What Is Somatic Therapy?
Somatic therapy is a body-based approach to healing trauma, chronic stress, and emotional overwhelm. The word somatic means “relating to the body.” Unlike traditional talk therapy, somatic therapy focuses on the physical sensations, nervous system responses, and movement patterns that often live below conscious awareness.
In sessions, these unconscious patterns are gently brought into awareness so they can be worked with directly—allowing the body to release stored tension, resolve trauma, and return to a state of internal safety.

Somatic Therapy vs. Talk Therapy: What's the Difference?
Traditional talk therapies like CBT, DBT, ACT, or psychodynamic therapy use a top-down approach—working through thoughts and verbal insight in the hope of influencing emotional and physical states.
Somatic therapy uses a bottom-up approach, starting with the body: noticing breath, posture, heart rate, muscle tone, and other internal signals that are shaped by underlying emotions and belief systems. These subtle body cues give us direct access to the nervous system, where trauma is often stored and unconsciously repeated.
These patterns are often difficult to identify in traditional talk therapy alone, and many talk therapists don’t have the specialized training to work with the nervous system in this way.

Modalities I Use in My Palo Alto Somatic Therapy Practice
I integrate several body-based and trauma-informed methods, including:

• Somatic Experiencing® (SE)
• Internal Family Systems® (IFS)
• Hakomi Method
• Feldenkrais Method®
• Integral Somatic Psychology (ISP)
• NeuroAffective Touch® and NARM
• Psychodynamic and body-mind approaches

I also bring over 30 years of experience in therapeutic bodywork, including craniosacral therapy, soft tissue techniques, and myofascial release. This background allows me to see deeper patterns of tension, holding, and protective strategies—and gives me more tools for working with complex situations.

What Happens in a Somatic Therapy Session?
Whether you're working with me in-person in Palo Alto or online, sessions usually begin with conversation. But unlike traditional therapy, I’ll invite you to track what’s happening in your body as you speak.
For example, if you're experiencing chronic anxiety, we won’t just talk about it—we’ll explore how it shows up in your body: maybe as tightness in the chest, shallow breath, numbness, tingling, or frozen stillness.
These are signs that your nervous system may be stuck in a fight, flight, freeze, or dissociative response.
Somatic therapy gently helps the body complete these survival responses, freeing you from being stuck in the past and allowing your system to return to present-time safety and regulation. This is where real healing begins.

What Is “Tracking” in Somatic Therapy?
One of the core skills we build in somatic therapy is tracking—bringing focused, nonjudgmental attention to internal body sensations.
Tracking involves noticing physical signals—like warmth, tension, pressure, movement, stillness, or even the absence of sensation. These cues reflect both protective survival states and the body’s natural self-regulating capacities.
As you become more skilled at tracking, you begin to interrupt fear-based patterns, regulate your nervous system, and build a deeper sense of embodiment and resilience.

Why Do We Get Stuck in Fear or Anxiety?
Fear originates in the lower parts of the brain—specifically the brainstem and limbic system—which react faster than the thinking brain. When your nervous system detects a threat (even a subtle one), it sends signals to mobilize the body for survival.
This can manifest as:

• Constant anxiety or dread
• Hypervigilance
• Chronic tension or pain
• Emotional overwhelm
• Shutdown or dissociation

These responses are automatic and protective. But when they become chronic or stuck, they can limit your ability to feel safe, grounded, and fully alive.
With somatic support, these patterns can be gently unwound. As we work together, your prefrontal cortex (thinking brain) re-engages, helping you feel calm, clear, and in control of your experience.

Why Experience Matters in Somatic Work
With over three decades of experience in somatic healing and trauma recovery, I’ve developed a nuanced ability to track and interpret complex nervous system patterns.
My training in the Feldenkrais Method®, somatic psychology, and hands-on bodywork allows me to support clients in resolving long-held patterns of fear, disconnection, or dysregulation—often more efficiently than talk therapy alone.
I specialize in working with:

• Chronic anxiety and fear-based responses
• Developmental and attachment trauma
• Somatic symptoms and autoimmune stress
• Dissociation, freeze states, and shutdown
• People who have plateaued in talk therapy

What I Track in Sessions
Each client is different, but some of the key areas I track include:

• How your nervous system is attempting to protect you (fight, flight, freeze, fawn, dissociation)
• Patterns of attachment, connection, and relational safety
• Emotional and shock trauma history
• Surgeries, medical trauma, and early developmental wounds
• Generational trauma and inherited survival strategies
• Internal resources, strengths, and what’s been missing in prior healing efforts

The goal is not just symptom relief—it’s restoring a deep sense of internal safety, trust, and embodied connection.

