Highlands in Bloom is a licensed residential treatment center in Agoura Hills, California. Our clinical program is developed and overseen by Clinical Program Director Stacy McNeal, PhD, LMFT and Medical Director and Psychiatrist Dr. Todd Hill. Somatic bodywork is an integrative therapeutic practice offered at Highlands in Bloom that addresses the physical body as a site of stored trauma, chronic stress, and nervous system dysregulation, working at the level of tissue, sensation, and movement to support release and regulation.
What Is Somatic Bodywork?
Somatic bodywork encompasses movement-based therapeutic practices that work with the body to release tension patterns, restore proprioceptive awareness, and facilitate the downregulation of a nervous system held in chronic activation. The term somatic refers to the body as experienced from within, the felt sense of physical sensation, movement, and internal states that provides moment-to-moment information about one’s own nervous system state. Somatic bodywork practices work with this felt sense to identify, access, and release the physical patterns of holding, bracing, and tension that accumulate from trauma, chronic stress, and autoimmune inflammatory burden.
Somatic Bodywork and Trauma
Trauma is stored not only in narrative memory but in the nervous system and body as patterns of muscular tension, postural restriction, altered breathing, and chronic sympathetic activation that persist long after the traumatic events that produced them. This is the core insight behind somatic trauma approaches including Somatic Experiencing, developed by Dr. Peter Levine, and Sensorimotor Psychotherapy. Somatic bodywork at Highlands in Bloom works in coordination with the clinical therapeutic team to address these body-level trauma responses, providing a physical complement to the cognitive and emotional processing happening in individual therapy, EMDR, and group programming.
Somatic Bodywork and Autoimmune Conditions
Many clients managing autoimmune conditions carry years of physical compensation for pain, inflammation, and physical limitation that has produced secondary muscular tension, postural imbalance, and restricted movement patterns that compound their overall physical burden. For conditions including fibromyalgia, rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, and chronic fatigue, somatic bodywork provides gentle, targeted support for releasing these accumulated physical patterns, improving body awareness, and restoring a relationship with the physical body that chronic illness has often made fraught or disconnected. The parasympathetic activation produced by therapeutic touch and guided somatic work also directly supports the nervous system regulation that is central to managing autoimmune inflammatory activity.
Somatic Bodywork at Highlands in Bloom
Somatic bodywork at Highlands in Bloom is delivered by trained practitioners and integrated with the clinical team’s trauma-focused treatment approach. All somatic bodywork is coordinated with Clinical Program Director Stacy McNeal, PhD, LMFT to ensure alignment with each client’s individual clinical presentation, trauma history, and therapeutic goals. Somatic bodywork is offered as a complement to the clinical programming rather than as a standalone intervention, and is embedded within the broader somatic and body-based framework that runs through yoga, breathwork, and mindfulness practices throughout the residential program.
FAQs
Is somatic bodywork the same as massage?
Somatic bodywork shares some techniques with therapeutic massage but is distinct in its clinical orientation. Where massage focuses primarily on muscular relaxation and physical comfort, somatic bodywork works with the body as a site of stored trauma and nervous system patterns, using movement guidance to support therapeutic release and nervous system regulation in coordination with clinical therapeutic goals.
Is somatic bodywork safe for trauma survivors?
Somatic work at Highlands in Bloom is delivered by trained practitioners working in coordination with the clinical team within a trauma-informed framework that prioritizes safety, consent, and client agency throughout. All somatic sessions are body-based and experiential in nature, working with movement, breath, sensation, and present-moment body awareness rather than hands-on touch. Sessions are preceded by a clear explanation of what will occur and adapted to each client’s comfort and boundaries.
How does somatic bodywork support mental health treatment?
Somatic bodywork addresses the body-level dimensions of trauma and stress that cognitive and verbal therapies cannot fully reach. By working with the physical patterns of tension, holding, and restriction stored in the body, somatic bodywork supports the completion of incomplete stress responses and the restoration of nervous system flexibility that underpins emotional regulation and psychological resilience.
Can somatic bodywork help with fibromyalgia?
Yes. Somatic bodywork can provide meaningful support for fibromyalgia presentations by addressing the muscular tension, central sensitization patterns, and body-level stress accumulation that characterize fibromyalgia. It is used as an integrative complement to clinical therapy and other modalities within the residential treatment program.
Take the First Step
Highlands in Bloom accepts clients from across California and the United States. Our admissions team is available daily for a complimentary, confidential clinical consultation. Call us at (805) 892-6313 or visit highlandsinbloom.com/contact. We are in-network with Blue Shield of California and Aetna and accept most major PPO plans.