The Spiritual Side of Somatic Therapy: Mind-Body-Spirit Healing

spiritual somatic therapy

When Talking Isn't Enough: The Call for Mind-Body-Spirit Healing

Have you ever been in therapy and felt like there was just too much talking?

Don't get me wrong, talk therapy is amazing in how it helps us understand our past, orient to our present, and envision our future. But sometimes talking doesn't feel like it changes a darn thing. And the truth is, it doesn't.

Understanding our past and changing our mind is only part of the work in psychotherapy. The real magic happens when we honor the mind-body-spirit connection, bring our nervous system into the room, learn to access the wisdom of our body, and increase our capacity to metabolize our emotions and experiences.

This is the power of somatic therapy.

In my practice, I often witness the same patterns show up everyday: clients arrive wound up, moving too fast, their minds loud and racing. Together, we slow down, anchor into the body, and relax the nervous system. And then something beautiful happens, the amazing humans I work with begin to learn the language of their heart, accessing wisdom that was always there, just waiting beneath the chaos of everyday life. 

Life becomes more easeful. More aligned. More real.

This is the invitation of spiritual somatic therapy: to heal not just the mind, but honor the intricate dance of mind, body, heart, and spirit. In this article, I'll share what I’ve learned at the intersection of clinical psychology and spiritual wisdom, how your body holds both the memory of your wounds and the medicine for your healing, and why learning to listen to its intelligence might be the key you've been searching for.

The Body Remembers What the Mind Forgets

What does it mean to feel 'at home' in your body? Do you ever draw a blank when trying to connect with the sensations in your? Do you wonder why your therapist keeps asking you 'where do you feel that in your body'?

The truth is: Your body encodes every moment of your life. Every experience, relationship, word, breath, and movement has been encoded into your cells, your mind, and the pathways connecting your mind-body-spirit (aka your nervous system).

Coming home to yourself is the invitation to feel at ease in your own skin, to find peace with the experiences you have had to endure in your life, and learning how to love all parts of yourself. It's not just self-love for how you look, and what you've achieved, but it's a freedom to be, to move, to speak your truth and show up in the world as your true self.

In a world that prioritizes intellectual knowing, most of us have spent years living from the neck up, relying on our analytical minds while becoming disconnected from the wisdom that resides within our bodies. Yet ancient psychospiritual teachings have always understood what modern neuroscience is now proving: that body, mind, and spirit form one integrated system. The koshas (a map of our layers of being from the yoga tradition) has offered us this understanding for thousands of years, revealing how our physical, energetic, mental, and spiritual dimensions interweave to create this human experience.

Your nervous system is a conduit between physical sensations and spiritual aliveness. It recognizes the intelligence that lives in every cell of your being. When practiced through this lens, somatic therapy becomes a sacred practice of reuniting with your divine nature through the wisdom of your body.
— Kim Burris

As a holistic psychotherapist in practice for over 10 years, with a background in yoga, meditation and energy work, I've witnessed the transformative power of somatic therapy in helping people reconnect with their bodies, regulate their nervous systems, and release the physical imprints of past experiences. When we bring the body into the therapeutic space, healing often unfolds in ways that talk therapy alone cannot access.

What Is Somatic Therapy? 

Somatic therapy is a body-centered therapeutic approach that integrates physical sensations, movement, and nervous system awareness into the healing process. Unlike traditional talk therapy that focuses primarily on thoughts and verbal processing, somatic therapy recognizes that our bodies hold memories, emotions, and trauma that can be accessed and healed when we go beyond the thinking mind and tap into the wisdom of the body.

The word "somatic" comes from the Greek word "soma," meaning the living body in its wholeness. This therapeutic approach is based on the understanding that the mind and body are interconnected, and that psychological issues often manifest as physical symptoms in the body. By working directly with bodily sensations, breathing patterns, and nervous system responses, somatic therapy helps release stored trauma and restore emotional integrity in the body.