Ready to Learn More?
If you're curious about how somatic therapy can help you resolve trauma, regulate your nervous system, and reconnect with yourself, I offer a free 20-minute consultation.
Let’s talk about what you're facing—and what might be possible through body-based healing.

​​Why Freeze Isn't Failure: Understanding the Wisdom of Stillness in Trauma
​
When Fight and Flight Aren’t Options, Freeze Steps In.
If you’ve ever felt like your body just shuts down under stress—like you’re frozen inside—it’s not because you’re weak. It’s because your nervous system is incredibly wise. The freeze response is not passive. In fact, it’s one of the most logical and active survival states the body can choose when faced with overwhelming danger.

As a Somatic Experiencing practitioner (SEP), I see this often: clients come in not running from threat or trying to fight it, but instead holding themselves in an incredibly still, watchful state. Hyper-aware of everything and everyone, they remain frozen - not because they don’t care, but because calling attention to themselves feels dangerous. It’s the classic "don’t poke the bear" strategy. They wait for the trouble to pass. But it never seems to pass. As logical and objective you are about how there is no danger in the environment - you may notice that your body can often care less about how smart or logical you are. To change this body state, you need to give the body an experience of safety to update all its predictions and action plans. 

I regularly work with people that have been do talk oriented therapy for many years with some positive results , but many of their body oriented symptoms like freeze will still remain. Often talk therapy alone cant update and communicate in a language that makes sense to our bodies.
Freeze patterns often begins in childhood, especially in environments where a child repeatedly felt unsafe or overwhelmed. Over time, the nervous system learns to stay in a version of this freeze state - not just in moments of crisis, but as a baseline way of moving through the world.

When Freeze Becomes a Chronic State
Freeze can become hardwired. When the body believes that danger is always lurking—even when life looks calm on the outside, it can lead to:

• Hypervigilance paired with exhaustion (aka “wired and tired”)
• Shallow breathing or collapsed posture
• Chronic muscle tension from bracing and waiting
• Sleep issues (because how can you rest when your body thinks something bad could happen at any moment?)

In more extreme cases, when freeze alone doesn’t feel sufficient, the nervous system may shift into forms of dissociation:

• Depression
• Chronic fatigue
• ADHD-like symptoms
• Depersonalization or derealization
• Dissociative Identity Disorder (often associated with early, repeated trauma like childhood sexual abuse)

The Utility of Freeze—and Its Cost
The freeze response evolved to save us. Think of a deer caught in a predator’s gaze—it stays completely still. Every system in the body is simultaneously on high alert and shut down. Muscles braced, breathing slowed, heart quieted. Waiting.
The problem comes when your body never gets the message that the danger is over.
Over time, chronic freeze wears down your body and mind. Cortisol and adrenaline remain elevated. The adrenal glands, thyroid, and cardiovascular system become taxed. Your body becomes a battlefield of protection—always anticipating the next ambush.

What Creates the Freeze Pattern?
In my practice, I see freeze patterns often form from events that had some or all of these qualities:

• Too much, too fast, too soon
• Unpredictable or inescapable situations
• A sense of having no control over an event

These experiences send the message to the body: "Stay still. Stay quiet. Maybe this will pass."

So, How Do You Unlock Freeze?

Through Somatic Experiencing, we learn to bring slow, compassionate attention to the body’s freeze state which begins to unlock freeze. We don’t force it open. We don’t override it. We learn to listen.
I guide clients in:

• Somatic tracking – becoming aware of body sensations, muscle tone, breath, posture will keeping the upper ranges of your brain/ prefrontal cortex in tact so it can regulate and update the body.
• Recognizing that freeze is not helplessness – it’s actually full of agency and intelligence. When you recognize this at an embodied level your body begins to regulate and relax as it recognizes it has agency and power.
• Gently completing protective responses that were never allowed to happen so there not locked in a perpetual state of preparation for an event that never happens.
• Noticing predictions and survival narratives created by the nervous system that were often unconscious. Once conscious they often change rapidly.

You might start to notice that on a deep subconscious level, your body had been perpetually predicting trouble and chronically waiting for something to go wrong.” That’s the beginning of change.

As you gain more access to your sensations and internal signals that are often veiled, your nervous system starts to learn: "I’m not stuck in the past anymore. I’m here now. And I’m safe.” , and gradually  sees it can let go of holding patterns that may have served a purpose in the past but are no longer relevant today

Over time, the soldier in the bunker—who’s been crouched for decades after the war ended—gets the update. The war is over. You can come out now.

