“I have been in therapy for decades. I know this stuff, but I still haven’t changed.”
People come into my office after years of talk therapy, most with positive experiences, but something is still missing. Most can name their trauma clearly, they understand their family of origin and how the system has played out in their attachment styles and current relationships. Many of them understand power and abuse dynamics, have a solid theological understanding, and know enough about neuroscience to articulate what is happening at the physiological level. And yet there is a disconnect between mind and body. Their chest still tightens with anxiety, their body still freezes when shame arises, sex still feels distant and robotic, and anger still turns into aggression and comes out sideways onto the people that are closest to them.
This gap—between what we know (in our heads) and what we feel (in our bodies) —is why we’ve been developing something we now call Narrative Somatics at the Christian Counseling Center.
Over the last few decades, trauma therapy has made huge strides. We now understand that trauma doesn’t just impact memory; it hijacks the nervous system and the body, distorting your sense of self. As Bessel van der Kolk says in his book, The Body Keeps the Score, “The effects of trauma are stored in the body. Until they are addressed there, words alone are not enough.” Words alone are not enough. We need more than just to talk about our traumas; we need to fully enter into them and feel their full weight.
Somatic therapies have helped us see how trauma lives in the body and holds what the mind cannot. Narrative therapies have helped us see how trauma fractures identity and fragments story, leaving people trapped in shame-filled scripts about who they are. Both are vital.
But here’s the problem I see clinically:
- Story work without Body work can become more “head” knowledge without actual liberation of the whole self. (Side note: when working with grandiose, narcissistic, abusive men, story work without body work can be incredibly dangerous, as they can become even more well-versed in “therapy talk”, thus becoming more articulate abusers and more advanced in their practices of control. Body work can often disarm this type of client.)
- Body work without Story work can become regulation, increased body awareness, but without a depth of meaning.
People either understand their trauma but still live in adolescent adaptations and survival mode in a solely based narrative therapeutic modality, or they feel calmer but don’t know who or why they are if they only participate in a somatic experiencing therapeutic practice. Narrative Somatics was born out of that tension.
Trauma Is Storied and Embodied
One of the core convictions behind Narrative Somatics is a simple but radical notion that,
Trauma is both a story and a bodily experience—and it can’t fully be healed if we treat those as separate.
When something traumatic happens (big or small), the brain doesn’t file it away neatly. Higher reasoning goes offline. The nervous system takes over. What gets stored isn’t just memory—it’s bodily sensation, impulse, posture, breath. That’s why trauma can show up later as a clenched jaw, a tightening of the chest, a dissociative fog, a build-up of rage, hypersexuality, or sexual shutdown. The body is telling a story even when we don’t have the words to articulate it. At the same time, humans are meaning-making creatures. Trauma doesn’t just hurt the body; it reshapes our identity and can turn us against ourselves, unless we do this work of integration.
The Body Is a Narrator
In Narrative Somatics, we don’t treat the body as a problem to be fixed, but as something to be understood. We treat it as a primary narrator, a guide toward healing. Attunement to the body is key, as it will indicate which treatment steps are necessary.
We must first enter the story in detail and specifics. If they can’t remember exactly what happened, that is okay; they can share what they think probably happened. It’s not about just the facts being exactly right in the story; it’s more important to name what the body experienced, similar to a photograph vs. an impressionistic painting. Memory is much more like an impressionistic painting. When the client tells their story, we can begin to explore with them where in their body they feel this right now. Asking, “What does your body want to do that it couldn’t then? What do you need to do right now to reclaim what was taken from you then?” What follows could be liberated yelling; we often practice the word, “No!” or “Stop!” full-bodied with a comprehensive power. If clients struggle with this, we have them imagine they are in a theater class on stage, overacting and exaggerating so their bodies can begin to get used to this new way of being. These are just a few examples of helping softly guide the client into a new meaning-making scene.
This is never about forcing people back into their trauma if they don’t want to. That could do more harm than good. It’s slow work and led by the client’s body. Narrative somatics must be client-driven and consent-centered to prevent further harm or retraumatization. The goal isn’t changing the facts of the past; it’s about changing the meaning of the past.
Somatic therapies have taught us that trauma symptoms often come from incomplete protective responses, like fight, flight, freeze, and fawn. There are other actions and responses the body wanted to take but couldn’t in the face of such horror. If a body completes a defensive response but the person doesn’t integrate new meaning, healing cannot fully take root. The body might feel better, but the story (meaning-making) hasn’t been integrated. A deeper healing happens when the body finishes what was interrupted, and the person can say, “That makes sense. There was nothing wrong with me or my body. I was trapped. My body was protecting me. My body is good.” The story’s meaning changes, and the body is no longer the enemy but an ally; shame and self-contempt begin to change as the narrative and body come into new alignment.
So What Is Narrative Somatics?
Narrative Somatics is an integrative therapeutic modality that reunites story and body. It rests on a few core assumptions:
- Trauma fragments body, emotion, and narrative identity.
- The body holds memory and meaning, not just symptoms.
- Embodied presence is required for real narrative change.
- Healing happens when somatic completion and story integration occur together.
- Agency is restored when people can inhabit a story that feels true in their body.
In practice, this means therapy that moves slowly, listens carefully to the body, honors consent, and lets meaning arise organically rather than being imposed. The work is intuitive and artistic in nature rather than scientific and calculated.
Narrative Somatics has been especially powerful for people carrying sexual trauma, spiritual or religious abuse, deep shame, body hatred, disconnection from desire or anger, and men who learned to leave their bodies to survive. Many were taught, explicitly or implicitly, that the body was sinful, weak, or untrustworthy. Trauma only reinforced that split.
This work restores the body as an ally. And reaffirms the body as good (1 Corinthians 6:19–20) and God’s dwelling place (Genesis 1:31). When clients come to the realization that “My body is good, my body is home”, something in them changes, like a white flag of surrender in their war within. A deeper faith is rekindled, desire becomes safer, and a redeemed, healthy power emerges, reshaping how they relate to the world and engage relationships.
Narrative Somatics isn’t a rejection of existing therapies. It’s a synthesis shaped by years of listening to people whose healing required more than insight or body awareness alone. If you’re curious about Narrative Somatics, or wondering whether this kind of embodied, story-integrated work might be part of your own healing, we’d be honored to walk with you.
