Updated April 2025 – As a somatic therapist in Los Angeles, I work with clients every day who feel stuck — in talk therapy, in their trauma responses, in their bodies. Most people don’t realize that somatic therapy isn’t just movement or breathwork — it’s about rewiring your survival patterns from the bottom up. Here are 5 things I wish more people knew. In this post, you’ll discover 10 surprising facts about somatic therapy that explain how body-based techniques heal emotional wounds, calm anxiety, and support lasting transformation.
Cheryl Groskopf, LMFT, LPCC
With advanced training in somatic therapy, trauma-focused approaches, and attachment theory, She is known for helping clients who feel stuck in survival mode create lasting nervous system regulation and emotional resilience. Her work has been featured in Bustle, Verywell Mind, TIME & more.
Table of Contents
1. Somatic Therapy Heals Trauma by Rewiring Your Mind-Body Connection
Clients I work with often come in saying, ‘I’ve done all the mindset work — why am I still anxious?’ That’s because trauma isn’t just something that lives in your mind like a bad memory — it physically imprints itself into your body. When you go through something overwhelming, your system floods with survival energy (like fight, flight, freeze, or fawn) and if that energy doesn’t get released properly, it doesn’t just “go away.” It gets stuck in your muscles, your breathing patterns, your gut, and your body’s wiring.
This isn’t just a therapy theory — it’s backed by research from places like the Trauma Research Foundation and Harvard Health, which show that trauma can literally reshape how your body runs itself. Chronic tension, gut issues, autoimmune flares, emotional shutdown — that’s actually not random. That’s your body carrying old survival energy it never got a chance to finish processing.
How does somatic therapy help?
Somatic therapy helps by teaching your body that it’s safe again — not just telling it. Most traditional therapy talks at the brain. Somatic therapy talks to the body. It helps you track the physical signs of old trauma (like shallow breathing, clenched muscles, racing heart) and gently shift them. Instead of just thinking your way through healing, you feel your way through it.
Research shows that therapies combining body awareness, movement, and breathwork actually create better long-term trauma recovery outcomes than talk therapy alone. This is why somatic therapy works when “thinking positive” doesn’t: your survival system learns by experience, not by logic. And somatic work gives it new experiences of safety, connection, and regulation.
How somatic healing actually rewire the nervous system?
It rewires it through something called experience-dependent plasticity (don’t worry — I won’t nerd out too hard). Basically, your nervous system learns from repeated real-world experiences, not from thoughts alone. Every time you feel something intense (like panic or shutdown) and stay present with it without freaking out or numbing out, your system starts building a new blueprint: I can survive this. I’m safe now.
Somatic therapy creates safe, manageable experiences for your nervous system to practice regulating itself. Over time, you’re literally building new pathways for safety, calm, and connection — not survival mode. That’s real rewiring.
Looking for trauma therapy in Los Angeles?
I provide trauma-informed therapy in LA that integrates holistic mental health care to help adults heal from Complex PTSD and attachment trauma. My approach is grounded in nervous system science, real-life experience, and deep clinical expertise.
If you’re struggling with anxiety, emotional overwhelm, or the lasting effects of childhood trauma, I’m here to help.
Click here to schedule a free consultation and learn more about how therapy can support your healing.
2. Somatic Therapy Helps Reset a Dysregulated Nervous System — Without Forcing It
Nervous system dysregulation is when your body’s stress response is stuck in overdrive or shutdown — and it can’t get back to a calm baseline on its own. You’re either wired and restless, totally numb, or flipping between both. It’s not just “being stressed” — it’s when your survival wiring essentially hijacks your system, even when nothing bad is happening.
And it doesn’t always look like a panic attack. Dysregulation can show up as chronic tension, digestive problems, random bursts of anger, zoning out in conversations, feeling exhausted no matter how much you sleep, or feeling like you have to be “on” all the time.
Why are so many people in 2025 dysregulated?
Because our modern lives are basically a nonstop survival simulation. 24/7 news alerts, economic stress, climate anxiety, pandemic trauma, hustle culture, algorithm-driven comparison — your body isn’t built to handle THIS much constant pressure. You don’t have to have a “big T” trauma to end up dysregulated. Chronic stress hits the same systems.
Also, a lot of people grew up with developmental trauma — meaning their systems wired themselves for survival early on without even knowing it. So when you layer adult stress onto childhood wiring that never felt fully safe? You get a lot of high-functioning adults who seem “fine” on the outside but are running on empty internally. This isn’t a personal failure. It’s biology reacting to an environment that’s constantly spinning.
