Somatic Therapist in San Rafael
How Somatic Therapy Can Help You Feel Whole Again
Working with a Somatic Therapist in San Rafael and Online Throughout California
When Your Body Holds the Story of Trauma, Anxiety, Depression, and Stress
You hold so much tension in your body. It’s there in your gut, chest, neck, and shoulders, and no matter what you try, it never seems to fully let go. After your car accident, your surgery, and a pregnancy, your relationship with your body has changed. Even now, certain parts of the body might tighten, your heart pounds, and memories flash through your mind when you go to do activities that remind you of these experiences.
Sometimes you feel restless, like you can’t just sit still. You always need to be doing something, moving, taking care of others, or staying productive. Relaxation doesn’t come easily, even when you try.
When something stressful happens, like a tough moment at work or at home, it all rushes back. The fear, the shame, the feeling of it being “too much.” You want to do well, to be seen as capable, but when you feel threatened, overwhelmed, or criticized, your body reacts before your mind can catch up. Then the self-blame starts again, and you tell yourself you’re worthless.
There are times when your energy seems to disappear. You feel empty, numb, disconnected, maybe even ashamed for not being able to snap out of it. You wonder if you’re depressed. You wake up exhausted.
You’ve done years of talk therapy, talking about your past, or worrying about your future. It helped for a while, but it still feels like something is missing, like you haven’t quite reached the healing you need. Traditional talk therapy can be helpful, but sometimes trauma, anxiety, depression, and stress are also held in physical symptoms, physical sensations, muscle tension, posture, movement, and the nervous system.
You’ve tried yoga and meditation, hoping to reconnect with your body. It’s been hard to focus, feel your breath, or sense being present in your body. Even when you take a walk in nature or pull out your old watercolors, you feel like you can’t quite connect to your body and the present moment. You sense the way to heal isn’t only through your mind, but also through your body and spirit.
How A Somatic Therapist Can Help You Heal from Trauma, Anxiety, Depression, and Feel Whole Again
Trauma is not only a story from the past; it’s a pattern held in the body and the emotional centers of the brain. When those centers are activated, they send constant alarm signals that can show up as tightness, restlessness, or numbness. Anxiety and depression also manifest in the body. Somatic therapy can enhance and accelerate the healing.
Somatic psychotherapy is sometimes described as a body-oriented or body-centered approach because it pays attention to the connection between mind and body. Instead of focusing only on thoughts or words, somatic therapy work also includes body awareness, physical sensations, breath, movement, and the felt sense of what is happening inside. This mind-body approach can support self-awareness, and help you notice how a traumatic event, unresolved trauma, or old patterns may still be showing up in your body.
What the Process Looks Like for Healing Trauma, Anxiety, Depression
Phase 1: Building Safety and Stabilization
You first practice mindfully noticing body sensations and movement as you talk about your problems, feel your emotions, or even experience something pleasant or joyful. This can take some time, as most people are used to talking about their problems without paying attention to what they are experiencing in their bodies. For some people, it’s also not safe to connect their bodies. We go slow and take our time.
We then work collaboratively to determine what somatic tools or resources help you to either calm or brighten your nervous system. You might also discover relational, creative, or cognitive resources that help you feel emotionally regulated, but we connect them to the body felt sense.
Phase 2: Processing Trauma Through the Body
When you’re ready, we process trauma through body awareness rather than reliving the story in detail. Using Sensorimotor Psychotherapy, you explore subtle sensations, impulses, or movements connected to the trauma, helping your system release what has been held inside without re-traumatization.
Somatic therapy focuses on what is happening in the present moment, so that traumatic experiences can be integrated, and post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms, anxiety, depression, or stress symptoms can be reduced.
Phase 3: Reconnecting with Yourself and Others
As your body and mind begin to relax, you can begin to look at relational patterns from the past that are showing up in the present. Maybe you recognize people-pleasing, not being able to set boundaries, being self-reliant, or not being able to ask for help. These patterns and beliefs show up in the body through internal sensations, posture, and how we move. With awareness, curiosity, and compassion, you can choose new ways of being and responding.
The Body as a Path to Presence: Other Ways Somatic Therapy Can Help
Why the Body Matters in Healing
So much of life happens from the neck up. We think, analyze, and try to make sense of our experiences. Yet the body carries our history, vital information, and often what words can’t express. Somatic therapy invites you to reconnect with the wisdom of your body. Tapping into that wisdom can provide a sense of groundedness and calm, as well as intuitive knowing.
This body-oriented work is part of an integrative approach to mental health and well-being. It may be especially meaningful during trauma recovery, grief, stress, life transitions, or times when you feel disconnected from yourself, your family members, or other relationships. Somatic therapy does not replace all other forms of therapy, but it can help address symptoms that are felt in the body as well as the mind.
How Somatic Awareness Enriches Other Healing Practices
Mindfulness and Meditation
We often start with mindfulness of our breath. Mindfulness of body sensations can be another anchor point, and to help with physical pain. For example, when you notice your breath in your belly, warmth in your hands, or a softening of your shoulder muscles, mindfulness can become a fuller experience. Mindfulness meditation and body awareness can help you notice when stress begins to build and support ways to release stress gently.