What Is Spiritual Somatic Therapy?

While traditional somatic therapy focuses on the mind-body connection, spiritual somatic therapy expands this framework to include the dimensions of spirituality and consciousness. This holistic approach recognizes your body is not just a physical form, but a sacred form that bridges this human experience with your spiritual essence.

Spiritual somatic therapy honors the mind-body-spirit connection. It works with the understanding that your nervous system serves as a conduit between physical sensations and spiritual aliveness. It recognizes the intelligence that lives in every cell of your being. When practiced through this lens, somatic therapy becomes more than a healing modality, it becomes a sacred practice of reuniting with your divine nature through the wisdom of your body.

This approach integrates:

  • Traditional somatic techniques for nervous system regulation

  • Energy work and subtle body awareness

  • Mindfulness and contemplative practices

  • Recognition of the body's role in spiritual awakening

  • Understanding symptoms as invitations for deeper transformation

At The Holistic Counseling Center, we specialize in this spiritual approach to somatic therapy, bridging evidence-based techniques with the understanding that true healing holds space for tending to your body, mind, heart and spirit.

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The Core Principles of Somatic Therapy

Somatic therapy is based on several key principles:

  1. The body and mind are inseparable — Our thoughts, emotions, and physical sensations are part of an integrated whole

  2. The body stores unprocessed experiences — Especially when they're overwhelming or traumatic

  3. Healing happens through embodied awareness — By mindfully attending to bodily sensations and experiences

  4. The body has innate wisdom and healing capacity — When we listen deeply, our bodies guide us toward healing

These principles form the foundation of all somatic approaches, whether you're working with anxiety, trauma, depression, self-esteem, authentic relating or spiritual awakening.

Types of Somatic Therapy

The world of somatic therapy offers many pathways to healing, each with its own wisdom and techniques:

Somatic Experiencing® (SE) Focuses on releasing trauma stored in the nervous system. This gentle approach helps you complete interrupted defensive responses and discharge trapped survival energy, allowing your system to return to its natural state of balance.

Hakomi Uses mindfulness and somatic awareness to explore core beliefs held in the body, and access the deeper wisdom of your Highest Self. This approach combines Eastern philosophy with Western psychology, using gentle experiments to uncover how past experiences shape current patterns.

Brainspotting This powerful method uses specific eye positions to access and process trauma held deep in the brain and body. By finding "brainspots" — eye positions that correlate with internal experience — the self-healing power of the brain can be activated and unfold at a deep neurological level.

EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) While not always categorized as a somatic therapy, EMDR is deeply somatic in nature. It recognizes that trauma memories are stored in the body and uses bilateral stimulation (often through eye movements) to help the brain process these memories and release emotional pain. 

Polyvagal-Informed Therapy This approach works directly with your autonomic nervous system. It helps you recognize and track the different nervous systems states: ventral vagal (safe and connected), sympathetic (activated), and dorsal vagal (shutdown).

Sensorimotor Psychotherapy This integrative approach combines somatic awareness with attachment theory and neuroscience. It helps you track the physical sensations and movements associated with emotions and memories, creating new opportunities for healing trauma.

Breathwork Conscious breathing techniques can directly influence your nervous system, release emotional blockages, and connect you with your life force energy. From simple coherent breathing to more intensive practices, breath becomes a bridge between body and spirit.

Somatic Movement Intuitive, gentle movements that allow your body to express and release long-held patterns. This might include shaking, stretching, or any movement your body needs to complete its natural healing responses.

Body-Based Mindfulness Practices that cultivate present-moment awareness through bodily sensations, helping you develop a deeper relationship with your internal landscape and innate wisdom.

Energy Work Incorporating understanding of chakras, meridians, and energetic patterns to support holistic healing and spiritual alignment.

