During the last months of pregnancy with my son, it was becoming very clear to me what doctors meant by “geriatric pregnancy.” Being pregnant at 36 was much more challenging than being pregnant at 26. I was exhausted most days and unreasonably stressed. I worried that this new baby would destroy the close relationship I had with my daughter (an only child for ten years). I was remorseful about extending the possibility of an empty nest for another decade. And nothing swirling in my mind compared to what I felt physically. My body was a wreck.
I had heart palpitations that woke me up at night. Even after my son was born, I suffered from anxiety so debilitating that I started to avoid certain situations in the fear that something would trigger a panic attack.
Documentaries made me physically ill. I’ve never been one to say I’m empathic, but I would watch depressing stories and immediately feel overcome by heaviness and worry.
All over social media, I saw mid-life women, like myself, find relief in somatic therapy. But I was also reading skeptical stories about the research. Unfortunately, this prevented me from seeking care more quickly.
Over a year or so, it was becoming clear to me that trauma from my past was resurfacing. At this point, I was desperate to find a solution. My anxiety was making me so irritable that I couldn’t enjoy daily life. I would hate going on vacation, I bristled at the touch of my husband, and I started to fear sleep (because that’s when my heart palpitations would take over).
It took me a while, but I finally saw a therapist who specialized in anxiety and EMDR. I sought out this type of therapy specifically because I felt so closed off from my body, almost as if I were unable to control it. I’d never suffered from panic attacks before. And these were coming out of nowhere. I had one so bad that I went to the ER.
Now, a year after weekly therapy sessions, I am a different woman. I exercise regularly, I enjoy trips with my family, I’ve become my cuddly self with my husband and kids. I do still have the occasional anxiety attack, and yes, even with the palpitations. But now, I have the tools to walk myself back from the ledge.
So I can honestly say, somatic therapy saved me.
But I still see articles popping up about somatic therapy’s controversial history, as if the figures that have brought this to prominence have somehow stained its efficacy.
I decided to investigate the controversial history of somatic therapy myself. Although I will say, my bias as someone who has completed this work successfully may warp the reality of what Somatic Therapy promises. So while I will try to remain objective, it’s hard because at least for me, it completely changed my life for the better.
Where does “Somatic Therapy” come from?
Somatic therapy is a term for many therapeutic modalities that address the mind-body connection, with the understanding that physical sensations can be the gateway to emotional healing. This is why I sought it out. My physical problems had become a detriment to my life, but deep down, I knew that what I was feeling in my body was more of a manifestation of what was tormenting my mind.
Unlike traditional talk therapy which seeks to explore the mind exclusively, somatic therapy focuses on how trauma, stress, and anxiety express themselves in the body.
The term somatics was coined by Thomas Hanna, a professor and movement theorist, who had a particular interest in how experiences were held within the body. Having studied philosophy and divinity, Hanna was introduced to Moshé Feldenkrais while living in San Francisco in the 1970s. This relationship led him to establish the Novato Institute for Somatic Research and Training, an educational institution that studies the integration of the body and mind and that integration’s impact on overall health.
Feldenkrais was an Israeli engineer who founded a method, the Feldenkrais Method, which proposes that bodily movement has the power to positively influence the mind. Prioritizing gentle exercise and awareness, the method, which is based on Feldenkrais’ understanding of physics, can relieve chronic pain and promote healthy aging. The Method is still used today, with countless videos on YouTube teaching accessible, at-home practice.
Now if this sounds more like yoga and less like therapy, you aren’t alone. In fact, the history of Somatic Therapy is steeped in controversial figures. Even the proponents of today aren’t safe from claims of pseudoscience and feel-goodery.
Early Somatic Therapy Influences: Wilhelm Reich and Pierre Janet
The birth of this therapy can be traced back to Austrian psychoanalyst, Wilhelm Reich, who began his career as one of Sigmund Freud’s protégés. Reich’s contributions to the field are numerous, but also controversial. His personal life was ethically questionable (he had affairs with his patients) and the beginnings of his body therapy work were equally problematic (he instructed female patients to disrobe down to their underwear, while he massaged them).
Known as somewhat of a kook and a charlatan, his life story is really quite interesting, ending in a heart attack while in prison. His charge? The man couldn’t stop selling his jokingly named “sex boxes,” metal-lined, orgasm devices Reich claimed could cure cancer and improve blood flow. The FDA disagreed.
Despite being a radical figure, Reich’s belief that emotional distress is held within and manifested through the body has endured. He believed that unresolved emotional issues became stockpiled, leading to muscle tension and stiffness. He called this one’s “body armor,” and over time, this body armor would grow thicker and more rigid.
Essentially, the body armor is developed through repression and transformed into physical stagnation. By working to reduce the physical burden, patients improve their mental health.
