Frequently asked questions
What is somatic therapy?
Somatic comes from the Greek σῶμα (sôma), meaning body. Somatic therapy works with the body as a living, feeling entity that holds experiences and participates in healing.
Unlike approaches that treat mind and body as separate, somatic approaches recognise that emotions, memories, and stress responses are embodied: held and expressed through the body. When we feel anxious, it is not merely a thought; it is a quickening of the heart, a tightening of the muscles, a change in breathing.
Learn more: Somatic approaches
What is the difference between top-down and bottom-up therapy?
Top-down therapy starts with thoughts, beliefs, and narratives, assuming that changing these will affect felt experience.
Bottom-up therapy starts with bodily sensations, movements, and physiological states, understanding that shifts at this level naturally affect thoughts and emotions.
Neither is superior; they often work best in combination. But bottom-up approaches can reach places that talking alone cannot, particularly for experiences that occurred before we had language or that overwhelmed our capacity to process.
Learn more: Somatic approaches
What is trauma?
Trauma is the lasting impact on your nervous system of experiences that overwhelmed your capacity to cope.
It occurs when:
- Something happens that is too much, too fast, or too intense for your system to process
- Your survival responses are activated but cannot complete
- You are left in a state of ongoing nervous system dysregulation
Trauma is not defined by the event itself, but by the impact on your system. The same event might be traumatic for one person and not for another, depending on many factors including resilience, support, previous experiences, and nervous system capacity.
Learn more: What is trauma?
What are the different types of trauma?
| Type | Description |
|---|---|
| Acute | Single distressing event (accident, assault, sudden loss) |
| Chronic | Repeated or prolonged exposure (ongoing violence, bullying) |
| Developmental | Occurs during development, often with caregivers |
| Collective | Experienced by groups or across generations |
| Medical | From medical experiences and procedures |
| Vicarious | From witnessing others’ trauma |
Each type has different characteristics and may need different healing approaches. Developmental trauma, which affects your core sense of self and how you relate to others, typically needs long-term, relationship-based healing.
Learn more: What is trauma?
What does healing from trauma mean?
Healing from trauma is not about erasing what happened or returning to who you were before. Difficult experiences change us, and some of those changes are permanent.
Healing means:
- Greater ability to tolerate uncomfortable sensations and emotions
- More flexibility in how you respond to stress
- Increased capacity to return to baseline after activation
- More access to genuine connection
- Less fragmentation between what you know and what you feel
Learn more: What is healing?
Is healing linear?
Healing does not follow a straight path. There are plateaus, regressions, and times when it feels like nothing is changing or everything is getting worse.
This non-linearity is actually built into how healing works:
- We often revisit the same issues at deeper levels over time
- After significant releases, there are periods of integration where nothing seems to happen
- As we build capacity, deeper material becomes accessible (which can look like getting worse)
- Life circumstances affect our state, and that is normal
Learn more: What is healing?
What is the stress response?
When your nervous system perceives threat, it triggers a stress response designed to keep you alive. The hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis releases stress hormones: adrenaline for immediate response, and cortisol for sustained alertness.
This activates the sympathetic nervous system (‘fight or flight’): your heart rate goes up, breathing quickens, blood flows to your muscles. Once the threat passes, the parasympathetic nervous system (‘rest and digest’) brings everything back to baseline.
Problems arise when this alarm never fully switches off.
Learn more: The nervous system
What is polyvagal theory?
Polyvagal theory, developed by Dr Stephen Porges, offers a more nuanced understanding of the nervous system. The key insight is that the vagus nerve has two distinct branches:
- Dorsal vagal complex (shutdown system) — When threat is overwhelming and there is no way to escape, this system takes over: collapse, dissociation, numbness
- Ventral vagal complex (social engagement system) — When active, we feel safe and connected, with warm voice and expressive face
This means instead of two states (activated or calm), there are actually three: social engagement, mobilisation, and shutdown.
Learn more: The nervous system
What is fight, flight, freeze?
These are survival responses triggered by the nervous system:
- Fight — Mobilisation of aggression to confront the threat. Muscles tense, jaw clenches, hands form fists.
- Flight — Mobilisation to escape. Energy surges to the legs, the heart races.
- Freeze — A hybrid state: the sympathetic system is activated, but immobilisation is layered on top. Intense internal activation, but the body cannot move.
- Collapse — Full shutdown: the body goes limp, consciousness dims, dissociation occurs.
These responses are automatic: they are not conscious decisions but survival mechanisms.
Learn more: The nervous system
What is the fawn or appeasement response?
Appeasement (sometimes called fawn) is a survival response where the nervous system attempts to neutralise threat by placating it. The ventral vagal system, normally used for genuine connection, becomes hijacked for survival.
Signs include:
- Difficulty saying no or setting boundaries
- Automatically prioritising others’ needs
- People-pleasing at significant personal cost
- Fear of conflict or disapproval
- Feeling responsible for others’ emotions
It typically develops when mobilisation is not an option and the threat is someone you depend on.
Learn more: The nervous system
What is neuroception?
Neuroception, a term coined by Stephen Porges, is your nervous system’s automatic assessment of safety or danger. This happens below conscious awareness: your nervous system is constantly scanning and making split-second determinations.