Guided Imagery and Hypnotherapy
When you link imagery and inner exploration to a body felt sense, it becomes more vivid and meaningful. This embodied awareness of all the senses deepens the effectiveness of guided imagery and hypnotherapy.
Creative and Artistic Expression
Breath, gesture, posture, and movement shape how you express yourself. Often, starting with an inner, contemplative practice naturally leads to creative expression.
Being in Nature
All the elements of nature, air, water, earth, and fire, are found in our bodies. When you feel your feet on the earth, notice the rhythm of water around and within you, and the sunlight on your skin, your body awakens and grounds. As you connect to the outer landscape more deeply, you connect to your inner landscape as well.
The Healing You Can Expect from a Compassionate Somatic Therapist in San Rafael or Online in California
Michelle Baumgartner, Trauma Therapist in the Bay Area
Whether you are healing from trauma, anxiety, depression, or stress, or want to connect more deeply with your body’s wisdom, somatic therapy can help connect body, mind, and spirit.
I’m Michelle Baumgartner, LCSW, a licensed therapist providing somatic therapy in person in San Rafael, CA, and online throughout California.
I use Sensorimotor Psychotherapy, a mindful, body-focused, talking therapy that includes somatic, emotional, and cognitive integration. I also use a “parts approach”, helping clients understand their many inner states and integrate them compassionately as a whole.
Together, these approaches can help you:
Recognize when you start feeling anxious or depressed and use tools to feel calm, grounded, and present.
Recognize your strength, capacity, and worthiness.
Access deeper inner wisdom and more self-compassion.
Feel more confident in setting boundaries and asking for what you need.
Experience safer, more authentic relationships.
Begin Compassionate Somatic Therapy for Healing in San Rafael or Online in California
If you’re ready to listen more deeply to what your body and inner parts are trying to tell you, somatic therapy can help you find the missing piece in your holistic healing journey.
I offer in-person sessions in San Rafael, CA, and online therapy throughout California.
Contact Michelle here . I’d be honored to walk this journey with you.
FAQs for Your Somatic Therapist in San Rafael and Online in California
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Somatic psychotherapy brings mindful awareness to body sensations, physical feelings, posture, breath, and movement. It is a body-oriented form of psychotherapy that looks at how the mind and body work together. Sensorimotor Psychotherapy and Somatic Experiencing Therapy are two examples of somatic therapy work, though I use Sensorimotor Psychotherapy in my work.
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Traditional talk therapy often focuses on thoughts, emotions, memories, and meaning. Somatic therapy also includes the body to connect to the above. In a session, you may notice physical sensations, muscle tension, breath, movement, posture, or impulses while you talk. This can help connect you to a fuller understanding of yourself.
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People may seek somatic psychotherapy for trauma, anxiety, depression, chronic tension, grief and loss, stress, unresolved trauma, childhood trauma, life transitions, or difficulty feeling present in their body. Somatic therapy may also support people who feel stuck in old patterns, or who sense that talk therapy alone has not reached everything they need to heal.
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Somatic therapy is often used to support people living with traumatic stress, post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms, or the effects of a traumatic event. The work focuses on noticing what happens in the body and nervous system in the present moment, rather than forcing you to relive the story in detail.
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That’s a common experience. Somatic therapy meets you where you are and proceeds slowly, helping you reconnect safely. For some people, the first step is simply noticing small physical sensations, such as warmth, tightness, breath, or movement.
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No. Somatic therapy focuses on sensations and movement rather than retelling the trauma, which avoids re-traumatization. You may talk about what happened, but the focus is often on what your body is experiencing now and what helps your nervous system feel more supported.
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Sensorimotor Psychotherapy is a body-oriented, mindfulness-based talking therapy developed by Pat Ogden, PhD. It is used to support trauma, attachment, and developmental issues by bringing mindful attention to body sensations, movement, emotions, thoughts, and beliefs.
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No. Somatic Experiencing and Sensorimotor Psychotherapy are different forms of somatic psychotherapy. Both pay attention to the body and nervous system, but they have different histories, training models, and techniques. My work draws from Sensorimotor Psychotherapy.
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Instead of just talking about an issue, you’re supported to notice thoughts, emotions, body sensations, movements, images, or impulses in the present moment. We may slow down and notice what happens in your body when you talk about a relationship, memory, feeling, or stressful situation.
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No. Physical contact is rare and only used with explicit permission, often with a pillow barrier.
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Yes. Clients become skilled at tracking sensations themselves, and movements are adapted for home settings. Online somatic therapy can still include body awareness, mindfulness, movement, and noticing the felt sense in the present moment.
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Yes. Somatic therapy can stand alone or be integrated with other orientations, including cognitive-behavioral therapy, psychodynamic therapy, parts work, guided imagery, hypnotherapy, mindfulness meditation, creative expression, or other forms of psychotherapy. When other approaches are used, we still connect them to the body felt sense.
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It varies by person and goals. Healing can take months to several years. Everyone’s experience during somatic therapy is different, depending on what brings them to therapy, their history, their nervous system, and what kind of support is desired.