Somatic healing involves using body-centered techniques to release accumulated stress, anxiety and trauma from the nervous system.
That includes deep breathing, grounding, shaking and gentle movement. Somatic healing can help anyone, but particularly nurses, help shift out of fight-or-flight mode, reduce burnout and fight compassion fatigue.
Somatic Healing Techniques
Some somatic healing techniques from Johns Hopkins Medicine include:
• A body scan to calm and soothe. Find present awareness within the body by attending to physical sensations and needs. Start by laying down or sitting in a comfortable position, close your eyes or lower your gaze. Take a few deep, slow breaths. Settle into your body, letting your stomach expand on the inhale and relax on the exhale. Bring your attention into your toes. Notice if they are warm, cold, tingling or tense. You don’t need to change them; just be aware. Move upward, without judgment, and gently bring a wandering mind back to the activity. If you find tension, breathe into it and release it on the exhale.
• Practice conscious breathing by reconnecting to the baseline experience of inhale and exhale and how it serves us. Some conscious breathing techniques include box breathing, where you inhale for four counts, hold for four counts, exhale for four counts and pause for four counts.
• Use tactile activation to reinvigorate and ground the body through physical contact. Using a cupped hand or your fingertips, firmly and quickly pat all reachable areas of the body, including your arms, legs, torso and head, like you’re waking yourself up. Using light, sweeping motions, brush the body from head to toe, releasing residual energy.
What Does This Do?
Somatic exercises retrain muscles and release habitual tension, which can relieve the root cause of chronic pain and help regulate our nervous system.
Stressful clinical situations can often trigger the body’s fight-or-flight response, and these exercises can bring the body back to a parasympathetic state, reducing anxiety and burnout.
Over time, these exercises can help release stored emotional tension and increase emotional awareness, improving mental resilience and developing a stronger, more regulated connection with the body that, in turn, creates a safer, more empathetic space for patients.