Somatic Therapy in Sydney: Body-based healing for anxiety & trauma
in Frenchs Forest & online
WITH PSYCHOLOGIST ISABEL ALFONSO
Release body tension. Feel more grounded
Medicare Rebates
What is somatic therapy?
Somatic therapy is a broad term that refers to therapeutic approaches that pay attention to physical sensations and bodily experience. These methods recognise that our emotional lives are often experienced and held in the body.
Traditional talk therapies engage only the mind, not the body, but in somatic therapy, the body is the starting point to achieve healing.
There are several modalities of somatic therapy. The approach I offer is called Focusing.
Focusing: an evidence based somatic therapy
Focusing comes from the pioneering work of philosopher and psychotherapist Eugene Gendlin at the University of Chicago, where he collaborated with Carl Rogers. Gendlin studied why some clients improved in therapy while others did not.
He found that successful clients were regularly checking inside themselves for a whole bodily felt sense of their situation. Gendlin then developed a 6-step process he called Focusing to teach this skill to others.
Here is a free resource you can download with Gendlin’s 6 steps to Focusing.
What is Focusing?
Focusing is the process of checking deep within yourself for a bodily felt sense of an issue and allowing the felt sense to unfold and guide you towards the next best step.
These sensations are often subtle and meaningful. By turning toward them with curiosity and care, it is possible to gain insight and shift how you relate to stuck or painful experiences.
What happens in a Focusing session?
In a session, you will be guided to explore what you’re noticing in your body, at your own pace. I will verbally help you tune into sensations and inner experiences, which might include noticing emotions, images, words, or bodily sensations that arise. There is no physical touching.
You will be encouraged to stay with whatever shows up, not to fix it, but to simply listen and be present, allowing meaning or natural shifts to emerge over time.
This approach could help if you:
Feel stressed, tense, or easily overwhelmed
Carry trauma or difficult past experiences in your body
Notice chronic muscle tension or “stuck” sensations
Want deeper body–mind integration
Still unsure?
I offer a free 15-minute call so you can ask questions and get a sense of how I work.
To read my blog post on why many people are turning to somatic therapies click here.