Each modality offers a unique approach to healing. At The Holistic Counseling Center we weave multiple modalities together based on what will serve you and your healing journey. The beauty of somatic therapy lies not in choosing one "right" approach, but in finding the combination that helps you come home to the wisdom of your body.

Somatic Therapy vs. Talk Therapy

Somatic Therapy:

  • Includes body sensations, movement, and nervous system responses

  • Works through embodied experience and felt sense

  • Engages the entire nervous system and body wisdom

  • Changes patterns through body-based practices

  • Healing happens through releasing and rewiring

  • Sessions involve both talking and body awareness practices

Traditional Talk Therapy:

  • Focuses primarily on thoughts and mental understanding

  • Works through verbal processing and insight

  • Engages the prefrontal cortex (thinking brain)

  • Changes patterns through cognitive awareness

  • Healing happens through understanding and reframing

  • Sessions primarily involve discussing and analyzing

The Power of Integration: The most impactful healing often happens when we combine both traditional talk therapy and somatic modalities. Talking helps you feel seen, safe, and connected. Once this foundation is established, you can usually drop into your body and access deeper wisdom that words alone cannot reach.

Is Somatic Therapy Evidence-Based?

Yes! Extensive research supports the effectiveness of somatic approaches:

  • Studies show that trauma is stored in the body and nervous system, not just in our memories (van der Kolk, 2014)

  • Research demonstrates that body-based interventions can effectively regulate the nervous system and reduce symptoms of PTSD, anxiety, and depression (Payne et al., 2015)

  • Neuroscience confirms that working with the body creates lasting changes in brain structure and function (Porges, 2011)

  • The integration of spiritual practices with somatic therapy shows even greater benefits, with studies indicating that mindfulness and body awareness practices enhance emotional regulation and overall well-being (Price & Hooven, 2018)

  • Recent neuroscience research confirms that somatic interventions create measurable changes in brain connectivity and emotional regulation centers (D'Andrea et al., 2023)

  • A recent systematic review found somatic therapies significantly effective for treating trauma-related disorders, with lasting improvements in nervous system regulation (Kuhfuß et al., 2022)

  • Comprehensive reviews of breathing practices demonstrate their effectiveness in treating psychiatric conditions, with pranayama-based interventions showing particular promise for anxiety and stress-related disorders (Brown & Gerbarg, 2017)

  • Studies on yoga psychotherapy demonstrate that combining somatic awareness with psychological insight creates more sustainable healing than either approach alone (Caplan, 2009)

  • Research on the intersection of mindfulness and interoception reveals how contemplative body-based practices enhance spiritual experiences and psychological well-being simultaneously (Gibson, 2019)

The Science Behind Spiritual Somatic Therapy

At The Holistic Counseling Center, we draw from both modern neuroscience and time-tested psychospiritual teachings to create a uniquely integrated approach to healing. In my years of personal practice and professional experience, I've found that the wisdom traditions have always known what science is now validating: that true healing happens when we honor the body as sacred, and recognize it as the bridge between the mind, body, heart and soul. 

Yoga Psychology: The Original Mind-Body Medicine

Research now confirms what yogis have known for millennia: the breath directly regulates our nervous system. Studies show that pranayama (yoga breathwork) activates the parasympathetic nervous system, reducing anxiety and depression more effectively than many conventional treatments. Breathwork isn't just a way to relax, it's a precise technology for shifting our physiological state.

The spiritual understanding of how specific postures and breathing patterns affect our emotional states has now been validated by research showing that yoga directly impacts the HPA axis (our stress response system) and increases GABA production (our calming neurotransmitter). When we combine these practices with modern somatic therapy, we're working with tools refined over thousands of years and validated by contemporary neuroscience.

Awakening and Spiritual Bypassing

Spiritual growth without somatic integration often leads to what psychologists call "spiritual bypassing," which is when we use spiritual practices and concepts to avoid feeling difficult emotions. True psychospiritual healing requires us to descend into the body, not transcend it.