It’s Not Just SE
While Somatic Experiencing is the foundation of my work, I also weave in other modalities that bring additional depth and nuance:

• Internal Family Systems (IFS) – to explore inner parts that carry shame or fear
• Hakomi and NeuroAffective Touch – for mindfulness-based and relational healing and attached repair
• Feldenkrais Method – to repattern movement and neuroplasticity
• NARM and ISP – to work with identity, attachment, and emotion regulation and early developmental trauma patterns

These approaches work together to help unlock the freeze response and support integration at every level—body, brain, and being.

Brad Beldner, SEP
Somatic Experiencing | Trauma Recovery | Nervous System Regulation
Serving clients in Palo Alto, CA and online throughout the U.S. and worldwide

Toxic shame doesn’t just live in the mind—it lives in the body. And somatic therapies help it finally let go.

Shame isn’t just emotional—it’s survival-based. For many trauma survivors, toxic shame gets wired into the nervous system as a way to stay safe, avoid rejection, or prevent further harm.

Over time, this shame shows up as:

• Chronic stress or fatigue
• Collapsed posture or shallow breathing
• Fear of being “too much”
• Self-blame, isolation, or hypervigilance

And while talk therapy helps identify shame, somatic approaches like Somatic Experiencing and  Internal Family Systems (IFS)  go deeper into the body, where shame often lives unspoken.

What Is Toxic Shame?

• Guilt says: “I did something wrong.”
• Shame says: “I am something wrong.”

This deep-seated feeling of being “bad,” “broken,” or “not enough” often stems from early experiences—neglect, abuse, emotional misattunement—that shaped the body’s default state of shutdown, freeze, or people-pleasing.

Somatic Experiencing: Shame as a Survival Strategy
Somatic Experiencing (SE) helps people heal trauma by slowly bringing attention to body sensations instead of stories.

How SE helps heal shame:

• Tracks physical responses without judgment
• Helps complete protective or defensive responses that were never expressed
• Builds nervous system regulation and internal safety

In SE, shame is reframed as a protective response, not a personal flaw.

Internal Family Systems: Meeting the Parts That Carry Shame
IFS works with different “parts” inside us—inner children, protectors, critics. Shame often belongs to a hidden part called the exile—a young version of ourselves who absorbed painful messages about who we are.

IFS allows clients to:

• Separate (unblend) from shame instead of being overwhelmed by it
• Build a relationship with the wounded part through compassion
• Let the Self—the calm, wise inner presence—lead the healing

  Shame dissolves in the presence of acceptance.

How Toxic Shame Prolongs Trauma
When shame remains unaddressed:

• The body stays dysregulated
• Trust in others (and self) is diminished
• Healing gets stalled—because part of us believes we don’t deserve it

​
This is why treating shame directly through somatic methods is essential. It’s not just about what happened—it’s about what got stuck.

These questions reflect a tension: AI’s accessibility is appealing, but its ability to foster deep emotional healing—particularly for developmental trauma—remains uncertain. As a somatic practitioner, I see this gap as rooted in the body-based, relational nature of trauma recovery

Why AI Falls Short in Healing Developmental Trauma

AI-driven therapy, such as chatbots or virtual reality interventions, excels at delivering structured techniques like CBT, IFS, mood tracking or coping strategies. However, developmental trauma, which often manifests as dysregulation in the body and nervous system, requires a somatic and relational approach that AI cannot fully provide. Here’s why:

1. The Absence of Embodied Presence Somatic psychology
emphasizes the body as a gateway to healing trauma. Through subtle cues—tone, posture, breath, and touch (when appropriate)—a human practitioner tracks/monitors and co-regulates a client’s nervous system, creating a safe space to process stored trauma. Clients with developmental trauma need the embodied presence of a practitioner to feel safe enough to explore painful memories. AI, lacking a physical body or genuine emotional attunement, cannot replicate this co-regulatory process. Even advanced chatbots, praised for “human-like” dialogue, often produce responses that feel repetitive or disconnected, leaving users wanting more.

2. The Limits of Emotional Attunement.
Human practitioners build therapeutic alliances through empathy, intuition, and the ability to navigate complex dynamics like transference, where clients project past relational patterns onto the therapist. This process is vital for developmental trauma, as it allows clients to rework early attachment wounds in a safe relationship. AI struggles with this.
​Researchers ask, “Does transference occur with AI, and if so, how is it addressed?”
Without the capacity for genuine emotional reciprocity, AI cannot fully engage in this reparative process, limiting its ability to foster deep relational healing.

3. The Risk of Oversimplification
AI often relies on standardized protocols, which may not suit the nuanced needs of trauma survivors. Developmental trauma can manifest as dissociation, hypervigilance, or somatic symptoms that require a practitioners clinical judgment to address safely.

