Is Somatic Therapy Good for Complex Trauma?
TL;DR: Somatic therapy can be highly effective for complex trauma because it works with the nervous system, not just thoughts. Martha Carter ia a somatic trauma therapist serving people in Denver, Boulder, Fort Collins, and throughout Colorado specializing in complex and relational trauma. In this blog, she helps clients understand how trauma often lives in the body as chronic tension, reactivity, or shutdown. By supporting true nervous system settling and felt safety, somatic therapy allows for deeper, more embodied, and longer-lasting healing.
Intro
When the world feels like a place where quiet moments trigger tension and calm feels unfamiliar, you may wonder if there’s a way to heal that doesn’t just help you cope, but actually helps your nervous system settle. Many people with complex trauma find that talk therapy alone leaves them with insight but little relief. They understand why they feel the way they do — yet their body still reacts as if danger is everywhere.
That’s where somatic therapy often enters the conversation.
A common question I hear is: Is somatic therapy actually good for complex trauma, or is it just another therapy trend?
To answer that honestly, we need to understand what complex trauma does to the nervous system — and why healing often requires more than words alone.
This post explores what somatic therapy is, how it works with complex trauma, and why body-based approaches can be especially supportive for people whose nervous systems learned survival early in life.
Why Complex Trauma Isn’t Just Psychological
Complex trauma doesn’t come from a single overwhelming event. It develops through repeated relational experiences — such as emotional neglect, inconsistency, chronic criticism, or growing up with caregivers who were unpredictable, unavailable, or unsafe. Over time, the nervous system adapts to survive these conditions.
Rather than being merely a thinking problem, complex trauma is a regulation problem. Without support, our bodies tend to hold onto tough experiences.
Many people with complex trauma experience:
Chronic tension or hypervigilance, even when nothing is “wrong”
Strong emotional reactions that feel disproportionate or confusing
A sense of being disconnected from their body or emotions
Feeling a constant pull to please others
Difficulty resting, relaxing, or feeling present
Physical symptoms like fatigue, pain, or digestive issues
These patterns aren’t signs of weakness or dysfunction — they’re intelligent nervous system adaptations. Your body learned to stay alert because it had to.
This is why insight alone often isn’t enough. You can understand your trauma perfectly and still feel anxious, shut down, or overwhelmed. Trauma lives not only in memory, but in the nervous system’s automatic responses. Until those patterns change on a nervous system level, true relief can feel out of reach.
What Somatic Therapy Is — and What It Isn’t
Somatic therapy is an umbrella term for approaches that include the body as a central part of the healing process. Rather than focusing only on thoughts or stories, somatic therapy works with the body — through noticing sensation, doing intuitive movements, and taking deep breaths to change nervous system states.
At its core, somatic therapy is based on a simple truth: the body holds experience. Trauma shapes muscle tone, breathing patterns, posture, and reflexive reactions. Healing involves gently working with those patterns rather than overriding them.
Somatic therapy often includes:
Tracking bodily sensations in the present moment
Learning to notice early signs of nervous system activation
Supporting regulation through orientation, grounding, breath, and other practices
Creating small, safe experiences of settling and safety
Working at a pace that respects the nervous system’s limits
Just as important is what somatic therapy is not.
It is not:
Forcing body awareness before someone feels ready
Reliving traumatic events through intense physical experiences
Ignoring emotions, meaning, or relational context
A quick fix or technique-based solution
Good somatic therapy is slow, attuned, and collaborative. It centers consent, choice, and nervous system safety — especially important for people whose boundaries were violated or ignored in the past.
How Somatic Therapy Supports Healing from Complex Trauma
From a nervous system perspective, complex trauma often means the body is stuck in survival states — such as chronic fight, flight, freeze, or shutdown. Even during calm moments, the nervous system may struggle to access states of safety, connection, and ease.
Somatic therapy works by helping the nervous system actually access and feel safety, not just understand it conceptually.