A somatic approach to awakening and deepening into our spirituality recognizes that awakening isn't about leaving the body behind but about fully inhabiting it. Research on contemplative practices shows that the most sustainable spiritual growth happens through embodied awareness, not dissociative transcendence.

Energy and Consciousness in Somatic Therapy

Drawing from over a decade of personal practice and professional training in the Sri Vidya tradition, I've discovered how ancient yogic wisdom perfectly complements modern somatic therapy. When we honor the wisdom of the body to transform our mind and our consciousness, deep healing happens. Three principles from this tradition particularly guide our work with clients:

  1. The Sacred Body — Your body is a living prayer, a yantra (sacred geometric form) through which consciousness expresses itself. Each energy center serves as a portal to different dimensions of awareness, and healing happens through activating and aligning our energetic architecture.

  2. Shakti as Life Force — What we call anxiety, depression, or trauma can be understood as disrupted shakti (life force energy). Rather than pathologizing symptoms, we recognize them as life force seeking its natural expression. Energy follows focus, and through somatic practices, we guide this life force toward healing.

  3. The Spiritual Heart — In the center of your chest lies what many spiritual traditions call the psychic being or the hridaya (spiritual heart); it’s not just the physical organ but a center of consciousness. All true healing emerges from this place where the individual meets the universal.

These concepts aren’t just mystical ideas or symbols, they're practical tools we use alongside evidence-based somatic techniques in our psychotherapy sessions.

The Body's Blueprint for Healing

Your body knows how to heal. The real work is learning how to listen. 

After 10 years of clinical practice and 20 years exploring the intersection of psychology and spirituality, I’ve developed a framework for healing that I call: The Body's Blueprint for Healing.

This framework is a synthesis born from my training at the intersection of Western psychology and Eastern wisdom, particularly my deep study in the Sri Vidya tantric yoga tradition, which maps consciousness through the body in ways that perfectly complement modern neuroscience.

What makes this framework unique is how it bridges three worlds that are rarely integrated:

  • Evidence-based psychotherapy techniques that honor the logical mind

  • Modern neuroscience that validates ancient wisdom traditions

  • Time-tested psychospiritual practices that honor the soul's journey

Through years of clinical observation and personal practice, I’ve noticed that true healing consistently includes six interconnected realms. These steps aren't linear, but dimensions of healing that expand and contract, spiral and weave together, each supporting and amplifying the others:

  1. The Nervous System — Your autonomic nervous system serves as the sacred bridge between your earthly experience and spiritual essence, translating divine wisdom into embodied knowing. What the yogis call nadis (energy channels), we now understand as the pathways of the nervous system carrying both information and prana (life force).

  2. The Energy Body — Your chakras, meridians, and energy centers create a map for healing that goes beyond what the mind alone can comprehend. This system, understood in wisdom traditions for thousands of years, is now being validated by research on biofields and energy medicine.

  3. The Spiritual Heart — Your spiritual heart (what Sri Aurobindo called the psychic being) offers direct access to your divine nature and highest wisdom. This isn't just metaphorical, research now shows the heart has its own neural network and influences our entire system, confirming what mystics have always known.

  4. The Somatic Memory Bank — Your body stores not just trauma but also your capacity for joy, pleasure, and aliveness. Every cell holds both memory and medicine, the wisdom of what happened and the blueprint for healing.

  5. The Mystical Mind — Your brain supports both psychological and spiritual healing by making meaning, processing your experiences, and connecting the body to the nervous system and the spiritual realms. It’s the supercomputer that translates and contains all of your experiences.

  6. The Integration Portal — Where mind, body, and spirit meet universal consciousness. This is where psychospiritual wisdom meets lived experience, where the whisper of the heart meets the wisdom of the mind.

This framework is the foundation of our work at The Holistic Counseling Center, guiding how we help clients move from fragmentation to wholeness, from surviving to thriving. It's what allows us to hold both the clinical rigor necessary for deep psychological work and the spiritual reverence that honors each person's sacred healing journey.