Neuroception works in two directions:
- Top-down — From thoughts and interpretations
- Bottom-up — From signals inside the body (interoception)
This is why you can feel unsafe even when you logically know you are safe. A trauma history can create a very low threshold to detect threat.
Learn more: The nervous system
What is the window of tolerance?
The window of tolerance is the zone of arousal in which you can function effectively. Within this window, you can think clearly, feel your emotions without being overwhelmed, and respond flexibly to challenges.
- Above the window is hyperarousal: anxiety, panic, rage, restlessness
- Below the window is hypoarousal: numbness, collapse, disconnection, shutdown
Healing work aims to widen this window over time, increasing your capacity to stay present with a broader range of experience.
Learn more: The window of tolerance
What is interoception?
Interoception is the sensing of what is happening inside your body: heartbeat, breath, gut feelings, muscle tension, temperature. This information tells you whether you are hungry, tired, anxious, or calm: not as a thought, but as a felt sense.
This capacity is foundational to self-regulation: you cannot regulate what you cannot feel.
Trauma can disrupt interoception through:
- Numbing and disconnection
- Hypervigilance to internal signals
- Misinterpretation of body signals
- Fragmented awareness (some areas accessible, others blank)
The good news is that interoceptive awareness can be developed with practice.
Learn more: Where trauma lives in the body
Where does trauma live in the body?
Trauma lives in three interconnected systems:
Chronic muscle tension — The flexor muscles on the front of the body remain contracted in a protective pattern: jaw clenching, forward head posture, collapsed posture, tight hip flexors, inner thigh tension.
Fascia — The connective tissue throughout the body can hold tension patterns for years. It contains more sensory nerve endings than the skin and holds both physical restriction and emotional memory.
The deep front line — A continuous line of tissue connecting the inner arch of the foot, through the inner leg, psoas, diaphragm, and up to the jaw.
Learn more: Where trauma lives in the body
What is the psoas?
The psoas is a deep hip flexor muscle connecting the lumbar spine to the legs. It is often called the ‘muscle of the soul’ because of its intimate connection to the diaphragm, the fight-or-flight response, and emotional holding.
When the nervous system is stuck in defensive mode, the psoas remains chronically contracted, contributing to:
- Lower back pain
- Restricted breathing
- Hip tightness
- Difficulty standing fully upright
The psoas is a key muscle in TRE™ work: the exercises specifically target the muscles around the pelvis to activate the tremor mechanism.
Learn more: Where trauma lives in the body
Can trauma be healed?
Yes. Trauma is not destiny.
The brain operates on a ‘use it or lose it’ principle. Through repeated experiences of safe activation followed by successful return to calm, the nervous system learns it does not need to stay braced.
Neuroplasticity means:
- Old stress patterns weaken from disuse
- New pathways for healthy regulation strengthen
- Even subcortical regions where trauma responses originate can be retrained
This is why consistency matters more than intensity. Each gentle session that ends in regulation reinforces the new pattern.
Learn more: Neuroplasticity and growth
What is post-traumatic growth?
Post-traumatic growth is the positive psychological change that can emerge from struggling with highly challenging circumstances.
Research has found that:
- Most people bounce back to baseline after traumatic events
- Some emerge with new strengths or capacities
- Growth can manifest as greater appreciation for life, deeper relationships, a sense of personal strength, or spiritual deepening
This does not mean trauma is desirable: no one would choose it. But humans have remarkable capacity to find meaning and grow through even terrible experiences.
Learn more: Neuroplasticity and growth
What is self-regulation?
Self-regulation is the ability to manage your own nervous system state: to calm yourself when activated, energise yourself when depleted, and stay within your window of tolerance.
It includes:
- Recognising your body’s signals
- Using techniques like grounding and breathing
- Knowing when to stop or seek support
Self-regulation is a skill that develops with practice. The more you practise, the more automatic it becomes.
Learn more: Self-regulation
What is co-regulation?
Co-regulation is nervous system regulation that happens through connection with another person. Our nervous systems are designed to attune to each other: a calm presence can help settle an activated nervous system.
This is why supportive relationships are so important for healing, and why working with a skilled practitioner can be valuable.
Learn more: Co-regulation
What is resourcing?
Resources are how we create felt safety. They can be:
- Present-moment sensations — Warmth, comfort, the feeling of your feet on the ground
- Memories — A time when you felt really good, a beloved place or person
- Imagination — A safe place, an imagined protector
- External supports — People, places, or objects that feel calming
When we access a resource, we give the nervous system cues that it can let go. Building a library of resources, and learning to access them when needed, is a core skill in somatic work.
Learn more: Resourcing
What is titration?
Titration means working with small, manageable amounts of activation at a time. Like titrating a chemical solution drop by drop, we work with activation in small doses rather than all at once.
Too much too fast overwhelms the system. Small amounts can be processed and integrated.
In practice, this means:
- Shorter sessions initially
- Working with body areas gradually
- Pausing before becoming overwhelmed
- Building capacity over time
Learn more: Building capacity
What is pendulation?
Pendulation is the natural oscillation between activation and settling, between distress and resource.
Rather than staying in distress, we move back and forth:
- Touch into difficulty
- Return to resource
- Touch into difficulty again
- Return to resource
Staying in overwhelm re-traumatises. Pendulation allows processing without overwhelm. This teaches the nervous system that it can move into activation and successfully come back.
Learn more: Building capacity