Alternatives to Talking Therapy for Trauma and Emotional Healing
When we think about therapy, traditional talking therapies are often the first thing that comes to mind. Yet, for those who’ve experienced deep trauma, feelings like shame, guilt, or the intense aftermath of a traumatic event like a severe accident or a sudden death, talking alone may not feel like enough.
Trauma doesn’t just affect the mind; it leaves a lasting imprint on the body as well.
In his influential book ‘The Body Keeps the Score’, trauma expert Bessel van der Kolk highlights that trauma can become physically “stored” within us, affecting how we feel, think, and move.
For some, this manifests as physical tension, chronic pain, or a feeling of numbness or disconnection from their own bodies. In these cases, body-focused therapies can offer a unique and effective way to release trauma and support healing. Here’s a closer look at some of the leading body-based therapies available at BTR, how they work, and why they might be considered as part of your healing journey.
Somatic Experiencing: Releasing Physical Tension from Trauma
Somatic Experiencing (SE) focuses on how trauma is held within the body. Instead of diving into memories or talking through the trauma right away, SE helps you tune into physical sensations and gradually release the body’s natural tension.
How it works: In an SE session, a therapist guides you through noticing and working with physical sensations both pleasant and un-pleasant, such as constriction or expansion, lightness or heaviness etc. Over time, these sensations can be more easily tolerated, navigated and allowed to complete, disrupting the trauma pattern and helping you find your way to more balance.
When it helps: SE can be particularly helpful if you feel “frozen” or “stuck” after a traumatic experience, like an accident, or a traumatic relationship, where emotions are overwhelming but talking about them feels difficult.
Practitioners who offer Somatic Experiencing:
Jessica Moolenaar
Rebecca Porteous
Emily Dux
Agnieszka Walczuk
Prahlad Ilex Galbiati
Yoga: Bringing Calm and Awareness to Body and Mind
Yoga is widely known for its physical and mental benefits, but trauma-sensitive yoga specifically adapts the practice to those recovering from trauma. Trauma-sensitive yoga focuses on choice, contrasting movements and breath to reconnect with the body and foster a sense of safety.
How it works: Through forms that contrast strength with gentleness, noticing breathing, and fostering choice and agency, yoga can help you find safety and increase body awareness, which is often disrupted by trauma.
When it helps: Yoga can be a powerful tool if you feel disconnected from your body, struggle with physical symptoms like chronic pain or tension, or if feelings like shame and guilt make it hard to feel present.
Practitioners who offer Yoga:
EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing): Rewiring the Mind-Body Connection
EMDR is a type of therapy originally developed to help people process major traumatic events, reducing their emotional impact. Today, it is also used to help people manage distressing life events that, while not major traumas, still feel impactful. During an EMDR session, you’ll work with a therapist to recall a difficult memory, while using simple techniques like tapping or following their hand movements to help you process the experience.
How it works: EMDR helps your brain process difficult memories in a way that softens their emotional impact. By revisiting a memory with the therapist’s support and using gentle techniques like tapping or eye movements, EMDR helps you move through the strong emotions tied to the memory.
In an EMDR session, you’ll be invited to focus on a challenging memory and the feelings it brings up. Then, you’ll imagine a new, more positive belief about yourself, helping to reframe the memory. This process activates different parts of the brain to work together, allowing you to stay grounded in the present while working through the past. With EMDR, you’re in control of the process, and over time, these memories can feel much less intense or overwhelming.
When it helps: EMDR is widely recognised for treating PTSD, but over time, it’s also been found helpful for many other issues, including depression, panic attacks, phobias, anxiety, grief, addiction, chronic pain, trauma from past relationships, and experiences of violence or abuse. There is even a form of EMDR designed to help with early childhood wounds, especially those from difficult or disrupted relationships.
EMDR is endorsed by the NHS, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, the World Health Organisation, and other major health organisations.
Practitioners who offer EMDR:
Henrietta Nurney
Sussanah Cornish
Sophie Munro
Pesso Boyden System Psychomotor Therapy (PBSP): Healing Old Wounds
Pesso Boyden Psychotherapy (PBSP), is a unique approach that addresses unmet emotional needs from the past. In a time-limited session called a “structure”, PBSP allows clients to reimagine these needs being met, in the hypothetical past, helping them move forward with optimism.
How it works: In PBSP, clients’ real memories are antidoted with new “ideal” memories, where they symbolically receive what they needed emotionally, using role-play and physical movements to embody new, healing experiences.
When it helps: PBSP is particularly useful for those dealing with deep-rooted early attachment issues and feelings of shame, loneliness, or grief that may have developed from early life trauma or past experiences of neglect.
Read more about Pesso Boyden Therapy
Practitioners who offer Pesso Therapy:
Choosing the Right Body-Based Therapy for You
Body-based therapies can be valuable alternatives and/or complements to talking therapies, especially when trauma has deeply affected you. If you’re unsure which approach might be right, a therapist can help guide you based on your specific experiences and needs. These therapies offer different ways to connect with and heal from trauma, often allowing you to feel safer, more balanced, connected, and empowered.