Somatic Techniques to Support the Nervous Systems
As therapists, we can learn to read this nonverbal language of movement to understand what is beneath our clients’ stories. Movement can be a diagnostic and therapeutic tool we can use to intervene and help regulate a trauma activation or facilitate working through a stuck emotion. It can be something we utilize to explore, lead, mirror, and join.
That’s why I wrote Trauma-Sensitive Movement: 96 Somatic Techniques to Support Nervous System Regulation and Embodied Transformation in Therapy—to help any therapist wanting to skillfully use movement as an intervention.
In the trauma field, there’s a large emphasis on “soothe and settle,” which is critical in establishing internal safety. What is less practiced is how to integrate the whole spectrum of our movement expressions. Big expressive emotions that are not easily soothed or settled need a different engagement, as do subtle intrinsic movements.
So, what’s the key to transformation?
From my decades of clinical experience, I believe that reading the body as being movement itself and learning how to meet the client’s range of expression is where the magic happens. When we can learn to read what the client needs and tailor exercises to work with the moving body as a gateway into emotions and deeply held beliefs, that’s where trauma recovery happens.
Seven Reasons to Bring Movement into Therapy
- You bring variation to your therapy work.
- You offer deeper somatic trauma-resolution techniques.
- Clients who are kinesthetic will feel met and valued.
- The work is more effective because you expand on your relational interventions.
- It’s diagnostic. You can literally read the moving body to identify where there is stuck, unprocessed trauma.
- You learn to track a moving body telling unspoken stories that offer clues as to how the client interacts in the world and how they perceive themselves, others, and their past.
- Movement makes us more empathic. Our mirror neurons begin firing when we see movement, and by being with movement we better understand the client’s inner world, which sometimes holds unexplainable, unspeakable horrors. Movement is a direct line of communication to these events—and to healing.
Manuela Mischke-Reeds, MA, MFT, is a somatic trauma psychotherapist, author, international teacher of somatic psychology, and senior Hakomi trainer. She is the founder of Embodywise, an international learning community offering professional training in trauma therapy, somatic psychology, and the Hakomi Method, and is a co-founder of the Hakomi Institute of California.
She is the developer of the Innate Somatic Intelligence Trauma Therapy Approach (ISITTA), an integrative somatic psychotherapy framework that supports trauma recovery through nervous system regulation, embodied awareness, movement-based integration, and relational therapeutic processes.
With over 30 years of clinical experience, Manuela has taught professional training programs internationally across North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia. In the field of psychedelic therapy, she offers specialized somatic approaches, including somatic therapy techniques, movement-based integration, and ethical touch practices, to support psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy through a trauma-informed, relational lens.
She is the author of several books, including Embodied Psychedelic Therapy: A Somatic Guide (W. W. Norton, with Joshua Sylvae), Somatic Psychotherapy Toolbox (PESI), Trauma-Sensitive Movement (PESI), and 8 Keys to Practicing Mindfulness (W. W. Norton).
She is also a contributing author to Hakomi Mindfulness-Centered Somatic Psychotherapy: A Comprehensive Guide to Theory and Practice (W. W. Norton), The Complete Trauma Treatment Guide (PESI), and The Praeger Handbook of Community Mental Health Practice (Praeger), for which she authored the chapter "The Role of Trauma in Community Health: A Somatic Perspective."
Speaker Disclosures:
Financial: Manuela Mischke-Reeds is the founder of Embodywise and has an employment relationship with Embodylab. She receives compensation as a consultant and royalties as a published author. She receives a speaking honorarium, recording, and book royalties from PESI, Inc. She has no relevant financial relationships with ineligible organizations.
Non-financial: Manuel Mischke-Reeds has no relevant non-financial relationships.