How does somatic therapy help regulate a dysregulated nervous system?
Somatic therapy doesn’t just tell you to “relax” — it actually trains your body to know how to come back to feeling calm. You start by learning to recognize when your system is going into hyperarousal (anxiety, panic, irritability) or hypoarousal (numbness, exhaustion, disconnection). Then, you build real tools to shift those states — using breath, movement, sensation tracking, and co-regulation with your therapist.
This kind of work builds what’s called “nervous system capacity” — the ability to handle intensity without getting yanked into survival mode. And research (updated through early 2025) is crystal clear: therapies that include body-based regulation strategies lead to stronger emotional resilience, faster trauma recovery, and even lower inflammation markers. Translation? You don’t just feel better — your whole system functions better.
3. Using the Mind/Body Connection Can Heal Anxiety and Depression
Anxiety and depression aren’t just random chemical problems or “negative thoughts.” They’re ancient survival responses showing up in a modern world that’s completely out of sync with how humans are built. Your system isn’t broken — it’s doing exactly what it was designed to do when it thinks you’re not safe. Anxiety is your body hitting the gas. Depression is your body pulling the emergency brake. Both happen when your nervous system gets trapped in survival mode.
It Works With Your Body
Somatic therapy helps because it actually works with how your system evolved — not against it. Before humans had language, we processed safety and threat through movement, breath, sensation. That wiring hasn’t changed! So when you track the tightness in your chest, when you feel your frozen muscles, when you breathe into the parts of your body that feel shut down — you’re speaking the oldest language your body knows. Somatic therapy teaches your system, step by step, that it’s finally safe to stop running, fighting, freezing, or collapsing.
And here’s the real kicker: your body won’t believe you’re safe just because you “know better” intellectually. You have to show it. Literally. Somatic therapy gives you the tools to do that in real time. When your body starts to believe you’re safe again, anxiety stops taking over. Depression starts to lift. You’re not forcing yourself to feel better — you’re becoming someone whose system knows how to heal itself, just like it was always meant to.
| If you’re looking for somatic therapy near you that’s human, direct, and actually focused on transformation — not just management — I’m here to help. Learn more or schedule a free consultation here.
- Real healing happens when you stop fighting your body and start listening to it.
4. It focuses on body awareness
Body awareness is basically just knowing what’s happening inside your body without overthinking it or ignoring it. It’s actually feeling your breath change when you get anxious. It’s noticing your stomach tighten when something feels off. It’s catching that you’re clenching your jaw — before you blow up at someone or shut down completely.
From a brain and body standpoint, body awareness is basic survival equipment. Humans evolved to survive by paying attention to internal signals — not by thinking our way through everything. Instead, what we now called “symptoms” are actually signs your body is trying to tell you something. If you can’t pick up those signals, you’re losing valuable information.
Does somatic therapy focus on body awareness?
Absolutely — it’s the foundation. Somatic therapy teaches you how to tune back into your body like it’s a survival skill (because it is). When you can feel the early signs — like your hands getting sweaty or cold, jaw clenching, stomach dropping— you can actually work with your nervous system instead of getting overwhelmed by it.
Most people are walking around completely disconnected from their bodies because modern life trains us to numb out — scrolling, working, grinding through pain. Somatic therapy teaches you how to actually feel again — safely, without drowning in it.
Is there research showing how body awareness helps healing?
Yeah — and the science is badass. Research shows that body awareness (what we nerds call “interoception”) actually changes your brain. When you can accurately feel what’s happening inside you, parts of your brain linked to emotional regulation, stress response, and decision-making get stronger. Your body stops running old survival patterns on autopilot.
In other words: when you build real body awareness, you’re not just “more mindful.” You’re literally reprogramming how you handle stress, emotion, and connection at the biological level. People with better body awareness recover faster from trauma, regulate emotions better, and have fewer physical health problems tied to stress. It’s not optional anymore. It’s essential if you want real, lasting healing — not just symptom management.
5. Somatic therapy helps your relationships, too!
Can somatic therapy help with your relationships? Hell yes.
Here’s the thing: your nervous system shows up in every relationship you have — not just in your stress levels, but in how you connect, argue, trust, and even how you pull away. If your system’s stuck in survival mode, your relationships are going to feel like a war zone, an audition, or “tests” instead of safe places.
