Somatic
Therapy
Glendora & online therapy in CA
Does your heart still hurt even after years of healing?
If you’ve endured a life-changing experience or have a long history of complex trauma, you know that kind of pain can last. Like many of my clients, you’ve probably told your story a thousand times. Some things may make logical sense, yet your body still reacts as if you’re being threatened.
Maybe you’ve gone to therapy off and on for years without finding peace. Maybe you’ve done everything you can intellectually to heal yourself, but hit a wall. Or maybe you’ve found your way to me intuitively. You realize your pain requires a deeper, more holistic approach than you’re used to.
What is somatic therapy and why is it helpful?
If any of this resonates, Somatic Therapy can be a game-changer. Unlike most top-down approaches, such as cognitive counseling models, Somatic Therapy is gentle and body-based. It helps you release trauma and psychological pain stored in both your mind and body. This leads to healing.
This 'bottom-up' approach helps reset your nervous system. It promotes neuroplasticity. The brain has a natural ability to adapt, reorganize, and create new neuropathways.
What kinds of issues can somatic psychotherapy treat?
Somatic Therapy is extremely versatile. It has been used to treat complex problems like high stress, trauma, loss, and chronic stress. Like Mindfulness, elements of Somatic Psychotherapy are often part of other treatments. This includes EMDR.
As the founder of Revive Life Counseling, I specialize in Somatic Experiencing. This form of Somatic Therapy specifically targets trauma and PTSD. It’s great for anyone who can feel their story in their bones, but can’t resolve it with words alone.
Somatic Experiencing (SE) helps those who have tried therapy for years without relief. As a trauma therapist, I use SE, a body-focused therapy, to support adults facing trauma, anxiety, depression, grief, and loss.
Who can benefit the most from Somatic Experiencing?
SE works best for clients who value vulnerability and want real change. It’s a powerful tool for anyone who prioritizes self-care. SE helps you live fully.
An important part of Somatic Experiencing is witnessing clients’ pain. It’s not just about listening to their story, but about the story in their bodies and in their implicit memory. SE understands that trauma lives in both the mind and body.
Because SE can help resolve vicarious trauma, I also support other therapists. By resolving self-doubt, addressing fears, and tending to their inner children, therapists learn to get out of their own way. They become better mental healthcare providers.
How does Somatic Experiencing work?
SE was developed by Peter Levine in the 70s. He researched why wild animals don’t get traumatized, but humans do. Dr. Levine discovered that animals shake or shiver in life-threatening situations. Humans can’t always release this survival energy or complete a self-protective response. This can lead to trauma, PTSD, anxiety, and stress.
Dr. Peter Levine explains, “Traumatic symptoms are not caused by the event itself. They arise when residual energy from the experience is not discharged from the body. This energy remains trapped in the nervous system, where it can wreak havoc on our bodies and minds.”
SE helps you notice where you carry emotional pain, so you can address and release it. This process removes the physical charge from trauma, similar to how EMDR targets the emotional or psychological charge of a memory.
Here are some components of an SE session:
Orientation—This step involves noticing your environment. This awareness creates a sense of safety and grounds you in the present as the session begins.
Resourcing—Once grounded, we identify your strengths and resources. This supports self-regulation and strengthens resilience before addressing tougher material.
Pendulation—Next, we gently shift focus between activating sensations or memories (contraction—tension or tightness) and calming experiences (expansion—relaxation). This back-and-forth lets you gradually approach and retreat from challenging sensations, making it easier to achieve emotional stability.
Titration—We gradually introduce manageable parts of the traumatic experience that are digestible. This careful approach prevents overwhelm and lets you integrate the experience safely over time.
Integration—Together we make meaning from what we've processed. We explore new perspectives and insights, and discuss how your sense of self is shifting. This supports a sense of resolution and restored balance as you move forward.
By noticing what’s happening in the body, SE helps clients address both their explicit stories and body memories, leading to deeper healing.
If other counseling methods fall short, Somatic Experiencing offers promise
Most traditional therapy models don’t target the somatic impact of trauma. SE tracks bodily sensations, mental images, behaviors, and affects. It helps you release trauma’s physical energy, which isn’t always obvious.
SE leverages your strengths and resources by introducing enjoyable activities and building your social network. Unlike problem-oriented therapies, SE believes you already have what you need to heal.
Most cognitive strategies focus on the mind. SE offers holistic transformation by addressing mind, body, and spirit. You’ll grow more in tune with your body and increase your ability to handle distressing sensations. This helps you move into greater creativity and peace.
With new self-awareness, you’ll recognize signs of activation and access inner strengths. Symptoms fade. You’ll feel more anchored and show up differently in all areas of life.
It is possible to heal—to reinvent yourself and flourish
Staying in fight, flight, or freeze mode turns every day into a struggle for control. Your body’s survival systems protect you, but your mind and body remain anchored in the past.
Protective responses like freeze get a bad rap, but your body is intelligent. SE helps you use all self-protective responses—fight, flight, or freeze—so you aren’t stuck in one mode.
My role as a somatic therapist is to help you achieve this by identifying your stuck points. I enable your physiology to complete the trauma response and fully resolve your experience.
Together, we’ll work to release the residual energy stored in your body and restore balance to your nervous system. We let go of the past, so you’re no longer stuck in that heightened state of fear, helplessness, or feeling as if you lost control. You can start experiencing life again.
Why did I start incorporating somatic experiencing into therapy?
For me, being a good therapist and helping people heal is a spiritual calling from God. That sacred assignment drives me to serve my clients and grow as a therapist. Integrating Somatic Therapy made sense for my practice.
I discovered Somatic Therapy, specifically Somatic Experiencing, after hearing colleagues praise it for changing their lives both professionally and personally. I was planning on getting trained in another modality. Then I saw more therapists seeking somatic treatment.
Somatic Experiencing matched my values and my desire for my clients to heal fully. The training required a big investment, so I wasn’t sure it was possible. After prayer and discussions with colleagues—some of whom were already Somatic Experiencing Practitioners—I pursued certification through Somatic Experiencing International. I’m grateful I did.
Since then, I’ve been honored to do this work and see client transformations. If you want a modality that impacts you physiologically, neurologically, physically, and spiritually, SE is next-level.
I’m not just a practitioner—I’m an SE client because I believe in practicing what I preach. I know SE works, both personally and professionally. Take the next step: schedule a session or book your free 10-15-minute consult on my contact page today. More life is waiting for you!
Take the first step—contact me and begin your transformation today!
Carmen Montenegro-Sis, with Revive Life Counseling, welcomes new clients for online and in-person Somatic Therapy in Glendora, serving Pasadena residents, and throughout California.