Rather than jumping into telling full trauma stories, the work often begins with finding safety in the body. Then, you can start noticing what’s happening in the body just thinking about the dysregulating thing (how suffocating it feels to talk to your mom, the idea of going home for the holidays, the memory of being humiliated by your parent, the thought of telling your boss no, etc). This might include observing breath, tension, temperature, or subtle impulses to move. These sensations offer real-time information about how the nervous system is responding. Together, we’ll notice these repossess without judgement, then, we’ll find safety in your body again. We’ll do this process over and over.
Over time, somatic therapy helps with:
Increasing awareness of activation before it becomes overwhelming
Supporting true nervous system deactivation rather than constant managing (through food,
Expanding tolerance for sensation, emotion, and connection
Helping the body experience moments of rest and safety
Restoring flexibility so the nervous system isn’t locked into survival
This process is deeply biological. When the nervous system repeatedly experiences safety in the present moment, it begins to reorganize. Reactions soften. Emotional capacity grows. Choice becomes possible.
Healing happens not because you force change, but because your body learns it no longer has to stay on guard all the time.
What Somatic Therapy Can Help With
Somatic therapy doesn’t erase the past, but it can change how your body relates to it. For people with complex trauma, this often looks like:
Greater nervous system regulation
AKA you feel calm as your default. Instead of getting stuck in overwhelm and shutdown, the nervous system becomes more flexible and returns to the calm zone more easily.
A felt sense of safety
Safety shifts from an idea to an embodied experience — something you can feel in your breath, muscles, and posture.
Reduced reactivity
Triggers don’t disappear, but your capacity to stay present with them increases.
Improved connection
As the nervous system settles, relationships often feel less threatening and more accessible.
Increased self-trust
When your body no longer feels like an enemy, you begin to trust your internal signals again.
This is not about “fixing” yourself. It’s about supporting a nervous system that adapted intelligently to difficult circumstances — and helping it update those patterns now that survival is no longer required.
When Somatic Therapy Might Feel Challenging
While somatic therapy can be deeply supportive, it’s not always easy — especially at first.
Some people notice discomfort when they begin tuning into their body, particularly if disconnection was a long-term survival strategy. That’s why pacing, consent, and relational safety are essential. A skilled somatic therapist prioritizes stabilization and settling before exploring anything intense.
Somatic therapy also works best when integrated into a strong therapeutic relationship. The presence of a calm, attuned therapist helps the nervous system experience regulation with another person — something many people with complex trauma probably never had growing up.
There’s no single “right” approach. Many people benefit from a blend of somatic work and other therapeutic modalities, depending on their needs and capacity.
How to Know If Somatic Therapy Is Right for You
Somatic therapy may be a good fit if:
You feel stuck despite understanding your trauma intellectually (AKA you’ve connected all the dots but still can’t quite change)
Your symptoms show up strongly in your body
You want to feel truly calmer, not just better at managing your feelings (…with food, substances, avoidance, etc)
You value a deeper approach to healing
A good somatic therapist will never rush your process. They’ll invite curiosity, respect your limits, and help you build capacity rather than pushing you past it.
Final Thoughts
So — is somatic therapy good for complex trauma?
For many people, yes. Not because it’s trendy or magical, but because it addresses trauma where it lives: in the nervous system. Complex trauma isn’t something you think your way out of. It’s something your body learns to release through safety, presence, and regulation.
Healing doesn’t come from reliving the past endlessly. It comes from creating new experiences in the present — moments where your nervous system realizes it can rest, connect, and exist without constant vigilance.
Somatic therapy offers a path toward that kind of healing: embodied, compassionate, and deeply respectful of what your system has already survived.
Do you live in Colorado and feel ready to try out somatic therapy? I’m a somatic therapist offering online therapy in Boulder and throughout Colorado.
To get started, use the link below to book a consultation. We’ll have a 10 minute phone call to ask any questions you have and see if we’re a good fit.
About the Author: Therapy Boulder
Martha Carter is a licensed therapist providing virtual therapy in Boulder and throughout Colorado. She is trauma-informed and trained in somatic, neurobiology-based modalities to help people with all types of trauma, chronic pain, and eating disorders heal from the inside out.
(Colorado residents only)