For French psychologist and physician, Pierre Janet, trauma treatment inspired his own influence on the field of somatic therapy. Janet studied intense traumas. While many of his patients were reluctant to speak on their pasts, their bodies exhibited what Janet concluded were symptoms directly related to their negative experiences, including tremors and dissociation.
While not as much of a household name as Freud or Jung, Janet’s influence on psychology is essential to our current understanding of trauma and its effect on the body. He developed the concept of “subconscious fixed ideas,” compartmentalized trauma responses that are created when a person is overwhelmed by negative experiences. As a result, the affected person fails to integrate the experience, leading to flashbacks, intrusive thoughts, and dissociation.
Janet felt that unresolved trauma depleted a person’s psychological energy, which is the precursor to our current understanding of nervous system dysregulation and burnout. When a person is unable to regulate their nervous system, it can lead to what some call a “fight or flight or freeze” response, an uncomfortable state of constant perceived threat.
This response is a natural one, when a threat actually exists. But when it is triggered without the presence of danger, a person may suffer from increased heart rate and panic attacks or paralysis and numbness. Yet another example of how emotional distress can present as physical symptoms.
Sadly, Janet’s contributions to the field are often overshadowed by his relation to Sigmund Freud. There is a long-standing back-and-forth about who is the originator of certain ideas, like the “subconscious.” And while Janet seems to have come on top over the years, Freud’s provocative theories win over in terms of public knowledge.
The Father of Modern Somatic Therapy: Dr. Bessel van der Kolk
Controversy and doubt usually shade new therapies in their infancy. For Bessel van der Kolk, often considered the father of modern Somatic Therapy, his concept of trauma as a brain-altering force continues to face debate.
In 2014, he published his seminal work, The Body Keeps the Score, which details how trauma damages the nervous system, affecting one’s ability to properly regulate emotions. According to van der Kolk, the mind seeks to suppress or avoid trauma in order to mitigate its negative effects. The body, however, cannot do this. Abuse, violence, and other traumatic experiences are encoded in the body, leaving trauma victims in an active state of fear and distress, which over time, harms the immune system, the nervous system, and even organ function. Trauma is so harmful to the body that it can cause sufferers to lose connection with their physical selves, leading to dissociation (again), numbness, and the inability to feel safe.
The research is extensive, calling upon van der Kolk’s many years of trauma and PTSD research. In the 1970s, he worked with veterans and began to see patterns that were similar to those that Janet witnessed nearly a century before. But now, he had the science of neuroimaging to prove these concepts correct.
In the book, van der Kolk cites fMRI and PET scans to demonstrate how trauma (e.g., in veterans, children of abuse) affects certain areas of the brain. The amygdala is triggered and remains in a state of hypervigilance. Broca’s area, responsible for language and speech, shows reduced function, which is why many sufferers find talking about their traumas a major challenge. Despite the brain’s difficulty with recall, the physical symptoms are remarkably real, tangible, and debilitating reminders of the painful experience.
While the book has spent years as a bestseller and has sold 2 million copies worldwide, it’s not without criticism. Several scientists, including Harvard psychologist Richard McNally, have deemed the work riddled with “conceptual and empirical problems.” Kristen Martin of The Washington Post wrote that the book promotes “uncertain science.”
In early 2025, Emi Netfield published an article in Mother Jones with an even more damning critique. According to Netfield, van der Kolk “stigmatizes survivors, blames victims, and depoliticizes violence.” Interviews with trauma survivors reveal a work that “dehumanizes” and leaves some with a feeling of “hopelessness.”
Additionally, this isn’t van der Kolk’s only controversy. He was famously fired from the Trauma Center, which he founded, for allegedly creating a toxic working environment. It should be noted, however, that his staff left with him in protest. And they have since started a new foundation.
van der Kolk is a proponent of yoga, bodywork, and EMDR therapies, which have been on the receiving end of critics for being “pseudoscientific.” And if you’ve ever been in an EMDR therapy session, as I have, it can seem a little ridiculous that tracking an imaginary ping pong ball can have any sort of positive aefect on one’s trauma. Anecdotally, I had incredible success with this therapy and yet, I’m still somewhat skeptical of how it actually worked.
Today, van der Kolk collaborates with Rick Doblin and MAPS in the pursuit of MDMA-assisted therapy as a tool for treatment-resistant PTSD. Having met Doblin myself, I can unabashedly say that the controversies surrounding van der Kolk do not in any way deter me from seeking what are now termed “alternative” therapies as a means to treat trauma. It is a complex machine that requires a nuanced, and possibly “out there” approach.
When I first began therapy, this was one of the books that was constantly recommended to me. By therapists, those in therapy, and anyone into the self-help genre. I imagine that if you are also on the first steps of your therapy journey, you’ll be adding it to your cart soon.
