The body is a powerful, resilient force, especially for mothers who rely on their bodies for a wide range of life-giving activities. From conception to childbirth, mothers use their bodies to grow, birth, nourish, nurture, guide, love, support, and carry their children. Yet, when it comes to mental health, the body is often overlooked. Traditional talk therapy has been a cornerstone for mental health treatment and can be a powerful tool for transformation. However, for some, it fails to address the deeper, bodily-rooted experiences of trauma, stress, or emotional struggle. In some cases, focusing solely on cognitive processes during talk therapy may even exacerbate symptoms, leaving mothers feeling frustrated or stuck.
Many mental health professionals have long been taught that discussing the body or involving it in therapy is inappropriate or unethical. This mindset, though well-intentioned, can sometimes limit the scope of healing, especially for mothers whose experiences are profoundly embodied. For these women, the absence of attention to the body in therapy can result in disappointing outcomes, where mental health concerns persist or even worsen despite their best efforts.
Fortunately, the world of mental health treatment is evolving. More practitioners are expanding their approaches to include somatic therapy, a holistic practice that recognizes the essential link between body and mind. By re-establishing this connection, somatic therapy offers mothers a pathway to deeper healing and self-awareness.
What is Somatic Therapy?
The word soma translates to “body,” and somatic therapy integrates the body’s wisdom with therapeutic healing practices. In contrast to traditional therapy, which often focuses solely on thoughts and emotions, somatic therapy incorporates the body’s sensations, movements, postures, and innate responses. Through this modality, clients are guided to explore how the body holds and expresses emotional experiences such as tension, trauma, or anxiety. By paying attention to bodily sensations, clients can unlock insights about how their physical and emotional experiences interconnect.
Somatic therapy teaches clients to understand the role the body plays in their emotions, impulses, and reactions to various situations. The practice emphasizes that the body often communicates things that words cannot, and by tuning into these messages, mothers can find a greater sense of balance, control, and presence.
Key Interventions in Somatic Therapy
Somatic therapy can be tailored to meet the specific needs and goals of each individual, but common interventions and practices include:
- Understanding bodily patterns: Exploring how stress, anxiety, depression, or trauma manifest as specific patterns of tension or discomfort in the body.
- Increasing present-moment awareness: Learning how these patterns affect your ability to stay present, aware, and fully engaged in life.
- Exploring identity through the body: Examining how your bodily responses and experiences shape your sense of self and identity.
- Body-brain interaction: Understanding how your brain and body communicate with each other, influencing how you perceive and react to your surroundings.
- Emotional regulation: Strengthening your ability to manage and regulate your emotions through body-based practices.
- Deepening relationships: Using bodily awareness to enhance your interpersonal connections by fostering more empathy, attunement, and responsiveness.
- Guiding decision-making: Relying on the body’s signals to help guide decision-making and clarify internal conflicts.
- Cultivating empathy: Using body-based awareness to increase your capacity to empathize with yourself and others.
Why Somatic Therapy Benefits Mothers
While somatic therapy can benefit many people, it is especially effective for mothers who often experience a complex relationship with their bodies. The daily demands of motherhood—from constant caregiving to managing stress, exhaustion, and hormonal shifts—can take a toll on both mental and physical health. Many mothers are in a constant state of “doing,” rarely having the opportunity to rest, restore, and reconnect with their own bodies. Somatic therapy addresses these unique challenges by helping mothers reconnect to their physical and emotional selves in a holistic way.
Specific challenges that somatic therapy can help address include:
- Mothers who feel perpetually “on the go”: For mothers who feel they cannot slow down or rest, somatic therapy can help release chronic tension and cultivate a sense of calm in the body.
- Chronic stress: Somatic therapy offers tools to release stress held in the body and teaches strategies to manage daily pressures more effectively.
- Anxiety or depression: For mothers dealing with anxiety or depression, somatic therapy offers a body-based approach to complement or replace traditional talk therapy, addressing physical symptoms like muscle tightness, shallow breathing, and restlessness.
- History of trauma: Mothers with traumatic experiences—whether from childbirth, relationships, or their own childhood—can benefit from somatic therapy’s gentle approach to trauma release.
- Growing up in chaos or stress: Women who were raised in unstable or stressful environments often carry these experiences in their bodies, and somatic therapy helps to heal old wounds lodged in the body’s memory.
- Disconnection from the body: Mothers who feel detached from their bodies or engage in compulsive behaviors (like overeating or over-exercising) can learn to foster a kinder, more attuned relationship with their physical selves.
- Overthinking or feeling “in your head”: Somatic therapy grounds mothers who tend to overanalyze or struggle with racing thoughts, helping them reconnect to their physical experience.
- Physical intimacy and touch: Many mothers struggle with physical intimacy, whether due to feeling overwhelmed by constant physical contact with their children or feeling disconnected from romantic partners. Somatic therapy offers a safe space to explore these dynamics.
Reclaiming Connection: Body, Mind, and Relationships
At Mom Over Matter LLC, we understand the profound connection between the body, mind, and emotions. For mothers, this connection is often tested through the demanding experiences of pregnancy, birth, postpartum recovery, and the ongoing physical and emotional care of children. Many mothers report feeling like their bodies no longer belong to them, having been stretched to accommodate the needs of others.
Through somatic therapy, mothers are invited to reconnect with their own bodies, re-establishing a sense of ownership, strength, and autonomy. This renewed connection with oneself can pave the way for healthier, deeper relationships with others, whether with children, partners, or extended family. Somatic therapy offers a pathway to self-empowerment, emotional regulation, and a more integrated experience of body and mind.
Start Your Healing Journey
We greatly look forward to starting this journey with you. Book a consultation here to learn more.
