Somatic Trauma Therapy

Somatic Trauma Therapy employs a combination of psychotherapeutic and somatic body-oriented techniques to assist individuals who have undergone various forms of trauma, such as childhood trauma, single-event trauma, repeated trauma, vicarious trauma, generational trauma or severe/chronic illness. These traumatic experiences may include overwhelming events like car accidents, violent attacks, or significant losses, as well as smaller traumas like traumatic stress and other overwhelming life events. Trauma can also include seemingly insignificant experiences such as relational issues, illness, or an array of events or experiences that stretch back to childhood, such as neglect, abuse, or poor relationships with early attachment figures.

Trauma is not what happened to us but what happens inside us due to the events. The ways that we constrict and become more limited in our responses as a result. The adaptations we make that enable us to survive. Somatic Trauma Therapy aims to guide the client through thwarted fight or flight responses and release the biophysical survival energies, which are locked into terrifying patterns of fear, anxiety, anger, shutdown and PTSD.

Who is this for?

Individuals seeking somatic trauma therapy may present with symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), complex post-traumatic stress disorder (CPTSD), or other trauma-related syndromes, such as feelings of overwhelm, difficulty coping, hypervigilance, heightened reactivity, feelings of helplessness, and a general sense of not being safe. It is important to note that these symptoms may not necessarily be attributed to a specific traumatic event, but rather to experiences that have overwhelmed their physiological system. Even challenging or stressful life events, such as divorce, bereavement, and chronic stress, can lead to unpleasant sensations and symptoms as the nervous system struggles to cope and process stress.

Addresses the Conditions & Symptoms of:

  • Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)

  • Complex Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (CPTSD)

  • Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID)

  • Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD)

  • Nightmares

  • Flashbacks

  • Severe Anxiety

  • Dissociation

  • Hyperarousal

  • Sensitive Processing Issues

  • Cognitive Processing Issues

  • Stress-Related Disorders

  • Seizures

  • Tics & Tremors

  • Convulsions

  • Fainting

  • Insomnia

  • Hypervigilance

While trauma is processed and stored through the body, the ramifications show up in many places, including our relationships with other people, the environment, the collective, and a multitude of systems (education and political structures).

Through a unified approach, we can assist individuals in integrating an understanding of their developmental and attachment experiences as well as the culture, structural inequities, transgenerational trauma, and systemic forces of oppression they have been subject to.

Trauma Therapy encompasses a wide range of approaches to restore well-being. These are based on the foundational principle that healing and integration happen through our body's primal language of movement, breath, and sensation. Additionally, body awareness helps us access an internal source of wisdom that guides the healing process and builds resilience.

Each of these therapeutic approaches uses different techniques to support the unwinding of trauma. A unified approach intends to embody the foundational principles of somatic trauma therapies and utilise the many tools and methods to support ourselves and others.

Sessions may include:

  • Body-based exercises, somatic resourcing and stabilisation

  • Somatic Attachment Therapy

  • Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT/tapping)

  • Sensorimotor Psychotherapy for Trauma

  • Polyvagal Theory through Vagus Nerve Techniques

  • Trauma Sensitive Yoga

  • The Rewind Technique

Book Your Introductory Assessment

Finding a therapist to help you unpack and work through trauma and distress can be— overwhelming. In our first session, we will explore your symptoms, history and levels of dysregulation to create an integrative treatment plan specific to your story. We work together to create a safe and stable internal environment to process trauma and bring you to a place where you can look forward to the future.

This 90-minute session can be done over Zoom or in person at the clinic (based in Bingley, West Yorkshire, UK).

The Steps of Trauma Therapy

Step One

Introductory Assessment

In our first session, we will explore your symptoms and levels of dysregulation to create an integrative treatment plan specific to your story.

Step Two

Personalised Treatment Plan

Based off of our introductory assessment, I will design a treatment plan to best suit your needs of regulation and processing at a pace and with the tools that would be best suited for your individual situation. This could combined a mixture of talk psychotherapy, somatic movement, meditation, nervous system regulation tools and may include the Safe & Sound Protocol.

Step Three

Safety & Stabilisation

Our first goal is to create safety and stabilise you and your nervous system. The initial phase of treatment is where the therapist and client develop and establish the ability to remain present and regulate the nervous system. This allows us to create a baseline for the work and guide us to a more grounded place. We will focus on somatic resourcing, working with non-somatic resources and aim to help stabilise the client through resourcing and symptom reduction.

Step Four

Processing Trauma

In Step Four, we use narrative recollections as a catalyst for processing trauma. The processing of physiological reactions helps metabolise traumatic experiences, allowing clients to return to a sustained state of well-being. When clients can process traumatic experiences and integrate dissociated parts of the self, they are less vulnerable to destabilisation or being triggered by reminders such as sensory perceptions, somatic tendencies, relational context, anniversaries, dates, etc.

The psychotherapeutic work in Step Four can be destabilising for clients who struggle to regulate their autonomic nervous system activation and emotional responses, lack coping resources, or have not learned to manage their traumatic symptoms. It can be beneficial to emphasise or reconnect with previously learned resources at the beginning of Step Four work to promote working within an optimal arousal zone. In more complex cases, specific steps may not clearly define the work. Sometimes, you may work with a part or a reaction while other parts observe the process or remain dormant as trauma processing occurs. In other situations, you may need to move back and forth between Steps 3 and 4 as the client may require new resources before reinstating orienting and defensive responses.

Step Five

Looking Forward

The final part brings together the complete picture of a person’s life and looks ahead to the future. When experiences and emotions have been resolved, all aspects of a person feel unified. People connect deeply with their sense of self and can accept both the positive and negative parts of their past and themselves. All emotions are welcomed and tolerated as part of the full spectrum of human experience.

Book Your Introductory Assessment

Finding a therapist to help you unpack and work through trauma and distress can be— traumatic. In our first session, we will explore the symptoms, history, and levels of dysregulation together to create an integrative treatment plan specific to your story. We work together to create a safe and stable internal environment to process trauma and bring you to a place where you can look forward to the future.

This 90-minute session can be done over Zoom or in person at the clinic (based in Bingley, West Yorkshire, UK).

Frequently Asked Questions

  • £180 for Introductory Assessment (90 minutes)

    £90 per Session (60 minutes)

    £145 per Extended Session (90 minutes)

    Sessions can be online or in-person.

  • For the Introductory Assessment, payment is required to book.

    For treatment sessions, payment is required 48 hours prior to the scheduled date.

    There is a 24-hour cancellation policy for a full refund. If cancelled within 24 hours, payments are non-refundable.

  • For UK residents only. There is a variety of companies that I can work with; please contact me for more details.