Somatic therapy is a body-centered approach to healing that works with the nervous system, physical sensations, and movement patterns — not just thoughts and conversation. The word “somatic” comes from the Greek soma, meaning body. While traditional talk therapy engages primarily through language and cognitive insight, somatic therapy recognizes that many of our emotional and psychological struggles are held in the body as tension, bracing, numbness, or chronic stress responses.
In practice, this might involve noticing where you feel anxiety in your body, tracking how your breathing shifts during a difficult topic, or allowing your body to complete a stress response it never got to finish. It’s grounded, it’s evidence-informed, and it’s often the missing piece for people who’ve done plenty of thinking about their problems but haven’t felt a lasting shift.
Talk therapy works primarily through language — you describe your experience, gain insight, and develop new ways of thinking about your patterns. That’s valuable work, and somatic therapy doesn’t replace it. The difference is that somatic therapy also engages the body directly, because trauma, stress, and anxiety are stored in the nervous system, not just the thinking mind.
Many people find that they can articulate their issues clearly but still feel stuck in the same patterns. That’s often because the part of the brain that processes language isn’t the same part that holds traumatic experience. Somatic therapy bridges that gap by working with sensation, breath, posture, and movement alongside conversation. Think of it as therapy that includes your body in the process rather than treating it as separate from your emotional life.
A typical session with me begins with checking in — both verbally and physically. I might ask what’s present for you emotionally, and then invite you to notice what’s happening in your body. Where do you feel tense? Where do you feel open? Is there a place that feels numb or heavy?
From there, we follow what emerges. Sometimes that means staying with a sensation and letting it shift on its own. Sometimes it involves gentle movement, breathwork, or grounding practices. Sometimes we talk through something difficult and I’ll pause to ask what you’re noticing in your body as we go. Sessions are collaborative and paced to what your nervous system can handle — we never push past what feels safe. There’s no one-size-fits-all formula; the work is responsive to what you bring in each week.
Somatic therapy is effective for a wide range of concerns. In my Santa Monica practice, I most commonly work with people navigating anxiety and chronic worry, trauma and PTSD, depression and emotional numbness, chronic stress and burnout, relationship and attachment wounds, nervous system dysregulation, body image struggles, emotional overwhelm, and major life transitions.
It’s particularly helpful when someone has done talk therapy and made intellectual progress but still feels stuck in their body — the anxiety that won’t settle, the tension that won’t release, the emotional reactions that feel disproportionate. Somatic therapy reaches the places that conversation alone often can’t.
No. Somatic therapy isn’t exercise or physical therapy. You won’t be asked to do anything strenuous or uncomfortable. Most of the physical component involves internal awareness — noticing sensations, tracking how your body responds to certain topics, and occasionally engaging in gentle movements or breathing practices from a seated position.
Some clients do incorporate more movement over time, especially if therapeutic yoga or mindful movement feels right for them. But that’s always optional, always at your pace, and always grounded in what your body actually wants — not what anyone thinks it should be doing.
Honestly, most people who are curious about it tend to be a good fit for it. But it’s especially well-suited for people who feel like they’ve “done the work” in traditional therapy and hit a ceiling. People who carry their stress physically — chronic tension, jaw clenching, gut issues, insomnia — and haven’t found relief through medical channels alone. People who tend to shut down or flood emotionally and want to understand why their reactions feel so big or so absent.
It’s also a strong fit if you’re someone who lives primarily in your head. If you’re great at analyzing your patterns but disconnected from what you actually feel in your body, somatic work can open a channel of information that changes the whole picture.
My approach draws from somatic psychotherapy, mindfulness practices, and humanistic psychotherapy. I’ve spent over 25 years working at the intersection of body and mind — first as a dancer and yoga teacher, then as a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist. That background shapes everything I do in the therapy room.
I believe healing is an innate capacity that already lives within each person. My role isn’t to fix you — it’s to create the conditions where your own system can do what it already knows how to do. We work somatically to explore emotions and patterns in the body, creating space for deeper integration and insight. Sessions are warm, collaborative, and paced to your nervous system’s readiness.
Yes. I offer telehealth sessions for clients throughout California. Online somatic therapy works surprisingly well — we can still track body sensations, practice breathwork, do grounding exercises, and work with your nervous system in real time over video. Many of my clients prefer telehealth for the convenience and the comfort of being in their own space.
I also see clients in person at my Santa Monica office at 3020 Wilshire Blvd, Suite G, Santa Monica, CA 90403.
My practice is located at 3020 Wilshire Blvd, Suite G, Santa Monica, CA 90403. I serve clients in Santa Monica, West Los Angeles, Brentwood, Pacific Palisades, Venice, Mar Vista, and the greater Los Angeles area. For clients outside the Santa Monica area, I offer telehealth sessions to anyone located in California.
