The Freedom in Feeling: How Somatic Experiencing Unlocks Deeper Healing
Many people come to therapy saying, “I understand why I feel this way — but I still can’t change it.” They’ve talked through their stories, analyzed their patterns, and developed insight. Yet deep down, something still feels stuck — like the mind understands, but the body hasn’t caught up.
This is often where Somatic Experiencing (SE) becomes the missing link
Why Insight Alone Isn’t Enough
Traditional talk therapy can be incredibly valuable — it gives language to your experience, helps identify patterns, and builds awareness. But for many people, insight doesn’t automatically create relief.
That’s because trauma, chronic stress, and emotional overwhelm don’t just live in our thoughts — they live in the nervous system.
When your body is holding tension, bracing against old experiences, or still scanning for threat, no amount of mental understanding can convince it to relax. The body needs a way to complete what it couldn’t finish, to release what it’s been carrying.
What Somatic Experiencing Offers
Somatic Experiencing is a gentle, body-based therapy that helps you reconnect with your body’s natural capacity to heal and self-regulate.
Rather than diving into stories or reactivating pain, we slow down and notice the subtle cues of the nervous system — sensations, impulses, breath, and emotion. Through this process, the body learns that it’s safe to release the energy of past overwhelm. What I have seen over and over again is that at one point, this pain was translated into a label of PTSD, Anxiety, depression, codependency, and trauma. Some have even self-medicated over it with drugs or over-eating and/ or under-eating.
Clients often describe SE as feeling freeing, lighter, or finally able to breathe again. It’s not about reliving the past all the time— it’s about helping your body find the safety and balance it’s been missing.
The Freedom That Follows
When your body starts to let go of old patterns of bracing, you can experience:
Less anxiety and tension in daily life or more energy that perks you up
A calmer, steadier sense of presence
More access to emotion without feeling overwhelmed
Greater ease in relationships and connection
A sense of returning to yourself — not just mentally, but physically
This kind of freedom doesn’t come from forcing or fixing. It comes from listening, allowing, and trusting the wisdom of the body.
Integrating the Mind and Body
In my Palm Beach Gardens practice, and in my virtual sessions across Florida and Connecticut, I help clients integrate Somatic Experiencing with cognitive and mindfulness-based approaches.
Together, we explore the root of what your body has been carrying — not to analyze it, but to finally release it.
If you’ve done talk therapy and sensed that something deeper is waiting to unfold, this work may be what your system has been asking for.
Begin Your Own Embodied Healing
If you’re ready to move beyond understanding your story and into feeling truly free within yourself, Somatic Experiencing offers a profound way forward.
Jennifer Goggin, LPC, LMHC, SEP
Serving clients in Palm Beach, FL, and virtually across Florida and Connecticut. Schedule a consultation to explore how Somatic Experiencing can help you come home to your body and your life, by clicking here.