When we understand that the mind-body-spirit circuitry is real and interconnected, we realize that addressing the body in our healing isn’t optional, it’s essential.
— Kim Burris

How Does Somatic Therapy Work? 

Somatic therapy works by gently guiding your nervous system back into a regulated state where self-healing can occur. Through mindful attention to bodily sensations, breathing patterns, and movement, you can learn to release stored trauma and reconnect with the innate wisdom that lives in your body.

When we understand that the mind-body-spirit circuitry is real and interconnected, we realize that addressing the body in our healing isn't optional, it's essential.

And here’s a gentle reminder: It's often easier to change your mind by engaging the body in movement, breathwork, or energy work than by thinking your way to transformation.

The Neuroscience of Somatic Healing

Your nervous system operates through three primary states, each offering a doorway to different aspects of your being:

  • Ventral Vagal (Connection): This is your optimal state where you feel safe, connected, and open. Here, your spiritual heart can speak clearly, and you can access your Highest Self.

  • Sympathetic (Mobilization): The fight-or-flight response that, when balanced, provides the energy for transformation and aligned action.

  • Dorsal Vagal (Immobilization): The freeze response that, when understood somatically, can become a portal to deep stillness and spiritual insight.

Somatic therapy can help you access the safety needed for your body's wisdom to emerge and guide your healing journey.

Beyond the Body: The Spiritual Dimensions of Somatic Therapy

What makes spiritual somatic therapy transformative is its capacity to bridge the seen and unseen realms. When we work somatically through a spiritual framework, we're not just releasing muscle tension, we're also:

  • Clearing energetic blockages in your chakra system and energy body

  • Cultivating intuition through embodied awareness

  • Accessing source energy through breath and movement

  • Aligning with your Highest Self through nervous system regulation

  • Opening the spiritual heart for divine guidance

This is what distinguishes spiritual somatic therapy from purely clinical approaches, we honor both the science and the sacred mystery of your healing journey.

What are the Benefits of Somatic Therapy?

Somatic therapy offers healing benefits that extend beyond traditional talk therapy:

  • Releases stored trauma from the nervous system and body tissues

  • Regulates the nervous system for increased emotional capacity

  • Reduces anxiety and overwhelm by resolving dysregulation in the body

  • Improves emotional regulation through somatic awareness

  • Strengthens mind-body connection and intuitive knowing

  • Supports spiritual awakening and energetic alignment

  • Relieves chronic pain linked to emotional holding patterns

  • Restores natural vitality and life force energy

5 Surprising Benefits of Somatic Therapy

While most people come to somatic therapy seeking relief from anxiety, trauma, or pain, what they discover goes far beyond symptom management. As you deepen into this work, learning the language of your body and trusting its wisdom, five gifts naturally begin to emerge:

somatic therapy benefits, spiritual somatic therapy benefits

1. Reconnection with Your Body's Divine Intelligence

Your body speaks a language that’s more subtle than words, one of sensation, intuition, and energetic knowing. Somatic therapy teaches you to:

  • Trust the divine design of your life as it expresses through bodily wisdom

  • Recognize physical sensations as spiritual guidance

  • Honor your body as a sacred teacher, not something to overcome

2. Nervous System Regulation

When you learn to regulate your nervous system, you're not just managing stress, you're:

  • Creating a clear channel for spiritual connection

  • Building capacity to hold higher frequencies of energy

  • Developing resilience for spiritual awakening and growth

3. Healing the Root Cause of Trauma

Trauma lives in the body, stored in our tissues and nervous system. Somatic therapy offers:

  • Completion of interrupted responses that keep you stuck in survival mode

  • Integration of fragmented aspects of self, similar to soul retrieval

  • Transformation of stored pain into wisdom and compassion

4. Increased Emotional Intelligence

By learning to track sensations and their connection to emotions, you develop:

  • Greater capacity to feel without becoming overwhelmed

  • Ability to metabolize difficult emotions rather than bypass them

  • Deeper empathy and attunement with others

5. Spiritual Embodiment

Perhaps the most surprising benefit of spiritual somatic therapy is learning that embodiment is a spiritual practice. Through this sacred work, you discover:

  • Your body is a living prayer

  • Movement is meditation

  • Breath is a direct connection to Source

  • Physical presence is a spiritual practice

What Techniques are Used in Somatic Therapy?

