CYBER MONDAY SALE! 20% OFF.....enter code SALE20 at checkout



What Are Somatic Exercises And How Can Somatic Exercise Heal Trauma?

Posted by Kelsey Juntwait on

If you wake up with tight shoulders, a stiff neck, unavoidable pain in your back, OR if you constantly feel your hips popping and jaw locking all day long, it may be beneficial to look into somatic exercises.

Maybe you’ve been questioning ‘what are somatic exercises’ for awhile now, or maybe you’re just becoming familiar with the term — either way, somatic exercises are the key to healing from trauma, dealing with stress, losing unwanted weight, AND treating the chronic pain you’ve been feeling throughout your body for the past few years.

But before explaining exactly what somatic exercises actually are, it’s important to understand what the term ‘somatic’ is representing here…

What does somatic even mean?

We tend to think of our body as a physical experience, allowing us to run and walk and skip and jump. Our physicality is what gets us through the day. And vice versa, our physicality is also something that can prevent us from getting through the day. Whether that be an injury, an infection, an illness, or anything else affecting how we move and function. 

But rather than seeing the physicality of our body as most important, we should really be trying to understand the intimate connection that our physical body has with all the other parts of it.

And especially the psychological, emotional, and mental part of it.

That’s exactly what somatic exercises do — connect the physical body to the psychological, emotional, and mental parts of you.

What are somatic exercises and how do they connect the physical body to the psychological mind?

We’ve already normalized the fact that our physical body is affected by our psychological, emotional, and mental experiences — and vice versa. 

So it’s probably not news to you when you hear that our serotonin levels in our brains and our overall mental health is highly impacted by the bacteria that’s living in our gut.

Or that we’re more prone to a weaker immune system and to experiencing illness when we’re more stressed than usual.

But have you heard this before? ⬇️

Our behavior patterns and the way we physically communicate with the world and people around us are representative of psychological trauma we experienced as children and never dealt with. 

Or how about this?

Our physical body is storing years of emotional and mental trauma that’s manifesting as things like hip, back, shoulder, neck, and jaw pain.

And you probably haven’t heard this one.

The more stress you feel in your everyday life is leading to a hormonal imbalance of cortisol that’s affecting your ability to lose unwanted weight.

So it’s important to know that our body and our mind is much more connected than you could probably ever imagine.

But where do somatic exercises come in?

What are somatic exercises and how does somatic healing benefit my body?

Somatic exercises are actually the key to allowing your physical body and your emotional mind to finally communicate with one another and figure out what’s affecting the other. 

Somatic exercises can:

  • Help you finally lose the unwanted weight you've been trying to get rid of
  • Heal your chronic inflammation 
  • Balance your hormones
  • Relieve your sciatica 
  • Get rid of chronic back pain, hip pain, shoulder pain, and neck pain
  • Stop you from clenching your jaw at night
  • Allow your hips to stop popping all day long
  • Get you into a normal sleeping routine
  • Curing your gut and digestive issues
  • Treat your daily headaches
  • Clear your brain fog
  • & so much more...

What are somatic exercises and how do they heal so many ailments in the body?

Simply put, somatic exercises are gentle movements that connect your physical body to your emotional body. These movements can be done by anyone and can also be done anywhere. With no equipment necessary and no limitations to how much exertion you can handle, somatic exercises are the answer to so many problems

Starting a daily practice of somatic exercises will treat the root cause of your problems and ailments by treating the area of your body where your trauma is being stored.

What are somatic exercises and why haven’t I heard about them sooner?

Here’s the deal… Western medicine (and capitalism in general…) is super quick to treat the symptoms of your problems. 

Extra-Strength Ibuprofen for the sciatica flare up.

Cortisone shots for the shoulder pain.

Yoga for the tight neck.

An overly-priced mouth-guard for the jaw clenching.

Xanax for the anxiety.

Prozac for the depression. 

Therapy for the anxious attachment style.

A new Peloton for the inability to lose the weight you’ve been trying to get rid of.

But what about the cause of these problems?

What about the cause of the sciatica flare up? The shoulder pain? The tight neck? The jaw clenching? The anxiety? The depression? The anxious attachment style? The weight you’ve been trying to get rid of?

Every symptom mentioned above can easily be treated — and they typically are! But in order to get long-term, sustainable results, you need to start at the cause. 

Which is.... Having stored trauma in the body.

Somatic exercise heals the symptoms you KNOW you have — by treating the cause you never knew existed.

And they do this by working alongside the nervous system to release the trauma that’s been building there over time.

What are somatic exercises and how do I start doing them? 

Your body deserves better than what it’s used to. So it's time to start somatic exercises today. 

Our signature program Release Stress & Stored Trauma In 30 Days has already changed thousands of people's lives.

And it can change yours too!

Here's everything Free Your Hips In 30 Days relieves:

  • Hip pain
  • Pelvic pain
  • Lower back pain
  • Sciatica
  • Sleep issues
  • Gut issues
  • Headaches
  • Chest pains
  • Constant fatigue
  • Long-term anxiety
  • Long-term depression
  • Brain fog
  • Chronic muscle tension
  • Tinnitus
  • Vulvodynia 
  • Pelvic tilt (both anterior and posterior)
  • Knee pain
  • Nervous system dysregulation
  • Pain associated with fibromyalgia
  • Physical symptoms of (childhood) trauma and abuse
  • Physical symptoms of long-term stress
  • Inability to lose weight
  • Chronic inflammation
  • Hormonal imbalance

Or you can browse through all our other programs that focus on areas like your shoulders and neck, your jaw, your lower back, and your core.

It’s time to heal your pain, free the anxiety, stress, and trauma being stored throughout your body, and get back to the life you were meant to live. 

About The Workout Witch
With 14 years of clinical experience, Liz Tenuto is a somatic specialist known as The Workout Witch because she heals the pain you know you have by treating the cause of it you never knew existed. Liz is committed to changing the conversation around past trauma, somatic memory, and how anyone’s psychological pain and stress is manifesting itself physically.

Website: https://theworkoutwitch.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theworkoutwitch_/?hl=en
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@theworkoutwitch
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjq8zR8uB_FUaOc4oZRgmfw