Somatic therapy is about the body, so it’s natural to wonder whether it can really work through a screen. If the work is in the body, doesn’t the therapist need to be in the room?
The short answer is yes, somatic therapy can be done online, and for many people it works beautifully. To see why, it helps to understand what somatic therapy is actually working with, because the most important part of it happens on the inside.
When awareness loses touch with the body
Oftentimes, anxiety and depression grow out of a quiet disconnection: our awareness, our presence, drifts away from the body and its sensations. We stop feeling what is actually happening inside us. Instead, we live mostly in the conclusions the mind draws about those feelings: something is wrong with me, this will never change, I can’t handle this.
Usually we aren’t even conscious that this circuit is running. A sensation arises, the mind quickly turns it into a story, and we believe the story without question. That belief creates more tension and more feeling, which the mind then interprets again. The cycle keeps spinning, and each turn takes us further from our direct experience and further from ourselves. We end up reacting from inside the experience without truly knowing what is going on within us.
Where the pattern begins: the original wound
This disconnection usually doesn’t start in adulthood. Its roots often reach back to childhood, to moments when we experienced something frightening or heartbreaking. As children, our inner resources aren’t fully developed yet. We don’t have the capacity to hold big feelings on our own, so our first reactions are more primal. They are about getting through.
A child in pain might disconnect from feeling a need at all, or learn to go quiet. When the support they need from the people around them isn’t there, they may blame themselves for its absence. And because children naturally reason that if I feel bad, I must be bad, they can come to believe they are unlovable or that something is fundamentally wrong with them. These are not failures. They are the instinctive ways a young nervous system protects itself in a painful or scary situation.
Of all these responses, the most common is to disconnect from the messages and feelings in our bodies. It works in the moment. The trouble is that as adults, that first chosen reaction gets put on repeat. Long after the original situation has passed, we keep leaving the body whenever something hurts, and keep believing the conclusions we drew as children.
Our culture reinforces this. In the industrial and information age, Western culture has placed a disproportionate emphasis on the thinking mind, and the body gets left behind. Few of us were ever taught how to listen to our bodies or be with our feelings, although this is finally starting to change. So the childhood strategy of disconnection rarely gets questioned. It simply becomes “normal.”
What somatic therapy mends
Somatic therapy mends the connection between our awareness and the sensations and emotions in our body. When presence and sensation meet again, we can tend to our experience directly, rather than only being with the conclusive thoughts the mind creates about it. Gently, we offer ourselves now the presence and support that wasn’t available back then.
As we learn to be with the pure experience of the body, including ever more subtle energetic and emotional shifts, we become more at one with ourselves. When something difficult arises, we can actually be there for ourselves, the way a caring friend would. And when there is wellbeing, we can feel it more fully. Either way, our inner life becomes more accessible, and our wellbeing becomes richer.
At its heart, my work is helping you become more connected with yourself. Most of that happens somatically, because we are sentient beings. Every experience we have is felt from within through our senses, including our intuitive sense.
Mind and body are one
We often talk about the mind as if it lives only in the head. But the nervous system is woven through the entire body, and the mind is entwined with it. Mind and body are one system. When we practice full-body and inner-body awareness, we gain more agency in using our whole intelligence, not just our thinking.
This doesn’t mean the mind is the enemy. Somatic therapy gives the mind a new job. Instead of unconsciously generating storylines that we believe and that deepen our own suffering, the mind learns to direct a loving attention inward and shine the light of awareness on what is actually there. From that place, we can also begin to notice the untrue conclusions we’ve been carrying, many of them since childhood, and how they affect us, so we can become more conscious there as well.
In short, somatic therapy is a guided skill: learning to attend to your own pure experience, to recognize the untrue conclusions layered on top of it, and to notice how those conclusions shape how you feel. Over time, you develop a kind and open relationship with whatever you’re experiencing, rather than being swept along by it. (For more on the nervous system side of this, see my earlier post on how somatic therapy supports nervous system regulation.)
Why this works so naturally online
Here is the key: the somatic part of somatic therapy is truly an inside job. No one else can feel your sensations for you. What you need is clear direction on how to get there, and coaching on how to relate lovingly to what you find. All of that can be offered through guided instructions, and guidance travels just as well over video as it does across a room.
In an online session, I’ll invite you to slow down and go within. I might ask you to notice where a feeling lives in your body, what its texture or temperature is, whether it’s moving or still. I’ll help you stay with it gently, with curiosity instead of judgment, and notice when the mind jumps in with a conclusion, so you can choose to come back to the direct experience. Meanwhile, I’m tracking what I can see and hear: your breath, your pace, shifts in posture and expression, the moments when your voice changes.
Working from home often makes this inner work easier, not harder:
- You’re in your own space. The body tends to soften in a familiar environment, which makes it easier to turn inward.
- The skill lives where you live. Learning to meet yourself in your own home makes it easier to do it again there on a hard day.
- You become the expert on your inner world. Because the attention is yours, your capacity to sense and care for yourself grows between sessions.
- No commute. You can take a few quiet minutes afterwards to let what opened settle, instead of rushing back into traffic.
When in-person might be a better fit
Online work isn’t right for everyone. If you don’t have a private, uninterrupted space at home, it can be hard to feel safe enough to go within. Some people simply feel more held sharing a room with another person. And if you’re in a period of acute crisis, more intensive or in-person support may be the right starting point. We can talk this through together before we begin.
Getting the most out of an online session
- Choose a private space where you won’t be overheard or interrupted.
- Set your camera so I can see your shoulders and upper body, not just your face.
- Sit somewhere comfortable that lets you shift position or rest your feet on the floor.
- Keep water and a blanket or cushion nearby.
- If you can, leave ten minutes free afterwards rather than jumping straight into your next task.
Somatic therapy in Berkeley and online throughout California
I offer somatic, depth-oriented psychotherapy in person in Berkeley and online for clients anywhere in California. Together, we work toward a deeper, kinder connection with yourself, so that both the hard moments and the good ones become places where you can truly be present.
You can read more about my approach to somatic therapy, or if you’re curious whether working together could be a good fit, send me a message. I’m happy to answer your questions.
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