
Somatic Healing:
The Body as Home
Trauma, repressed emotions, and chronic stress are trapped in the autonomic nervous system and in the body, even from pre-verbal memories we’re not consciously aware of.
You can’t talk yourself out of this. But you can heal through layers much deeper than words alone and that’s through the body.
The body is the first layer of mindfulness because this is the entry into our inner world and emotions.
In these somatic sessions, we collaborate together to gently repattern your nervous system and rebuild a sense of safety and trust from the inside out. We’ll shed survival strategies and defensive layers from the past to unfold more presence, authentic self, ease, creativity, and secure attachment. Pace is importantly unique to you and your nervous system.
This work is for you if you’re:
in a heightened stress response state
learning to be present with varying emotions
navigating grief or a significant loss
seeking to heal insecure attachment and relational wounding
ready to get out of a fight-flight or functional freeze state
processing trauma responses
seeking nervous system and self-regulation
eager to repattern limiting beliefs and self-blocks
holding tension in your body or chronic pain
prioritizing personal growth
desiring more presence, creativity, intuition, or openness in life
trouble sleeping; racing mind; anxiety
wanting to deepen your understanding of your body’s signals and wisdom
Learn to listen to the wisdom of your body and feel fully alive in the present.
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Somatics is the understanding that the body holds memory, emotion, and lived experience, not just the mind. Unresolved overwhelm or trauma can live in the body and shape how we feel, respond, and relate, often without us realizing it.
Emotions naturally flow through us, finding resolution when we allow ourselves to experience them in the right balance, using the body as their vessel, while supported by co-regulation, safety, and compassion. Notice how you get butterflies in your belly when you’re nervous, teary eyed when sad, flush when angry, etc.? These are the body’s physiological responses to emotions moving through us.
Trauma overwhelms the nervous system and prevents our natural physiological response to the experience to complete. This makes the autonomic nervous system rigid, stuck in the experience of the past, and the life force of the individual unable to freely express. So somatic healing empowers our innate ability to resolve and thus release trauma and/or repressed emotions on its own, shedding those defensive blocks and returning to our true self or to a sense of more openness, alignment, connection, and presence.
Somatic healing work is a “bottom up” approach that taps into our innate self-healing, whereas talk therapy is considered a “top down” approach.
See also my:
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Trauma is not a pathology but rather an adaptive, self-protective response designed for survival. Healing trauma is about restoring a sense of safety—so you can be present with yourself and your experiences. Presence is the gateway to returning to your true self, as trauma creates barriers to the heart, which is inherently self-healing.
Trauma can be acute, arising from specific events ("big T trauma"), but what we often call "trauma healing" is, at its core, the essence of all true healing. If it's not trauma healing, it very likely falls under personal development or coaching, even if you’re seeing a therapist for it.
Trauma fundamentally involves an inability to be fully present, with layers of protective identity forming in response—survival strategies that cover the heart. "Small t trauma" is often rooted in developmental experiences from early life, which can be subjective or objective. For many, childhood experiences contain both "big T" and "small t" trauma, but the impact remains the same: a disconnection from presence and one's authentic self.
Our natural impulses in response to trauma need to be expressed, just as the emotions we've suppressed deserve acknowledgment. When these impulses are given space, the autonomic nervous system can complete its cyclical process. Completing this cycle requires feeling what was originally suppressed—and we do that through compassionate presence.
By releasing stored impulses, discharging physical tension, and resolving repressed emotions, we shed layers of identity and reconnect with the heart—our true self, which is both self-healing and resilient.
That said, not every aspect of ourselves is merely a trauma response, and it's unhelpful to label everything that way. Instead, let this understanding be liberating. Recognize that your nervous system and attachment responses once worked to protect you. And now, if you're ready, you can choose something new.
Note: Whether or not you resonate with the term "trauma," you may connect with the effects of chronic stress, repressed emotions, unprocessed grief, or overwhelming experiences. No matter the framing, healing is about returning to the body, to presence, and to your capacity for resilience.
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Somatic sessions encourage self-attunement and emotional resolution through movement, breath, reflection, sensation tracking, co-regulation, and gentle exploration, supporting the body in processing and integrating stored experiences.
Somatic healing is neither a yoga class nor traditional therapy. It is about deep healing through embodied experience, tapping into your natural inner processing abilities. Sessions are guided by the unique pace of your nervous system
Compassionate presence is at the heart of my work and our sessions remain a confidential container and non-judgmental zone of exploration.
Two main pillars of somatic healing, both of equal importance:
creating, sensing, and feeling safety
resolving and releasing tension and trauma
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Sessions are either online from anywhere in the world via live Zoom, or in-person in NYC.
In-person sessions are in Chelsea, Manhattan and carry a small additional fee.
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Emotions are energy in motion and meant to flow through us in waves. As we slowly and compassionately feel what’s been repressed in the body and complete impulses, we unfold our innate ability to self-heal.
Meet your somatic practitioner
Hi, I’m Susan Reis and I’m glad you found me. I integrate somatic and attachment healing with psychosynthesis coaching. Life is too short to not live freely and fully. I know firsthand the patterns of avoidance, chronic pain. and functional freeze and I meet each person with the compassion and presence that I once yearned.
In my somatic healing sessions, I integrate:
somatic experiencing and healing
parts work and psychosynthesis
relational dynamics
brainspotting
activating or somatic release breathwork
functional or corrective breathwork
mindfulness and presence
I look forward to supporting you on your journey.