Somatic Trauma-Informed Psychotherapy

Trauma (from the Greek word for “wound”) exists on a broad spectrum. It can include anything from experiences that lead to disconnection from oneself — that is, your authenticity, body, emotions, or intuition — as well as from any experience that diminishes the hope for reconnection.

Gabor Maté

Our bodies can carry the effects of past experiences, including emotions, needs, and responses that we may have learned to suppress or disconnect from. By listening to our bodies with curiosity and compassion, we can begin to recognise these patterns, understand what they are communicating, and develop new ways of responding that support greater safety, self-trust, and emotional well-being.

You may know intellectually that you are worthy or capable yet struggle to feel it. Through embodiment, we explore how that understanding can become more available in your physical experience and everyday choices. You can start to feel what safety and self-worth feel like in your own skin and be your authentic Self.

Trauma-informed somatic therapy in Brisbane

Support for childhood trauma and trauma-related difficulties

You understand your history perfectly well, and understanding it hasn't changed how you feel.
Your body reacts before your thoughts arrive: the flinch, the tight chest, the sudden flatness.
You've told the story in therapy before and felt worse afterwards, not lighter.
You are managing daily life but feel disconnected from yourself.
You tend to feel hypervigilant, constantly on alert, or unable to fully relax.
You are living with ongoing health challenges that affect your emotional well-being.
You carry persistent beliefs that you are unworthy, not good enough, or fundamentally broken.
You have ADHD and would like to better understand your nervous system, emotions, and patterns of regulation.
You feel stuck, even though you understand intellectually why you feel or behave the way you do.
You fear judgement, rejection, or abandonment.
You constantly doubt yourself or struggle to trust your own thoughts, feelings, and decisions.
You often feel like you don’t fit in or truly belong.
You tend to withdraw from relationships or find it difficult to feel close to others.
You struggle to set and maintain healthy boundaries.
You tend to prioritise other people's needs, feelings, or expectations at the expense of your own.
You are highly self-critical or find it difficult to accept yourself.
You are experiencing low mood, sadness, or feelings of depression.
You find yourself repeating unhealthy behaviours, coping strategies, or relationship patterns.
You struggle with emotional regulation or find it difficult to manage intense emotions.
You have experienced a traumatic or overwhelming event, such as an accident or the loss of a loved one.
You experience physical pain.
You have experienced physical assault in the past.
You find yourself relying on behaviours or coping strategies that may once have helped you survive but are now causing difficulties in your life.
You have experienced an overwhelming event, such as a serious illness, accident, medical procedure, natural disaster, assault or bereavement, or distress related to migration, war or other violence.

Trauma-informed somatic therapy offers a space to gently explore how these experiences may be held and expressed through your body, emotions, and nervous system, and to develop new ways of responding to yourself and your life.

Feelings of helplessness, immobility, and freezing. If hyperarousal is the nervous system’s accelerator, a sense of overwhelming helplessness is its brake. The helplessness that is experienced at such times is not the ordinary sense of helplessness that can affect anyone from time to time. It is the sense of being collapsed, immobilized, and utterly helpless. It is not a perception, belief, or a trick of the imagination. It is real.

Peter A. Levine

What to expect in a session

We begin by exploring what helps you feel steady and supported, so there is something to return to when difficult feelings arise. We then approach challenging experiences in small, manageable steps, adjusting the pace together. A detailed retelling of your history is not required. We can work with what you notice in the present moment, including what unfolds between us in the room.

What happens in the first somatic therapy session

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This isn't your failing to move on.

Your nervous system may continue to respond to reminders of danger even when you know the event is over.

In somatic trauma therapy, we explore physical sensations, emotions, nervous system responses and the meaning you have made of what happened. We work gradually, without requiring a detailed retelling, and notice what helps you feel more connected to the present.

Somatic Psychotherapy is complemented by cognitive and emotional processing. I can't separate the body from the mind. Usually, core beliefs about ourselves, such as fears of rejection, abandonment, being alone, not being liked, setting boundaries, anxiety, and depression, are the ones that keep us unwell. We need to explore them. We also explore overwhelming childhood situations that created disconnection from our bodies and our authentic selves. Our childhood environment shaped our nervous system, beliefs, etc.

Our bodies express what we repressed in the past, and we need to learn to listen. We need to connect with our bodies so we can understand what's going on within them, make sense of it, build awareness, and create change.

But rather than focusing primarily on analysing thoughts or revisiting past experiences, we would also gently explore what is happening in your body, emotions, and nervous system in the present. The aim is to help you develop a greater sense of safety, become more aware of your body’s responses, and gradually build your capacity to navigate sensations and emotions without becoming overwhelmed.

We would work at your pace, without needing to relive traumatic experiences or push you into anything you’re not ready for. There is no expectation that you need to process everything at once.

Support after a single event may be more focused than work involving repeated or developmental trauma, but the length of therapy varies. We discuss your needs and progress together rather than promise a fixed number of sessions. When trauma comes from a single event, and your life was otherwise relatively stable, this work can often be more focused and shorter-term than therapy for complex or developmental trauma.

However, I won't commit to a set number of sessions for your healing until I have met you. Every nervous system and every experience is different.

The aim is to help you feel more present, connected and able to make choices in everyday life. Earlier experiences may be relevant, and we can explore them when it is helpful to do so.

Childhood trauma and attachment wounds

What if the trauma happened in childhood?

Childhood trauma may influence how you experience your body, emotions and close relationships. We can explore an attachment wound, the attachment style you recognise in yourself, and the beliefs that formed around safety, closeness and self-worth.