Somatic therapy techniques are body-centered practices that help release stored trauma, regulate the nervous system, and support healing. These include:

  • Breath work - Using conscious breathing to regulate the nervous system

  • Body scanning - Developing awareness of physical sensations

  • Mindfulness - Cultivating present-moment awareness of thoughts, emotions, and sensations

  • Gentle movement - Allowing the body to express and release held patterns

  • Touch - Supporting nervous system regulation

  • Eye movements - Using specific eye positions to access and heal trauma stored in the brain and body (most common in EMDR and Brainspotting therapy)

  • Grounding exercises - Connecting with the earth and present moment

  • Pendulation - Moving between comfort and discomfort to build resilience

  • Resourcing - Finding and strengthening areas of calm in the body

  • Titration - Working with small amounts of activation for safety

5 Somatic Therapy Practices

The beauty of somatic work is that you can practice it anywhere. Here are five of my favorite techniques to help you reconnect with your body's wisdom and support your healing journey: 

1. The Sacred Pause: Orienting to Safety

When anxiety, overwhelm or activation arises:

  • Pause and place one hand on your heart, one on your belly

  • Look around your environment slowly, letting your eyes land on something beautiful

  • Name five things that signal safety in this moment

  • Feel the support of the earth beneath you

  • Notice how your body responds to these reminders of safety

This simple practice activates your ventral vagal system, creating space for your nervous system to settle and your higher wisdom to emerge.

2. Heart-Centered Breathing 

To access the wisdom of your spiritual heart:

  • Place both hands over your heart center

  • Breathe directly into this space, imagining your breath as golden light

  • With each exhale, allow your heart space to expand

  • After 5-7 breaths, ask your heart: "What do I need to know right now?"

  • Listen with your whole body for the response

This technique, rooted in yoga breathwork practices, opens the channel to your psychic being, the divine spark within. Here’s a link to practice this as a guided meditation HERE.

3. Energy Pendulation

For working with difficult emotions or sensations:

  • Notice where in your body you feel discomfort

  • Find a place that feels neutral or pleasant

  • Gently shift your attention between these two areas

  • Spend more time in the resource (pleasant area)

  • Notice how the challenging sensation shifts and transforms

This practice supports emotional fluency and increases energy flow in the body, leading to more spaciousness and calm.

4. Intuitive Movement Practice

To cultivate embodied intuition:

  • Stand in a comfortable space with eyes closed

  • Ask your body: "How do you want to move?"

  • Follow the impulse without judgment, it might be swaying, stretching, or stillness

  • Move for 5-10 minutes, letting your body lead

  • End with a moment of stillness, noticing what has shifted

This practice strengthens your connection to your body's divine intelligence, and allows the body to recalibrate and let go of what needs to be released.

5. Chakra Scan 

To support your energy body:

  • Lie down comfortably

  • Starting at your root, bring loving attention to each chakra (energy centers in your body)

  • Notice sensations, colors, or impressions without trying to change anything

  • Simply witness with compassion

  • End by visualizing golden light connecting all seven centers

This gentle practice helps you become familiar with your energetic architecture and the chakras (energy channels) that connect your whole system.

What is Somatic Therapy Used to Treat?

