No, Somatic Healing Is Not Yoga (plus 5 other myths)
Somewhere along the way, somatic became a buzzword and it really has a subjectiveness to its meanings all over the internet. It has become one more commodity to package up and sell to the masses as “good for them” by “someone who knows better”. A checkbox in the wellness world. Yuck.
When a word gets thrown around that much it begins to become associated with certain things and then…people hear it and think: more yoga, more stretching, more body scans.
But here’s the truth—somatic healing isn’t about bending your body into shapes or mastering mindfulness apps or affirmations.
It’s about remembering the original language of your body.
It’s about safety. Presence. The slow return to self-trust. That deep, innate trust in the wisdom of what your body CAN and DOES communicate to you constantly.
It’s about learning about the ways in which your body speaks.
And it’s not nearly as complicated as the wellness industry has made it.
Let’s unravel a few of the myths that might be keeping you stuck in your head—when what you really crave is to come home to your body.
Myth #1: Somatic Work = Yoga Poses or Exercise
I love yoga. But yoga ≠ somatic work.
Somatic healing isn’t about fitness or flexibility. It’s about nervous system regulation.
A somatic practice can be as simple as unclenching your jaw.
Shaking your hands for sixty seconds.
Lying flat on the floor and letting gravity hold you.
The difference?
Exercise trains the body to perform.
Somatic practice invites the body to release and find safety.
Myth #2: Somatic Work is “Woo” or Unscientific
There’s nothing fluffy or woo about your survival system.
Fight. Flight. Freeze. Fawn. These aren’t personality quirks—they’re biological states your body moves through to keep you alive.
Somatic healing honors that truth.
It’s grounded in neurobiology and trauma research.
And it’s echoed by what mystics have always known: we heal through presence, connection, and rhythm.
Mirror neurons explain why you calm when you see someone else exhale.
Heart resonance explains why being near a regulated person slows your own heart rate.
And yes—even quantum physics reminds us that connection transcends distance.
It’s not “woo.”
It’s how your body works.
Myth #3: You Need Hours a Day for It to Work
This one keeps so many people from even starting.
The lie that healing requires morning routines, week-long retreats, or hours of practice every day.
But your nervous system doesn’t need more overwhelm (or one more damn thing to do).
It needs micro-moments of safety.
Five breaths before a meeting.
Two minutes lying on the floor between Zoom calls.
Shaking your shoulders out in the school pick-up lane (or belting out a classic rock song like the baddie you are).
These tiny resets stack up.
They don’t take time you don’t have—they create space in the time you already live.
Myth #4: It’s About Fixing What’s Broken
You are not broken.
Say it again: you were never broken.
Somatic healing doesn’t slice you into “good parts” and “bad parts.” It’s not about bypassing shadow or striving for perfection. It’s about wholeness.
It’s about building the capacity to hold all of you—grief and rage, radiance and joy.
It’s about remembering that your softness is strength, your sensitivity is sacred, and your survival patterns were brilliant adaptations.
The goal isn’t fixing.
The goal is remembering. The soul-deep remembering that all of these coping skills you developed were trying to keep you safe. And just like that junk drawer in the kitchen, every once in a while you’ve got to sift through it and chuck out all the junk you don’t need and doesn’t work for you anymore.
So What Is Somatic Healing?
It’s a slow, embodied practice rooted in nervous system literacy. It’s a blend of science and soul: clinical grounding and mystical resonance.
It’s sacred and practical.
Bathroom-stall friendly. Life-integrated.
This is the work of my Sovereign Embodiment Method™—a five-phase framework that walks you from survival to sovereignty:
Recognize → noticing your patterns.
Regulate → restoring presence in real time.
Repattern → gently rewiring reactive loops.
Resilience → expanding capacity for life’s messiness.
Reclaim → stepping into self-trust and sovereignty.
This isn’t about hustling to heal.
It’s about remembering that your body already knows the way.
Sacred Invitation
If you’ve tried yoga, therapy, affirmations—or all of the above—and still feel stuck… it’s not that you failed. It’s that you were handed strategies that skipped the body’s truth. It’s spiritual bypassing at body level.
Somatic healing isn’t another performance. It’s not another item for your to-do list.
It’s your birthright to feel safe, sovereign, and whole.
Start with five breaths. Inhale through the nose and exhale with a sigh, like you finally got to take your bra off after a 12 hour day.
Your body will take it from there.
And if you want a place to practice—gently, safely, in your own rhythm—you can step into one of my self-led rituals, join me in Renewal, or sit with me 1:1.
We’ll go slow.
We’ll go gently.
We’ll go together.
