What Happens in a Somatic Session?
In a somatic session we talk, and we also pay attention to what your body is doing while we talk. I will invite you to notice sensations, impulses and emotions underneath the words. We move slowly and in small pieces, so your nervous system can settle instead of bracing. Most first sessions are mostly orientation.
You are probably not here because you just discovered something is wrong
Most people who find their way to me have already tried something else.
They have been in talk therapy for a year, or five, and they can describe their patterns with real precision. They know exactly where it started. They can name the parent, the relationship, the moment.
And they are still stuck.
Or they are managing something with medication and they want to understand what is underneath it, rather than keep the volume turned down forever.
If that is you, I want to say something before anything else: understanding your story is not the same as your body letting go of it. You can have perfect insight and a nervous system that still reacts as though the thing is happening now.
That gap is the reason somatic work exists.
The short version of what actually happens
We sit together, online or in person, and we start with conversation. That part will feel familiar.
What is different is that I will keep asking a question you may not be used to: what is happening in your body right now, as you say that.
Not what do you think about it. Not why do you think it happened. What is happening in your chest, your throat, your stomach, your hands, right now.
At first, most people answer with an emotion, or with an interpretation, or with nothing at all. That is completely normal. Noticing sensation is a skill, and almost nobody arrives already fluent in it.
It is a little like learning a new language, because it is one. It is the language of the nervous system, and most of us were never taught it.
We start with what is already working
The first thing I want to know is not what hurts.
The first thing I want to know is what helps.
The very first time I went to a Somatic Experiencing® session, I was a hot mess. I was crying, completely overwhelmed. At one point my practitioner looked at me and gently asked, "Where's your resource?"
I had no idea what she meant. Whatever it was, I was fairly sure I did not have one.
A resource is anything that brings your nervous system back toward balance. For me it is feeling my feet on the ground. Sensing my breath. A hand over my heart. Letting my eyes land on something in the present moment, especially something in nature.
None of that is decoration before the real work. It is the thing that makes the real work possible, because a nervous system with nowhere to land cannot process anything. It can only brace.
So in an early session we will spend real time finding yours. If you want to think about this before we meet, I wrote more about what a nervous system resource actually is.
Then we go slowly, and the slowness is the technique
There is a word for the way we move: pendulation.
It means we go toward something difficult, and then we come back. Toward, and back. We never dive all the way in and stay there.
I know that can be frustrating to hear if you came in wanting to get to the bottom of it today. But going all the way in is how people get overwhelmed, and an overwhelmed nervous system does not integrate anything. It just survives the hour and braces for the next one.
We also work in small amounts on purpose. A little bit of activation, then time to settle. Then a little more.
The goal is not to feel everything. The goal is to build the capacity to feel something without being swept away by it.
What your body might do, and why none of it is wrong
Somewhere in a session, your body may do something on its own.
A long exhale you did not plan. A yawn. Your stomach making noise. A shiver, or heat moving up through your chest, or your legs suddenly wanting to move. Tears that arrive without a matching thought.
People often apologize for these. Please do not.
Those are usually signs that something held is starting to move. Your system has been carrying an incomplete response, sometimes for years, and it is finally finding a way to finish it.
My job in those moments is to slow us down enough for you to actually notice what is happening, instead of rushing past it. If you want the longer explanation of why the body holds these things in the first place, it is here.
What a somatic session is not
This matters, because the fear keeps people away for years.
A somatic session is not about reliving your trauma. You do not have to tell me the story in detail. You do not have to go back through it start to finish. In some sessions we barely discuss the events at all, and the work still moves.
It is not about getting stuck in the story of what happened. It is about helping your nervous system find its way back to safety.
It is not hypnosis, and you are not out of control at any point. You can stop, open your eyes, change the subject, or ask for a break at any moment, and doing so is not a failure. It is you using the skill we are building.
And it is not a replacement for medical or psychiatric care. I do not prescribe medication, and I am not the right support for everyone. I will tell you honestly if I think you need something I cannot offer.
What changes, and how you will notice
The changes rarely announce themselves.
Nobody walks out of a session transformed. What people tend to report, over weeks, is smaller and more useful than that.
You notice you are activated earlier, before it becomes a whole afternoon. You come back to yourself faster after a hard conversation. A situation that used to take three days to recover from takes one. You catch a familiar pattern while it is happening, instead of a week later.
