01/24/2026
There’s been a lot of conversation lately about whether somatic work and trauma-informed practices belong in the massage field, or if they’re somehow “beyond our scope.”
As someone who teaches continuing education for massage therapists in somatic bodywork, I want to add some clarity and context to this conversation.
Somatic practices are not new. Methods like Feldenkrais, the Alexander Technique, and Hanna Somatics have been around for decades, well before I became an LMBT myself. What we’re seeing now isn’t a trend so much as a resurgence. A global movement toward nervous system awareness and trauma healing is emerging in response to what we’re collectively living through.
Trauma-informed and somatic-based work are specialized niches, no different than medical massage, sports massage, or spa work. Each of these niches uses language and approaches that speak to specific needs and populations. Somatic work simply speaks to the nervous system.
As massage therapists, we already work with the body-mind, and this is where misunderstandings often arise. “Mind” in a somatic context does not mean talk therapy or mental processing. It refers to the internal intelligence of the nervous system: how it senses, interprets, communicates, and responds within the structure of the body through the somatic nervous system.
We already touch this territory in neuromuscular therapy and myofascial work. Somatics simply goes deeper.
For example, understanding why slow, mindful movement engages the prefrontal cortex… how to recognize sensory-motor amnesia during active movement… and how that awareness allows the nervous system to re-establish proper resting length. This is a nuanced but important shift from the typical contract-relax model of NMT and what I teach in Somatic Reset Therapy.
Somatic work acknowledges that the body is complex and that lasting change happens when we work with the nervous system rather than overriding it or trying to force change.
This isn’t about stepping outside our scope.
It’s about refining our lens, deepening our education, and practicing with greater precision, safety, and awareness.
✨ If you’re a massage therapist curious about how to work more skillfully with the nervous system, without crossing ethical or professional boundaries, I’m teaching a live online Trauma-Informed Practice class on February 9. This workshop offers 8 CE’s and covers:
📍The neurobiology of trauma to understand how it impacts the body and changes the brain
📍A deep dive into Polyvagal Theory and working with the vagus nerve for nervous system regulation
📍What it means to co-regulate and how that applies to working with transference and counter-transference
📍A step-by-step guide on how to apply this knowledge to curate treatments plans from a trauma-informed lens
This class is designed to:
• Clarify what trauma-informed actually means in bodywork
• Ground somatic principles within massage scope of practice
• Help you work with regulation, not reactivity
• Offer practical tools you can integrate immediately
Education creates confidence. And informed practice protects both the client and the therapist.
Creating a Trauma-Informed Practice (8CE)