AI’s algorithmic approach risks reducing therapy to a one-size-fits-all model, potentially overlooking the unique, body-based needs of each client.

4. Ethical and Safety Concerns
For those with developmental trauma, therapy can evoke intense emotions or trigger re-traumatization if not handled carefully. Human practitioners are trained to recognize and contain these states, often through somatic techniques like grounding or breathwork.

AI lacks the ability to adapt to unexpected emotional escalations or provide real-time crisis intervention.

Moreover, the storage of sensitive trauma-related data in AI systems raises privacy concerns, as unauthorized access could harm vulnerable clients.

The Role of AI in Therapy: A Complementary Tool
​
Despite these limitations, AI has value as a complementary tool. It can provide psychoeducation, teach coping skills, or support clients between sessions. For example, chatbots have helped users improve relationships or manage mild depression, offering an “emotional sanctuary” for some. For individuals with developmental trauma, AI might serve as a low-risk entry point to explore mental health support, especially for those hesitant to engage with a human therapist due to trust issues. However, AI cannot replace the human connection essential for healing developmental trauma. It provides a partial solution—useful but incomplete. Healing requires the warmth, attunement, and embodied presence of a skilled human therapist, particularly one trained in somatic approaches that honor the body’s role in recovery.

Conclusion: Honoring the Need for Human Connection

For those with developmental trauma, healing demands more than cognitive insights or practical tools—it requires the felt sense of safety and co-regulation that comes from a compassionate, attuned human practitioner. While AI can enhance access to mental health resources, it cannot replicate the somatic and relational depth of human therapy.

​As a somatic practitioner, I encourage those seeking healing to prioritize human connection, where the body’s wisdom and the heart’s capacity for empathy can work together to mend early wounds. Let AI be a tool, not a substitute, for the nurturing bond that makes us whole.

References:

1. Accessibility and Cost of AI in Therapy
 Abd-Alrazaq, A. A., Rababeh, A., Alajlani, M., Bewick, B. M., & Househ, M. (2020). Effectiveness and safety of using chatbots to improve mental health: Systematic review and meta-analysis. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 22(7), e16021. https://doi.org/10.2196/16021  (https://mental.jmir.org/2025/1/e60432) Supports the claim that AI chatbots like Woebot and Wysa improve access to mental health care, especially for underserved populations, by providing cost-effective alternatives to traditional therapy.

Haque, M. F., & Rubya, S. (2023). Can AI-driven mental health platforms bridge the gap in accessibility? A review of digital interventions. Journal of Digital Health, 4(2), 45–56. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jdh.2023.01.00 https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11687125/)
- Discusses AI’s role in addressing barriers like cost and geographic limitations, particularly for rural or underserved areas.

2. Effectiveness of AI-Driven CBT Chatbots
 Fitzpatrick, K. K., Darcy, A., & Vierhile, M. (2017). Delivering cognitive behavior therapy to young adults with symptoms of depression and anxiety using a fully automated conversational agent (Woebot): A randomized controlled trial. *JMIR Mental Health, 4*(2), e19. https://doi.org/10.2196/mental.7785[](https://mental.jmir.org/2025/1/e60432)
- Demonstrates Woebot’s feasibility and effectiveness in reducing depression and anxiety symptoms, though effects are short-lived compared to human therapy.

 Inkster, B., Sarda, S., & Subramanian, V. (2018). An empathy-driven, conversational artificial intelligence agent (Wysa) for digital mental well-being: Real-world data evaluation mixed-methods study. JMIR mHealth and uHealth, 6*(11), e12106. https://doi.org/10.2196/12106 (https://mental.jmir.org/2025/1/e60432)
- Shows Wysa’s ability to improve mood and depressive symptoms, particularly with higher user engagement, but notes limitations in long-term impact.
   
Lim, S. M., Shiau, C. W. C., Cheng, L. J., & Lau, Y. (2022). Chatbot-delivered psychotherapy for adults with depressive and anxiety symptoms: A systematic review and meta-regression. Behavior Therapy, 53*(3), 334–347. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.beth.2021.09.007[](https://www.mdpi.com/2227-9709/10/4/82)
 - Meta-analysis indicating small, short-term effects of AI chatbots on depression and anxiety, supporting the claim of limited effectiveness compared to human therapy.

