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.

In our somatic sessions, we collaborate together to gently repattern your nervous system, rebuild internal safety and trust from the inside out. We’ll shed survival strategies and protective layers from the past so you can unfold into greater presence, creative expression, emotional flexibility, authenticity, and confident connection. Work is importantly as unique as each individual.

When my Somatic Healing is right for you:

  • You’re in a heightened stress or fight/flight/freeze state

  • You struggle to be present with varying emotions

  • You’re navigating grief, loss, or trauma residue

  • You’re healing relational wounding or insecure attachment

  • You carry tension or chronic pain

  • You have trouble sleeping, racing thoughts, or persistent anxiousness

  • You sense limiting beliefs or patterns you can’t shift through talk alone

  • You long for deeper presence, creativity, intuition, or inner resonance

  • You want a richer relationship with your body’s signals and wisdom

Learn to listen to the wisdom of your body and feel fully alive in the present.

Why somatic healing matters?

  • The body is the first layer of mindfulness as it’s a gateway into your inner world

  • Somatic healing meets trauma, repressed or unprocessed emotions, and chronic stress where it lives: in your physiology (not just in your conscious mind)

  • Transformations flow from felt experience

  • Emotional wounds from pre-verbal years, often the real root, can’t be sorted out rationally as those memories weren’t stored rationally as a baby. They can only be felt, integrated, and resolved through the body as vehicle.

  • My sessions aren’t talk therapy with a few breaths added in nor are they a yoga class either. This is somatic healing in its truest form: a deeply relational, attuned process that honors your body’s wisdom and inner timing.

    What sets this work apart is not just the tools, but how they’re used. I draw from a wide range of somatic modalities. I work with the nervous system, but also the attachment system, at its root, through subtle and careful engagement.

    My approach and all my work is grounded in contemplative self-healing, the timeless wisdom of presence, and a deep attunement to the subtle body’s energy system, all supported and grounded by extensive training.

    Breath, for example, is not just an add-on here. I’m trained in three distinct forms of breathwork, not just temporary relief methods like box breathing.

    Every session is customized to your needs, your nervous system, and your goals.

    This is a space where healing isn’t about fixing yourself. It’s about remembering who you are. Together, we follow the body’s lead, one layer at a time. We listen, we feel, we integrate.

  • Somatic healing is based on the understanding that the body, not just the mind, holds memory, emotion, and lived experience. Unresolved trauma or overwhelm can live in the nervous system, shaping how we feel and relate, often without us realizing it.

    Notice how we get butterflies in the belly when nervous, teary eyed when sad, flush when angry?

    These are the body’s physiological responses to emotions moving through us.

    Emotions are physiological. But when we're overwhelmed, that natural flow gets interrupted, and the nervous system can become stuck in survival states. Somatic work helps complete what was once interrupted, supporting the body’s innate ability to release, resolve, and return to presence.

    Somatic healing is “bottom-up” using movement, breath, sensation tracking, co-regulation, and compassionate reflection to restore safety and alignment from within (whereas talk therapy, for example, is considered top down).

    See also my:

  • Trauma isn’t a pathology, It’s an adaptive, protective response wired for survival. Healing trauma means restoring a sense of safety so you can be present with yourself again. Presence is the gateway back to your true self, because trauma creates barriers to the heart, which is inherently self-healing.

    While trauma can stem from acute events (“big T”), trauma healing work also works with chronic, developmental, or relational wounding (“small t”) - the subtle yet lasting ways we disconnect from ourselves to survive. These survival strategies become protective identities that mask the authentic heart.

    True healing supports the completion of what was once interrupted: stored impulses, repressed emotions, and unresolved stress. As we meet those parts with compassionate presence, the nervous system can slowly restore its natural flow.

    Not everything in us is a trauma response, contrary to Instagram, and it’s important not to reduce ourselves to that. But by honoring the ways your body and psyche once protected you, you can now choose a new path, grounded in safety, wholeness, and self-trust.

    Whether or not you identify with the word trauma, you may relate to chronic stress, emotional suppression, or grief. Whatever the name, healing means returning to the body, to presence, and to your innate resilience.

  • Somatic sessions encourage self-attunement and emotional resolution through felt sense, movement, breath, reflection, sensation tracking, co-regulation, and gentle exploration, supporting the body in processing and integrating stored experiences.

    My sessions are exploratory & experimental and collaborative & confidential. The work is a mix of reflective self-inquiry with bodily connection.

    We listen, we feel, we integrate.

    Our work together remains a confidential container and non-judgmental zone of exploration.

    Primary pillars of somatic healing, both of equal importance:

    1. creating, sensing, and feeling safety

    2. resolving and releasing tension and trauma

  • 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.

Emotions are meant to move in waves.
As we gently meet what’s been held in the body, with compassion and attuned presence, incomplete impulses begin to resolve, and our natural capacity for self-healing is restored through co-regulation and connection.

somatic experiencing practitioner in nyc susan reis the cyclical seed

Meet your somatic practitioner

About Susan Reis

Hi, I’m so glad you found your way here. I’m a somatic practitioner and I help clients reconnect to their bodies, release survival patterns, and restore a sense of safety, aliveness, and presence. This work is relational, attuned, and grounded in compassionate presence. I’ve walked through freeze, disconnection, and chronic pain myself and I meet each person with the care I once longed for.

In my somatic healing sessions, I integrate:

  • somatic experiencing and somatic healing

  • parts work and psychosynthesis

  • relational dynamics and attachment-based healing

  • brainspotting

  • activating or somatic release breathwork

  • functional or corrective breathwork

  • mindfulness and presence

I look forward to supporting you on your journey.

Book a free 20-minute consultation to get started or learn more.