes.
Encourage them to orient toward cues of safety (e.g., a calming object or supportive presence).
Clinical Use: This exercise helps shift attention from intrusive thoughts to the external environment, anchoring the nervous system.
2. Body Scanning with Interoceptive Awareness
Purpose: Increase awareness of somatic sensations and identify areas of tension or numbness.
How to Practice:
Guide the client to scan their body from head to toe.
Pause at each area, noticing sensations (tightness, warmth, tingling, heaviness).
Encourage curiosity without judgment, simply labeling sensations as they arise.
Clinical Use: Enhances mind-body connection and gives language to somatic experience, valuable for trauma processing.
3. Pendulation
Purpose: Build resilience by moving between distress and safety.
How to Practice:
Invite the client to bring mild attention to a distressing sensation.
After a few moments, guide them to shift focus to a neutral or pleasant sensation (e.g., feet on the floor, warmth in the hands).
Alternate gently between the two states.
Clinical Use: Supports nervous system regulation by practicing controlled activation and deactivation.
4. Grounding with Movement
Purpose: Release stored survival energy and reduce somatic tension.
How to Practice:
Ask clients to push their feet gently into the ground, noticing the strength in their legs.
Encourage stretching, shaking arms, or rolling shoulders.
For some clients, standing and gently stomping can help discharge energy.
Clinical Use: Movement-based grounding is particularly helpful for clients who feel “stuck” or immobilized.
5. Breathwork for Regulation
Purpose: Shift the autonomic nervous system and reduce anxiety.
How to Practice:
Introduce paced breathing (inhale for 4, exhale for 6).
Experiment with diaphragmatic breathing, guiding the client to place a hand on their belly to feel expansion.
Emphasize longer exhalations to activate the parasympathetic system.
Clinical Use: Breathwork can quickly reduce arousal and is highly portable for clients to practice outside of sessions.
6. Containment and Boundary Visualization
Purpose: Re-establish a sense of safety and agency.
How to Practice:
Invite clients to imagine a protective boundary around their body (a bubble, shield, or safe container).
Encourage them to notice how their body feels when they visualize this separation.
Pair with grounding touch, such as placing hands over the heart or stomach.
Clinical Use: Especially effective for clients with relational trauma who struggle with blurred boundaries.
7. Self-Soothing Through Touch
Purpose: Regulate emotions using safe, self-directed contact.
How to Practice:
Encourage clients to place a hand over the heart, cradle their face, or gently hug themselves.
Ask them to notice sensations of warmth, pressure, and comfort.
Reinforce the sense of internal safety and containment.
Clinical Use: Builds interoceptive safety cues and enhances self-compassion.
8. Case Studies
Case Study 1: Trauma-Related Anxiety
Client: “Maya,” a 32-year-old teacher, presents with panic attacks and hypervigilance following a car accident.
Somatic Interventions:
Began with orientation (looking around the room, naming objects) during sessions when she felt overwhelmed.
Used pendulation to gently alternate between recalling body sensations linked to the accident and focusing on safe, neutral sensations (e.g., feet pressing into the floor).
Outcome:
Over six sessions, Maya reported reduced panic symptoms and an increased ability to self-regulate when triggered by driving.
Case Study 2: Chronic Dissociation
Client: “James,” a 40-year-old veteran, struggles with emotional numbing and frequent dissociation.
Somatic Interventions:
Introduced body scanning to increase interoceptive awareness of numb areas.
Practiced self-soothing touch (hand over heart and abdomen) paired with breathwork to anchor him when dissociation began.
Added boundary visualization to help him re-establish a sense of safety and personal agency.
Outcome:
James became better able to recognize early signs of dissociation, grounding himself with self-soothing and boundary exercises before becoming completely detached.
Final Takeaway for Clinicians
Introducing somatic therapy exercises into clinical sessions allows clients to move beyond words and directly engage the body’s role in trauma and healing. Whether through grounding, pendulation, breathwork, or self-soothing, these practices help restore nervous system balance and support lasting resilience.
For best outcomes, clinicians should adapt each exercise to the client’s needs, trauma history, and readiness—integrating somatic work gradually and with sensitivity.
