The Body Keeps Score: How Somatic Work Heals the Root of Anxiety
Anxiety isn’t all in your head—it’s held in your nervous system
You’ve tried to talk yourself down from the spiral. You’ve read the books, practiced mindfulness, and told yourself to “just breathe.”
But your chest still tightens. Your thoughts still race. Your body still tenses at the smallest cue of discomfort.
That’s because anxiety doesn’t start in the mind. It lives in the body.
And until we work with the body, talk alone may never feel like enough.
What It Means That the Body Keeps Score
This phrase, coined by trauma researcher Dr. Bessel van der Kolk, means that your body stores the memory of what your mind can’t always process.
It shows up as:
A clenched jaw or tight chest during minor stress
Difficulty sleeping, even when you’re “tired enough”
Digestive issues or chronic fatigue
Muscle tension that won’t go away
A sense of unease, even when everything seems “fine”
These aren’t random. They’re symptoms of a nervous system stuck in survival mode.
Why Talk Therapy Doesn’t Always Reach the Root
Talking helps make sense of your anxiety. It gives you insight. But anxiety that’s rooted in trauma or chronic stress often bypasses logic altogether.
It’s not that you don’t understand your anxiety—it’s that your body still thinks it’s in danger.
That’s where somatic work comes in.
What Is Somatic Therapy?
Somatic therapy addresses anxiety by working with the body’s stored tension, trauma, and nervous system patterns.
Modalities like Brainspotting and EMDR help you:
Access pre-verbal, body-based memory
Release physiological holding patterns
Reprocess past experiences that taught your body to stay alert
Create new sensations of internal safety and calm
It’s not just about talking about the anxiety—it’s about letting your body finally release it.
How the Nervous System Responds to Trauma
If you’ve lived through emotional neglect, high-pressure environments, or experiences where you felt unsafe but couldn’t escape—your nervous system learned to stay in fight, flight, or freeze.
Even long after the danger passes, your body may still respond like it’s happening now. That’s why:
Small triggers cause big reactions
You can’t “relax” no matter how much you want to
Your anxiety feels automatic—and hard to stop
Healing isn’t about erasing these responses. It’s about helping your body update them.
What Healing Looks Like Through Somatic Work
Breathing fully, without tension
Feeling grounded in your body instead of floating above it
Noticing a trigger—and responding with calm instead of panic
Feeling safe in stillness, not just busyness
Reconnecting with your body as an ally—not an enemy
You don’t need to talk yourself out of anxiety. You need to feel your way through it—safely, gently, and with support.
You Deserve More Than Management—You Deserve Relief
I help high-achieving women of color who are ready to stop intellectualizing their anxiety and start healing it at the root.
Start your somatic healing journey here
Learn more about EMDR and Brainspotting for anxiety stored in the body
Your body remembers. But with the right support—it can also release.