That is what progress looks like here. Not the absence of hard feelings. A shorter distance between getting knocked over and standing back up.
If you want an honest answer about how long that takes, I wrote about how long trauma healing actually takes, including why I will not give you a timeline.
Does this work over video, or does it have to be in person?
I work both ways, and I have seen real change in both.
The question underneath this one is usually whether the body part of the work survives a screen, and it does. You are still in your body on video. I can still see your face, your shoulders, your breathing, the moment your hands go still. You can still feel your feet on the floor.
There are things in-person offers that video does not, and there are things video offers that in-person does not. Being in your own home, with your own blanket, on your own couch, is not a lesser version of this work. For some people it is the reason they can settle at all.
What matters more than the format is whether you feel safe enough to slow down. We can figure out which one gives you that.
What happens between sessions
Very little, on purpose.
I will not send you home with a worksheet or a list of exercises to complete before we meet again. That tends to turn healing into one more thing you are behind on, and most people arriving here are already carrying enough of those.
What I might suggest is small. Notice when your shoulders come down during the week. Notice what you were doing right before that happened. Put a hand on your chest at some point on a hard day and see whether anything changes.
The reason we keep it small is that your nervous system learns from repetition in ordinary moments, not from effort. The work is not what happens in the hour. The hour is where you learn something you then practice by living.
If medicine work is part of your path, integration is something I offer as well, and it follows the same principle. Slow, small, and connected to your actual life rather than to a protocol.
How to know whether this is for you
You do not need a diagnosis, and you do not need to be in crisis.
Somatic work tends to help when you feel anxious, tense or hypervigilant and cannot talk yourself out of it. When you have insight but nothing shifts. When you feel disconnected from your body, or from your own emotions. When you keep repeating a pattern you can already explain.
It also helps when nothing is wrong exactly, and you simply want more than you have.
If you are not sure whether somatic work is even the right category, start with what "somatic" actually means. It is the plainest explanation I have written.
Ready to begin?
I offer a free consultation before any of this starts, and it is genuinely a conversation, not a sales call.
You get a sense of how I work. I get a sense of whether I am the right fit for what you are carrying. It has to go both ways, and sometimes the most useful thing I can do is point you somewhere else.
If you would like to talk, book a free consultation. I would love to connect.
FAQ
What happens in a somatic session?
You talk with your facilitator and you also track what is happening in your body while you talk. You will be invited to notice sensations, impulses and emotions underneath the words, and to move slowly between difficult material and something steadying. A first session usually focuses on orientation and on finding what helps you settle.
Do I have to talk about my trauma in a somatic session?
No. You do not have to tell the story in detail, and in some sessions the events are barely discussed. Somatic Experiencing® works with how your nervous system is holding the experience now, which does not require walking back through it start to finish.
What should I expect in my first somatic session?
Mostly orientation. We get to know each other, I ask what brought you here, and we spend real time finding your resources, meaning the things that help your nervous system settle. Many people leave a first session having done less than they expected and feeling steadier than they expected.
Is somatic work better than talk therapy?
It is not better, it is different, and many people do both. Talk therapy works with understanding and meaning. Somatic work adds what your body is doing while you carry that understanding. People often come to somatic work after talk therapy has given them insight without relief.
How do I know if somatic work is right for me?
It tends to help if you feel anxious, tense or disconnected and cannot think your way out of it, if you have insight but nothing changes, or if you keep repeating a pattern you can already explain. You do not need a diagnosis or a crisis. A free consultation is the simplest way to find out.
About Josie Kramer
Josie is a Somatic & Transpersonal Facilitator and co-founder of Vikara Center. She was first introduced to somatic psychology more than 20 years ago while earning her B.A. in Traditional Eastern Arts with a minor in Somatic Psychology at Naropa University. She holds an M.A. in Transpersonal Psychology from Sofia University, with training in mindfulness and psychedelic studies, and completed the three-year professional training in Somatic Experiencing®. She is also a certified yoga teacher, meditation teacher, licensed massage therapist, and trained holistic health coach. Her work integrates somatic and contemplative practices to support trauma healing, spiritual growth, and medicine work. She offers free consultations and 1:1 somatic sessions online and in person.
by Josie Kramer
---