Somatic therapy is particularly effective for individuals experiencing:

  • Anxiety and panic - That keeps you stuck in overwhelm and unable to feel at ease

  • Trauma and PTSD - Including developmental trauma and complex PTSD

  • Depression - Especially when feeling numb or "checked out"

  • Chronic stress and burnout - When your nervous system feels constantly activated

  • Chronic pain or tension - That doesn't respond to medical treatment alone

  • Relationship challenges - Difficulty with intimacy, boundaries, or emotional connection

  • Life transitions - When your body feels stuck despite mental clarity

  • Spiritual awakening - Kundalini rising, energetic sensitivity, or mystical experiences

You might especially benefit from somatic therapy if you:

  • Feel disconnected from your body or emotions

  • Notice recurring self-sabotaging patterns despite intellectual understanding

  • Experience physical symptoms with no clear medical cause

  • Sense that traditional therapy is missing something essential

What Happens in a Somatic Therapy Session?

A typical somatic therapy session weaves together talking and body-based practices to support your unique healing journey. Here's what you can expect when working with one of our spiritual somatic therapists:

Somatic Therapy Session Structure:

  1. Check-in and grounding 

    • Arriving and settling your nervous system

    • Noticing what's present in your body

  2. Exploration phase 

    • Discussing current challenges while tracking body sensations

    • Identifying where emotions or memories live in your body

  3. Somatic intervention 

    • Guided breathing, movement, mindfulness and/or brainspotting 

    • Working directly with nervous system regulation

  4. Integration 

    • Processing insights that emerged

    • Planning practices for between sessions

The journey of spiritual somatic therapy is all about coming home to yourself, from the racing mind to the knowing heart, from the chaos of disconnection to embodied presence. Life becomes more easeful not because all your challenges disappear, but because you're navigating from the integrated wisdom of both head and heart. This shift changes everything: how you make decisions, how you relate to others, and how you move through the world.

Somatic Therapy at The Holistic Counseling Center

If you're feeling called to explore how somatic therapy might support your healing journey, I invite you to reach out. Learning to trust the wisdom of your body can transform your relationship with anxiety, trauma, and old patterns that no longer serve you. Beneath the pain, the overwhelm, and the past, is an authentic, vibrant life just waiting to emerge.

And please remember: Your body isn't broken. Every sensation, every holding pattern, every protective response developed for a good reason. Somatic therapy can help you gently release what's ready to go, regulate your nervous system, and return to your natural state of aliveness.

The journey of coming home to yourself isn't always easy, but it's worth it. When you learn to turn toward your body with genuine curiosity and compassion, listening to its whispers instead of numbing its signals, something sacred unfolds: You remember who you truly are.

Getting Started With Somatic Therapy

Somatic Therapy In-Person and Online

Ready to begin your healing journey? We offer both in-person and online somatic therapy with clinicians who bring depth, clinical expertise, and reverence for the body's wisdom to this sacred work. If you're in California, we'd love to work with you in person at our offices in San Francisco, San Anselmo, Berkeley, or El Dorado Hills. We also offer virtual therapy in select states.

Taking the next step is simple:

  1. Schedule a Free Consultation Call: During this 15-minute conversation, we'll listen to what's bringing you to therapy, answer any questions you have, and explore whether our spiritual somatic approach feels like a good fit.

  2. Get Matched With the Right Therapist: Based on your unique needs, preferences, and scheduling requirements, we'll book an appointment for you with one of our somatic therapists who can best support your healing journey.

  3. Begin Your Transformation: In your first session, you'll share your story, explore your goals, and begin learning the language of your body while developing practices to support your nervous system.

Your body remembers the way home. We're here to help you learn how to listen.

