The Power of Somatics in Healing Sexual Trauma.
When it comes to recovering from sexual trauma, somatics offers a unique and powerful pathway for healing. Unlike talk therapy alone, which focuses on processing experiences through the mind, somatic practices invite us to reconnect with the body—the place where trauma is stored. Learning to “feel yourself from the inside” is not only a radical act of self-care, but it’s also a way to re-establish trust with your body and reclaim your innate capacity for pleasure, choice, and aliveness.
Learning to Feel Yourself from the Inside
Sexual trauma often creates a profound disconnection from the body. This disconnection, while protective in the moment, can leave us feeling numb, dissociated, or unable to fully inhabit ourselves. Somatic practices help us bridge this gap by inviting us to notice and attune to the subtle sensations, emotions, and signals that arise within.
Feeling yourself from the inside means cultivating an inner awareness—like turning on a light in a dark room. This awareness allows you to recognize your body’s signals of “yes,” “no,” and “maybe.” These signals are essential guides to reclaiming your sense of agency and safety.
When you tune into these signals, you strengthen your ability to make choices that align with your needs and boundaries. Over time, this practice fosters a sense of trust in your body, helping you feel more grounded and present in your daily life.
Integrating All Parts of Yourself
One of the challenges in trauma recovery is the tendency to compartmentalize, separating the mind and body… often while completely avoiding sexuality and eroticism (one of the challenges of living in a sex negative culture). This fragmentation can make it feel like you’re walking through life as “a head on legs,” disconnected from the richness of your body’s full experience.
Somatics emphasizes the importance of integrating all parts of yourself - and, in the case of somatic sex education, this certainly includes your sexuality, as part of the healing process. Reclaiming eroticism is not just about “fixing” what was harmed—it’s about connecting and exploring a vital part of your humanity. Your eroticism is a source of creativity, joy, and connection, and it deserves care and attention in your recovery journey.
Through somatic practices, you can begin to explore your body’s sensations, rhythms, and movements in a way that feels safe and empowering. This might look like:
Noticing the feeling of your feet on the ground as a way to cultivate grounding.
Exploring gentle touch or movement to reconnect with areas of the body that feel numb or tense.
Practicing mindful breathing to sense the natural ebb and flow of your body’s energy.
And, as these practices feel good or you’re wanting more challenge, definitely begin to explore how to welcome in your erotic energy, genitals and other sexually sensitive areas, as well as fantasy and sensuality - through this you can perhaps expand a recovery journey to include *all of you*. This integration isn’t about rushing or forcing anything. It’s about creating space to listen to your body, honor its wisdom, and gently expand your capacity for pleasure and connection over time.
Healing Beyond the Mind
Trauma recovery is not just a mental exercise—it’s a full-body experience. While intellectual understanding is critical, lasting healing comes from embodying that understanding in your daily life. Somatics teaches us that healing is not about bypassing the body, but rather about learning to be present with it in a way that fosters safety, resilience, and connection.
This process may feel vulnerable at first, especially if your body hasn’t felt like a safe place for a long time, or if you’ve never learned tools and skills to be with your body. But by slowing down, noticing the ever present gifts of sensation, and practicing kindness toward yourself, you can begin to create a new relationship with your body—one rooted in trust, care, and empowerment.
Reclaiming Pleasure as Medicine
One of the greatest gifts of somatic healing is the reclamation of pleasure as a resource for resilience. Pleasure doesn’t have to be sexual—it can be as simple as the warmth of the sun on your skin, the taste of your favorite food, or the feeling of your breath moving through your body.
When you invite pleasure into your daily life, you send a powerful message to your nervous system: It’s safe to feel good. Over time, these moments of pleasure can help you expand your capacity to stay present, even in challenging moments, and build a foundation of joy and vitality that supports your ongoing healing.
Moving Toward Wholeness
Healing from sexual trauma is a deeply personal journey, but you don’t have to walk it alone. Somatic practices offer a gentle, body-centered approach to recovery that can help you reconnect with yourself in profound and meaningful ways.
By learning to feel yourself from the inside, attuning to your inner signals, and integrating all parts of your body—including your erotic energy—you can move beyond mere survival and begin to reclaim your sense of wholeness, freedom, and pleasure.
Your body is wise, resilient, and capable of healing. Through somatics, you can learn to trust it and find a path into a life filled with connection, aliveness, and joy.