Somatic Experiencing and Peter Levine
Dr. Peter Levine takes these therapeutic concepts a step further by creating his own brand (yes, trademarked) modality: Somatic Experiencing. Levine’s appreciation for the natural world sparked a lifelong curiosity for understanding stress and resilience.
In his book, Waking the Tiger: Healing Trauma, Levine provides a new perspective on the traumatic experience. Trauma responses are not innately disordered. In fact, they are natural physiological responses that get stuck, overwhelming the nervous system. While animals (like tigers) are able to release this stuck response, humans tend to suppress it.
Through Somatic Experiencing, trauma sufferers are encouraged to address their bodily reactions first (in what Levine calls a “bottom-up” approach), particularly those related to a “fight, flight, or freeze” response. Understanding how your body reacts to trauma enables you to release what’s stuck.
So how does this response get stuck in the first place? Humans are animals, after all, and should have some ability to shake off the fear associated with imminent danger. Levine posits that humans, being rational animals, judge their experiences through a lens of shame or guilt or fear of our bodily responses. We see the threat as bigger than it is, which isn’t to diminish its power in any way. We can become enculturated to move on, without allowing ourselves the space and time to address the issues.
Levine is not without his detractors. Sample sizes are small and studies have not been conducted at a large scale. The certification for Somatic Experiencing comes under fire for its lack of regulation and peer review. As a result, many feel that Levine’s claims are premature at best.
Others feel Levine’s approach is too mystical and pseudoscientific, claims that have plagued the field of somatics since its infancy with Wilhelm Reich.
Despite this, many therapists, including those who are critical of the rigor of Levine’s studies, admit that Somatic Experiencing works.
EMDR and Dr. Francine Shapiro
I didn’t seek out an EMDR therapist specifically, and didn’t do any prior research before making my first appointment. I knew my therapist specialized in anxiety and trauma, especially in women, and that’s all I needed to know.
After my first EMDR session, I rushed to Google in order to understand the history of this practice. If you’ve ever done it, then you might have felt like I did: eager, yet skeptical. What a strange, seemingly simple way to address deep, complex issues.
My therapist was also a wealth of knowledge about the practice. I confided in her that walking always cleared my mind. Even a quick walk around the block had the power to restore my focus and reduce my constant worry.
And that’s exactly where this controversial therapy was born: with a walk. My therapist explained that the founder, Dr. Francince Shapiro, was walking in the woods and discovered that moving her eyes side-to-side, in step with her leg movements, diminished negative thoughts.
This happy accident is now an accepted approach to managing PTSD and trauma. The bilateral sensation of eye movement (or alternate hand tapping) is paired with accessing painful memories, but in a way that doesn’t require you to retell the experiences comprehensively, which I found much easier. I could envision what happened, but talking about it was difficult to do, not completely anyway.
EMDR is based on the belief that the mind cannot fully integrate distressing experiences. The memories haven’t been processed, so to speak. So, “processing” plays a key role in EMDR sessions. I was expecting to talk about my experiences at length, which I did as my therapist included this in her practice. But when I processed, I was told to stick to single memory or emotion. I would think about this, while tapping, and over the course of several minutes, my emotions around this would change. They would be reshaped.
In one specifically distressing memory, my husband and children actually entered the experience while I was processing. This was completely bizarre, but somehow comforting. I released so much stress and anxiety in that moment, and honestly, I can’t explain how it happened!
Of course, EMDR has its own criticisms. Dr. Shapiro, herself, has come under fire for the origins of the therapy, with some asserting that she came up with it during her work in neurolinguistic programming, not some magical walk.
However, and yes, I am speaking to my own experience, it works. In 2013, the World Health Organization wrote EMDR “should be considered for people suffering from PTSD.” In the United States, the Veterans Administration gives EMDR the “strongest recommendation” as a first-line treatment for PTSD. The three-month treatment period is also appealing here, especially for veterans seeking alternatives to drugs or longer therapies.
Should the Controversial History of Somatic Therapy Make You Hesitant?
When you’re stuck in a loop of trauma and anxiety, you’re probably desperate to try anything that will bring you back to yourself. In my case, I felt that my physical symptoms (some so bad I went to a cardiologist and wore a Holter monitor for 3 days) were the result of a broken connection with my brain.
And I’m glad that I researched the controversies AFTER I had made the decision to practice EMDR. It took me far too long to settle on a therapist. I didn’t need any other excuses or delays.
To be quite honest, the controversies don’t put me off. When the accepted treatments are drugs (if therapy didn’t work, I wasn’t against them) and exposure therapy (no thanks!), the alternatives seem so much more appealing.
In a world where the doctor who proposed hand washing to avoid infection was thoroughly rejected by his peers, somatic therapy and its controversies don’t have to be taken with a grain of salt.
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