
What is Somatic Intervention?
Somatic, from the Greek word soma (=body), refers to something that is ‘of the body’. Intervention means to come between, interrupt. An intervention is an action taken to improve a situation, to change its course. Somatic Intervention uses body awareness to accomplish this goal.
Somatic Intervention is a technique which allows you to sense and interrupt habitual patterns (like anxiety, anger, stress or fear), discharge the bodily tension and associated memories, and move forward in a calmer and more centered way.
Somatic Intervention teaches you a new language. Instead of simply listening to the narrative of the person in front of you, you also learn to track posture, gaze, facial expression, muscle tension, breath, vitality, movement and internal sensation. This moment-to-moment physical awareness of another opens up a new realm of communication. This type of interaction existed in our early attachment years, before we could voice what was happening inside us. Somatic Intervention reminds our body/brain of the non-verbal language that we stopped noticing once we began to focus on words. Noticing it now, in the present moment, generates a fine attunement, a sense of being truly seen, which can be deeply gratifying and healing.
It is this attunement to the body that creates the opportunity for neuroplastic change, actually rewiring the brain. Most people are used to speaking their story, hoping that others will listen. With Somatic Intervention, the narrative is often interrupted, habit is broken, and their attention is shifted to their internal experience instead. Time slows down naturally when you go inside yourself or when you track another person’s inner journey. And this extra time, coupled with awareness, is the antidote to trauma. Intervening through the body enables you to sense your self in a way that often feels new, fresh, even revelatory .