I see clients Monday through Friday, 9:00 AM to 8:00 PM Pacific Time. I do my best to accommodate scheduling needs, including offering some early evening availability for clients who work during the day.
Sessions are typically 50 minutes long. Most clients begin with weekly sessions, which allows enough continuity to build momentum and develop a working relationship with your nervous system. As things progress, some people shift to biweekly. We’ll figure out the right rhythm together based on what you’re working through and what feels sustainable for your life.
I am an out-of-network provider, which means I don’t bill insurance directly. However, many PPO plans offer out-of-network reimbursement for therapy sessions with a licensed provider. I can provide a superbill — a detailed receipt with all the information your insurance company needs to process a claim — after each session.
I’d recommend calling the member services number on the back of your insurance card and asking about your out-of-network mental health benefits. They can tell you what percentage of sessions they cover and whether you have a deductible to meet first.
Session fees vary depending on the type and length of session. I’m happy to discuss current rates during a free consultation call. I also offer a limited number of reduced-fee spots through Open Path Collective for clients who need financial flexibility. I believe cost shouldn’t be the only barrier to getting the support you need.
If you’re reading through this page and something keeps landing — a feeling of recognition, a sense of that’s what I’ve been trying to describe — that’s usually a good sign. Somatic therapy tends to resonate with people whose bodies have been trying to tell them something that words alone haven’t captured.
The best way to find out is to have a conversation about it. I offer a free consultation call where we can talk about what you’re experiencing, what you’ve tried, and whether somatic work might be a helpful next step. There’s no pressure and no commitment — just a chance to see if we’re a good fit.
The first session is about getting to know each other. I’ll ask about what’s bringing you to therapy, what you’ve tried before, and what you’re hoping to get out of this process. I’ll also start to introduce the somatic component — not in a heavy way, but by inviting you to notice what’s happening in your body as we talk. It’s a gentle entry point.
Think of the first session as a mutual interview. You’re figuring out whether you feel safe enough with me and whether this approach resonates, and I’m getting a sense of what your nervous system needs and how I can best support you. There’s no right or wrong way to show up. Come as you are.
There’s no universal timeline, and I’d be skeptical of anyone who gives you one. Some people notice shifts within the first few sessions — a sense of landing in their body, sleeping better, breathing more deeply. For deeper patterns, especially those rooted in developmental trauma or long-standing nervous system dysregulation, the work tends to unfold over months.
What I can say is that somatic therapy often creates changes that feel qualitatively different from insight alone. Rather than understanding your patterns better, you start experiencing yourself differently — in your body, in your relationships, in how you respond to stress. That kind of change tends to be lasting because it happens at the nervous system level, not just the cognitive level.
Yes — and it’s one of the most common reasons people come to see me. Anxiety isn’t just a thinking problem; it’s a nervous system state. The racing heart, tight chest, shallow breathing, and churning stomach are your body’s stress response staying activated even when there’s no immediate threat.
Somatic therapy for anxiety works by helping your nervous system learn — through direct experience, not just understanding — that it’s safe to come down from high alert. We use breath awareness, grounding techniques, and body-based exploration to build your capacity to self-regulate. Over time, clients often find that anxiety becomes something they can notice and work with rather than something that takes over.
Absolutely. In many ways, somatic therapy was developed specifically for this. Trauma is stored in the nervous system as incomplete survival responses — the fight, flight, or freeze your body initiated but was never able to complete. That unfinished business stays lodged in the body as tension, numbness, hypervigilance, or chronic bracing.
Somatic therapy for trauma doesn’t require you to re-tell your story in detail or relive the experience. Instead, we work with what your body is holding right now — the sensations, the impulses, the patterns — and gently support the nervous system in completing what got interrupted. For many people who’ve found talk therapy helpful but not sufficient for their trauma, somatic work is what allows the body to finally process what the mind couldn’t reach alone.
While both involve body awareness, they serve different purposes. Yoga is a movement and mindfulness practice that promotes flexibility, strength, and presence. Somatic therapy is a clinical psychotherapy modality conducted by a licensed therapist that uses body awareness as a pathway to process emotional and psychological material — trauma, anxiety, relational patterns, grief.
In my practice, I sometimes integrate therapeutic yoga into sessions when it supports the therapeutic work. But it’s always in service of a clinical goal, not a fitness one. You don’t need to be flexible, experienced with yoga, or comfortable with movement to benefit from somatic therapy.
You can reach me by phone at (310) 625-0572 or through the contact form on my website at stefanireitter.com/contact-us. I offer a free initial consultation call so we can talk through what you’re looking for and whether somatic therapy might be the right fit. From there, we can schedule your first session at a time that works for both of us.
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Let me start by saying something that might sound strange coming from a therapist: therapy
I had a client a few years back — I’ll call her Maya — who