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 therapy is an integrative body-based modality woven throughout the residential program at Highlands in Bloom, addressing the nervous system, the physical body, and the stored physiological residue of trauma and chronic stress as central dimensions of mental health and autoimmune recovery.
What Is Somatic Therapy?
Somatic therapy is a body-oriented therapeutic approach that works with the physical body as a site of psychological experience, stored trauma, nervous system dysregulation, and emotional processing. The term somatic refers to the body as experienced from within, the felt sense of physical sensation, posture, movement, breath, and internal states that provides moment-to-moment information about one’s own nervous system condition and emotional life. Somatic therapy recognizes that psychological experiences, particularly trauma and chronic stress, are stored in the nervous system and physical body as patterns of muscular tension, postural restriction, altered breathing, and chronic sympathetic activation that persist long after the experiences that produced them.
The Evidence Base for Somatic Therapy
The evidence base for somatic and body-based approaches to trauma and mental health has grown substantially over the past three decades, driven in large part by the work of Peter Levine, Bessel van der Kolk, and Pat Ogden whose research and clinical work have illuminated the ways in which trauma is stored in the body and nervous system. Somatic Experiencing, developed by Peter Levine, and Sensorimotor Psychotherapy, developed by Pat Ogden, are two of the most well-researched somatic therapy frameworks with substantial clinical evidence bases for PTSD, complex trauma, anxiety, and stress-related presentations.
Somatic Therapy and the Nervous System
The autonomic nervous system governs the stress response, immune function, inflammatory activity, emotional regulation, sleep, digestion, and cardiovascular function. When it is chronically dysregulated, as it is in most clients presenting with anxiety, burnout, PTSD, and autoimmune conditions, restoring its capacity to shift between sympathetic activation and parasympathetic rest is a clinical imperative. Somatic therapy directly addresses nervous system dysregulation at the physiological level through body-based practices that support the completion of incomplete stress responses, the release of chronic muscular tension, the restoration of breath regulation, and the development of interoceptive awareness that allows clients to recognize and respond to their own nervous system states in real time.
Somatic Therapy and Trauma
Trauma is stored not only in narrative memory but in the nervous system and body as patterns of chronic activation, muscular bracing, postural restriction, altered breathing, and disconnection from physical sensation. These body-level trauma responses persist regardless of cognitive insight and can make standard verbal therapy feel insufficient for clients who have done significant cognitive work without experiencing the deeper physiological shift they need. Somatic therapy at Highlands in Bloom addresses trauma at the body and nervous system level, providing a non-verbal pathway into traumatic material that complements the cognitive and emotional processing happening in EMDR, individual therapy, and group clinical programming. All somatic therapy at Highlands in Bloom is body-based and experiential in nature, working with movement, breath, sensation, and present-moment body awareness rather than hands-on touch.
Somatic Therapy and Autoimmune Conditions
Chronic sympathetic nervous system activation drives the HPA axis dysregulation and pro-inflammatory signaling that worsens autoimmune disease activity. For clients managing lupus, fibromyalgia, rheumatoid arthritis, IBD, MS, and Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, restoring nervous system flexibility through somatic therapy directly reduces the chronic stress burden sustaining inflammatory activity. The body awareness developed through somatic therapy also improves clients’ capacity to recognize early inflammatory and stress activation signals in their own bodies, supporting earlier and more effective self-regulation interventions before flares develop.
Somatic Therapy at Highlands in Bloom
Somatic therapy 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, working with movement, breath, sensation, and present-moment body awareness. Sessions are facilitated within a clearly explained clinical framework and adapted to each client’s comfort, boundaries, and clinical presentation. Somatic therapy is woven throughout the residential program as a thread that runs through yoga, breathwork, meditation, group somatic movement practices, and individual clinical sessions.
FAQs
What is somatic therapy?
Somatic therapy is a body-oriented therapeutic approach that works with the physical body, nervous system, breath, movement, and physical sensation as a site of psychological experience, stored trauma, and emotional processing. It addresses the body-level dimensions of mental health and trauma that cognitive and verbal therapies cannot fully reach.
Is somatic therapy the same as massage?
No. Somatic therapy at Highlands in Bloom is body-based and experiential but does not involve hands-on touch. Sessions work with movement, breath, sensation, posture, and present-moment body awareness as therapeutic tools within a clinical framework.
How does somatic therapy help with trauma?
Somatic therapy addresses the body-level dimensions of trauma that persist regardless of cognitive insight, including chronic muscular tension, altered breathing, postural restriction, and nervous system dysregulation. By working with these physical patterns directly through body-based practices, somatic therapy supports the completion of incomplete stress responses and the restoration of nervous system flexibility that verbal processing alone cannot achieve.
Can somatic therapy help with autoimmune conditions?
Yes. Somatic therapy directly reduces the chronic sympathetic nervous system activation that drives HPA axis dysregulation and pro-inflammatory signaling in autoimmune conditions. By restoring nervous system flexibility and reducing the chronic stress burden at the physiological level, somatic therapy provides direct clinical support for autoimmune condition management.
Is somatic therapy safe for clients with physical limitations?
Somatic therapy at Highlands in Bloom involves body-based movement practices and does require some degree of physical participation. Sessions are facilitated within a trauma-informed framework that prioritizes safety and client agency, and practices are adapted where possible to each client’s physical capacity and clinical presentation. Clients with physical limitations are encouraged to discuss their specific needs with the clinical team during the intake assessment so that somatic practices can be appropriately calibrated to what each individual can safely engage with.
How is somatic therapy different from yoga at Highlands in Bloom?
Somatic therapy is a clinically structured therapeutic approach delivered in individual and small group clinical sessions with specific therapeutic goals related to nervous system regulation, trauma processing, and body awareness. Yoga is a structured group movement practice with trauma-informed facilitation. Both are body-based and both support nervous system regulation, but somatic therapy involves more individualized clinical direction and explicit therapeutic processing within each session.
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.