- Kim Burris, LMFT + Founder of The Holistic Counseling Center

Takeaway

Spiritual Somatic therapy is about reconnecting with the sacred wisdom that lives in your body. When you learn to listen to your body's language – the whispers of sensation, the rhythms of your nervous system, and the intelligence of your heart – you're not just releasing trauma or managing symptoms, you're remembering how to trust the divine design of your life as it unfolds through your mind, body, heart, and spirit. This isn't about fixing something that’s broken; it's about discovering that your body has been keeping you safe while simultaneously holding the blueprint for your transformation. When you bridge the wisdom of your head with the knowing of your heart, you don't just think differently, you live differently, move differently, love differently. The journey from surviving to thriving happens through the body, not the mind. If you're feeling that deep call to come home to yourself, to finally listen to what your body has been trying to tell you, we're here.

Book a free consultation call to begin your healing journey.

Additional Resources for Your Somatic Healing Journey

As you continue exploring somatic therapy and mind-body-spirit healing, these resources from our site can deepen your understanding and support your journey:

Body-Based Healing

Mind-Body-Spirit Integration

Practical Tools & Resources

Related Services

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somatic therapist kim burris

About the Author

Kim Burris, LMFT is a licensed holistic psychotherapist, founder of The Holistic Counseling Center, and author of 'The First 90 Days After Birth.' With a background in yoga and meditation, she bridges clinical expertise with spiritual wisdom to help clients access their body's divine intelligence.

Kim and her team offer holistic therapy that honors the mind-body-spirit connection, available in-person in El Dorado Hills, Berkeley, San Francisco, and San Anselmo, CA, and online throughout California.


References

Anderson, F. (2021). Transcending Trauma: Healing Complex PTSD with Internal Family Systems.

Brown, R. P., & Gerbarg, P. L. (2017). Breathing practices for treatment of psychiatric and stress-related medical conditions. Psychiatric Clinics of North America, 40(2), 239-256.

Caplan, M. (2009). Eyes Wide Open: Cultivating Discernment on the Spiritual Path.

Caplan, M. (2011). Yoga & Psyche: Integrating the Paths of Yoga and Psychology for Healing, Transformation, and Joy.

D'Andrea, W., Bergholz, L., Fortunato, A., & Spinazzola, J. (2023). Somatic interventions in trauma treatment: Effects on neurobiological markers. Journal of Trauma & Dissociation, 24(1), 89-102.

Dana, D. (2018). The Polyvagal Theory in Therapy: Engaging the Rhythm of Regulation. W.W. Norton & Company.

Forbes, B. (2011). Yoga for Emotional Balance: Simple Practices to Help Relieve Anxiety and Depression.

Forbes, B. (2016). Integrative Yoga Therapeutics: The Science of Yoga in Clinical Practice.

Gibson, J. (2019). Mindfulness, interoception, and the body: A contemporary perspective. Frontiers in Psychology, 10, 2012.

Kuhfuß, M., Maldei, T., Hetmanek, A., & Baumann, N. (2022). Somatic experiencing® for patients with post-traumatic stress disorder: A systematic review. European Journal of Psychotraumatology, 13(1), 2008151.

Levine, P. A. (2010). In an Unspoken Voice: How the Body Releases Trauma and Restores Goodness. North Atlantic Books.

Payne, P., Levine, P. A., & Crane-Godreau, M. A. (2015). Somatic experiencing: Using interoception and proprioception as core elements of trauma therapy. Frontiers in Psychology, 6, 93.

Porges, S. W. (2011). The Polyvagal Theory: Neurophysiological Foundations of Emotions, Attachment, Communication, and Self-regulation. W. W. Norton & Company.

Price, C. J., & Hooven, C. (2018). Interoceptive awareness skills for emotion regulation: Theory and approach of mindful awareness in body-oriented therapy (MABT). Frontiers in Psychology, 9, 798.

Van der Kolk, B. (2014). The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma. Viking.

spiritual ifs, is ifs spiritual?
Kim Burris

Kim Burris is a holistic psychotherapist in the San Francisco Bay Area. She specializes in supporting individuals struggling with anxiety, depression, spiritual awakening and motherhood. 

https://www.kimburris.com
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