Repeated or prolonged trauma can have wide-ranging effects. Some people may have a diagnosis of complex PTSD; others may not. Our work begins with your individual experience and support needs.

Healing trauma beyond the event

Complex trauma

Complex trauma can develop through repeated or prolonged harmful experiences, often within relationships or settings that should have offered safety. Childhood trauma may affect self-worth, boundaries, trust and the way you relate to yourself and relate to others. You may notice persistent alertness, emotional disconnection or a habit of adapting to others. We begin by building support and a sense of safety, then explore difficult experiences at a manageable pace.

Nothing about it may look like an event you could name. What it leaves behind is rarely a memory. It’s a way of being organised; always scanning, always adapting, always a little outside yourself, because that organisation was intelligent at the time. It kept you safe with the options a child had. So, this is the longer work, and it goes in the order that holds: first, enough safety. Second, resilience to be in your own body and third, the story. Skipping to the story is how people get overwhelmed and conclude that therapy doesn't work for them.

Working in small, manageable steps helps you stay attuned to your capacity and reduces the risk of becoming overwhelmed.

A child sitting alone, seen from behind, looking out at open water

Single event trauma

Also, somatic psychotherapy supports you after a single traumatic event. Sometimes a single event changes how you experience yourself and the world. A car accident. An assault. A medical event. A difficult birth. A sudden loss. A diagnosis. A night that split your life into before and after.

You may remember what happened in detail, or you may not. But even when your mind knows the danger is over, your body may keep reacting as though it is still happening.

After a traumatic event, some people experience post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Symptoms and support needs vary, so we take time to understand your experience rather than assume a diagnosis.

You might feel constantly on edge, easily startled, avoid places or situations that remind you of what happened, have intrusive memories or nightmares, or feel disconnected from yourself or the world around you.

What Somatic Trauma-Informed Psychotherapy is not

It is not a quick fix or a technique that can simply “reset” your nervous system. Healing is not about fixing yourself. It is about developing a deeper awareness of the beliefs, patterns, adaptations, emotions, and nervous system responses that may have developed in response to your life experiences. It is also not massage, bodywork, chiropractic treatment, physiotherapy, or hands-on therapy.

Somatic therapy is not only about the body

While the body and physical sensations are an important part of the work, somatic therapy recognises the connection between your body, emotions, thoughts, relationships, memories, and lived experiences.

At its core, somatic therapy helps you become more aware of yourself and build a greater capacity to stay present with your inner experience. From this awareness, new possibilities for choice, connection, emotional regulation, and meaningful change can begin to emerge.

Common questions

Do I have to talk about what happened?

No. You do not need to provide a detailed retelling. We can explore what you notice now, including bodily sensations, emotions, beliefs and patterns in relationships. You decide what you want to share and when.

How is this different from the talk therapy I've already tried?

Some forms of talk therapy emphasise thoughts, memories and understanding. Somatic work includes these while also paying attention to physical sensations and emotional responses in the present moment.

Standard talk therapy usually stays with your thoughts and the stories you remember. Somatic work includes that cognitive insight, but it also attends to how your history lives in your biology and the quiet habits of your nervous system.

We can look at the story while becoming curious about the physical sensations and emotional responses arriving right now. It is a gentle way to reach the roots of patterns that never learned words.

For example, a held breath or tense shoulder may help us notice a response or belief that usually happens outside our awareness.

Greater awareness creates room for choice. You may begin to recognise protective responses sooner, pause and explore what you need before reacting.

Somatic psychotherapy goes beyond being an intellectual exercise. When new perspectives and beliefs emerge, we help your nervous system integrate them so they can become embodied change rather than just ideas you think about.

You may know intellectually that you are worthy or capable yet struggle to feel it. Through integration and embodiment, we explore how that understanding can become more accessible in your physical experience and everyday choices. You can start to feel what safety and self-worth feel like in your own skin and live from your authentic Self and lived experience.

The aim is a deeper connection with yourself, including your authenticity, intuition and inner wisdom.

How long does it take?

There is no single answer. The process depends on what you are carrying, your current circumstances, your goals, and the patterns and experiences you are working with. Some people notice meaningful shifts within a relatively short period; however, working with childhood or developmental trauma may involve a longer-term process. After a few sessions, I can offer a more realistic sense of what may help you.

Will I feel worse before I feel better?

The aim is not to make you feel worse to heal. In trauma-informed somatic psychotherapy, we work gradually and pay attention to the capacity of your nervous system so that we do not unnecessarily overwhelm you. At times, difficult emotions or experiences may arise as part of the therapeutic process, but we work with them carefully and at a pace that supports integration. If a session feels too intense or leaves you feeling unsettled, we can talk about it and adjust the pace and approach together.

Before we start, one important thing

This therapy is not a substitute for crisis or safety intervention. It isn't appropriate if you are currently in an unsafe or dangerous situation, or if you are at immediate risk of harming yourself or ending your life. In those circumstances you need crisis, emergency or specialised support first.

Somatic psychotherapy is also unsuitable for people who have recently faced, or are currently facing, legal allegations.

This approach offers a gentle, compassionate space to explore the beliefs, attachment patterns and unmet emotional needs that may be shaping your current difficulties. Together, we bring kind attention to your thoughts, emotions and bodily experience, without judgement or pressure. You may already know intellectually that you are worthy, capable and brave; through this work, that understanding can gradually settle into your heart and body. Over time, you may begin to feel safer and more at home within yourself, reconnect with your sense of worth and live in a way that feels more authentically you.