Somatic therapy helps because it doesn’t just change how you think about relationships — it changes how you feel in them. It teaches your body that connection doesn’t automatically mean danger. That you can stay grounded when you’re close to someone. That you can feel safe even when you’re vulnerable. When your system learns that being connected doesn’t have to equal being attacked, abandoned, or smothered, your whole way of relating starts to shift — automatically, and without forcing it.
Can somatic therapy help with secure attachment?
Secure attachment isn’t about being chill all the time or never getting triggered. It’s about your body knowing how to stay present and grounded when closeness happens. That’s it. That’s the whole game. You could be in a healthy relationship with the kindest partner in the world, but if your nervous system still reads connection as unsafe, it’s going to react — fast. And it’s not often a response that is grounded in the present moment.
If you want to feel safe in love, you have to feel safe in your body first — and that’s what somatic therapy is designed to do.
Somatic therapy helps by giving your body actual experiences of safety and regulation inside relationships. You learn to recognize the early body signals of insecurity — like the urge to bolt when someone gets too close, or the stomach drop when someone pulls away — and instead of reacting from old survival wiring, you stay present. You move through the trigger without getting hijacked by it. Over time, that builds a real internal foundation of security that no amount of mindset work alone can create.
How does somatic therapy relate to attachment triggers and wounds?
Attachment wounds are basically survival patterns in your body. They’re not just “bad memories” or “childhood issues” you can reason your way out of. If you grew up with inconsistent, unavailable, chaotic, or emotionally immature caregivers, your nervous system learned to associate closeness with threat. That wiring doesn’t magically disappear because you found a good partner or told yourself “I’m enough” fifty times.
Somatic therapy helps by going underneath the story and working with the raw physical responses themselves. When you feel triggered — when you want to ghost, blow up, chase, shut down, or people-please — your body is firing off an old survival map. Somatic therapy teaches you how to slow it down, stay with the discomfort safely, and actually rebuild a new map. It helps you experience closeness without losing yourself. That’s what real healing from attachment wounds looks like — not thinking differently about relationships, but feeling differently inside them.
| This kind of nervous system work is a core part of attachment therapy too — especially when you’re healing anxious or avoidant patterns rooted in early emotional wiring. Learn more about attachment therapy here.
Ready to Find Somatic Therapy Near You That Actually Works?
I’m Cheryl Groskopf, a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (LMFT) and Licensed Professional Clinical Counselor (LPCC) based in Los Angeles, California. I specialize in helping adults heal trauma, attachment wounds, anxiety, and emotional shutdown — using a body-based, somatic therapy approach that actually changes how you feel from the inside out.
I combine direct, honest collaboration with trauma-informed neuroscience, attachment theory, and somatic nervous system regulation. I’m not here to slap coping skills on top of survival patterns. I’m here to help you build real internal safety so you can finally stop surviving… and start living.
- The brain might not remember...but the body does.
Contact Me For a free 15 minute Online consultation
Looking for a therapist in Los Angeles who utilizes a holistic approach to healing? Click here to schedule your free 15-minute consultation for somatic therapy in Los Angeles. I offer both phone or online consultations to help you determine if it’s a good fit. I specialize in the treatment of anxiety, healing from trauma, and improving the quality of your relationships with others (and yourself) by utilizing attachment theory and Internal Family Systems.
Frequently Asked Questions about Somatic Therapy Los Angeles
Frequently Asked Questions About Somatic Therapy
How is somatic therapy different from talk therapy?
Talk therapy focuses on thoughts and language. Somatic therapy works with physical sensations and body responses to help process trauma at the nervous system level.
Can somatic therapy help with anxiety and panic attacks?
Yes. Somatic therapy helps you identify early body signals of anxiety and teaches your system how to return to calm, without just “thinking your way out of it.” Learn more about anxiety therapy here.
Is somatic therapy evidence-based?
Yes. Research from Harvard Health and the Trauma Research Foundation supports body-based interventions for trauma, anxiety, and emotional regulation.
Do you offer somatic therapy online in California?
I offer virtual somatic therapy sessions across California, including for clients in Los Angeles. Schedule a free 15-minute consultation here.
How long does it take to see results with somatic therapy?
It depends on your goals and history. Some clients notice shifts within a few sessions. Others take longer. The goal isn’t quick fixes — it’s long-term nervous system change.
