How ‘Somatics’ Became the Solution to Modern Life

Clients often arrive at therapist Sybil Ottenstein's door with a full diagnosis. They've done years of talk therapy and can explain their past like detectives connecting dots. The problem: their minds get it, but their bodies still feel awful.

Working from the bottom up

Traditional talk therapy is top-down: you identify problems through analysis, hoping to resolve the physical symptoms of emotion. Somatic therapy works the other way, starting with bodily sensations, like tightness in the chest or throat.

The term has exploded in popularity: somatic dance, somatic yoga, somatic workouts exist, and #somatic has hundreds of thousands of posts on Instagram. An influencer called the Workout Witch teaches specific movements to release negative emotions, promising that 'trauma can be released from your hips.'

What does the body keep?

This theory isn't new. Freud's student Wilhelm Reich proposed 'muscular armor,' the idea that trauma hides as tension in the body. The field took shape formally in the 1970s.

The recent boom owes a lot to 'The Body Keeps the Score,' which argues for treating PTSD through the body. It hit No. 1 on the New York Times bestseller list in 2021. But critics note that some studies it cites were misrepresented or may not exist at all.

Just moving is good, anyway

The author tried a somatic exercise class and found it was mostly squats, jumping jacks, and yoga. Yet afterward, walking down a busy Manhattan street, she felt more aware of the sun on her cheek and the ground under her feet.

So don't expect a miracle cure for trauma. But moving, breathing, and stepping away from screens have benefits all on their own.