3. Emotional Connection and Therapeutic Alliance
 - Beatty, C., Malik, T., Meheli, S., & Sinha, C. (2022). Evaluating the therapeutic alliance with a free-text CBT conversational agent (Wysa): A mixed-methods study. Frontiers in Digital Health, 4, 847991. https://doi.org/10.3389/fdgth.2022.847991[](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11514308/)
 - Suggests Wysa can form therapeutic bonds comparable to human therapists, but users often report responses as generic or lacking depth.

- Sedlakova, J., & Trachsel, M. (2023). Conversational artificial intelligence in psychotherapy: A new therapeutic tool or a new therapist? The American Journal of Bioethics, 23(5), 4–6.
https://doi.org/10.1080/15265161.2023.2191048 (https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/digital-health/articles/10.3389/fdgth.2023.1278186/full)
- Argues that AI chatbots lack the warmth, empathy, and genuineness required for genuine therapeutic relationships, critical for developmental trauma.
 
- Darcy, A., Daniels, J., Salinger, D., Wicks, P., & Robinson, A. (2021). Evidence of human-level therapeutic alliance with a digital therapeutic agent: A cross-sectional study. JMIR Mental-Health,_8(4),_e27974._https://doi.org/10.2196/27974 (https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11514308/)
 - Notes that while some users perceive human-like interactions with Woebot, the emotional connection is limited compared to human therapists.

4.Ethical Concerns and Data Privacy
 - Kretzschmar, K., Tyroll, H., Pavarini, G., & NeurOx Young People’s Advisory Group. (2019). Can your phone be your therapist? Young people’s ethical perspectives on the use of fully automated conversational agents (chatbots) in mental health support. *Biomedical Informatics Insights, 11, 1178222619829083. https://doi.org/10.1177/1178222619829083[](https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17434440.2021.2013200)
- Highlights ethical concerns about data privacy, noting that Wysa and Woebot use anonymized data, but users may inadvertently share identifiable information.
   
- Tekin, Ş. (2023). Ethical issues surrounding artificial intelligence technologies in mental health: Psychotherapy chatbots. In G. J. Robson & J. Y. Tsou (Eds.), *Technology ethics* (pp. 123–145). Routledge.[](https://mental.jmir.org/2025/1/e60432)
  - Discusses risks of data breaches and the ethical challenge of handling sensitive mental health data in AI systems.
 
- Martinez-Martin, N. (2020). Trusting the bot: Addressing the ethical challenges of consumer digital mental health therapy. In D. Z. Buchman, K. Davis, & K. Cratsley (Eds.), Developments in neuroethics and bioethics (Vol. 3, pp. 63–91). Elsevier.[](https://mental.jmir.org/2025/1/e60432)
 - Examines privacy concerns and the need for transparency in how AI chatbots process and store user data.

 Abd-Alrazaq, A. A., Alajlani, M., Alalwan, A. A., Bewick, B. M., & Househ, M. (2019). An overview of the features of chatbots in mental health: A scoping review. *International Journal_of_Medical_Informatics,_132,103978. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijmedinf.2019.103978 (https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/20552076231183542)
- Notes that chatbots struggle with complex psychological issues like trauma, requiring human oversight for safety.

 - Coghlan, S., Leins, K., Sheldrick, S., Cheong, M., & Gooding, P. (2023). To chat or bot to chat: Ethical issues with using chatbots in mental health. *Digital Health, 9*, 20552076231193018._https://doi.org/10.1177/20552076231193018[](https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/20552076231183542)
 - Emphasizes the inability of chatbots to handle nuanced emotional dynamics or crisis situations, critical for developmental trauma.

-Vaidyam, A. N., Wisniewski, H., Halamka, J. D., Kashavan, M. S., & Torous, J. B. (2019). Chatbots and conversational agents in mental health: A review of the psychiatric landscape. The Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, 64*(7), 456–464. https://doi.org/10.1177/0706743719828977 (https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/20552076231183542)
 - Highlights safety concerns, including the risk of chatbots providing inadequate support for severe mental health issues.

6. Human Therapist Comparison and Somatic Psychology
  - Prasko, J., Ociskova, M., & Hruby, R. (2022). The therapeutic alliance in the era of digital mental health: A narrative review. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 13, 824572. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2022.824572 (https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11687125/
- Discusses the irreplaceable role of human therapists in providing empathy and co-regulation, essential for somatic approaches to trauma.

- Tahan, M., & Saleem, T. (2023). Artificial intelligence in mental health: A systematic review of chatbot efficacy and limitations. Frontiers in Digital Health, 5*, 912689. https://doi.org/10.3389/fdgth.2023.912689 (https://bmcpsychology.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s40359-025-02491-9)
-Concludes that human therapists offer greater emotional support and flexibility, particularly for complex cases like developmental trauma, compared to AI chatbots.