“To heal, we need to build Somatic Literacy—the ability to read the unspoken stories our physical bodies are telling.”
Episode Transcript
Hi there, my name is Cameron Conaway. Welcome to 3-Minute Reframe. Today we’re talking about Somatic Experiencing.
Somatic experiencing is a body-first therapeutic modality designed to resolve the traumas that accumulate in our nervous systems.
Trigger warning: This story involves childhood abuse.
Years ago, I worked with a specialist to heal from the sexual abuse I endured as a four-year-old. During a particularly challenging part of the session, the therapist asked me to “resource”—to feel the weight of my body on the couch and slowly look around the room to ground myself in the present. She wanted me to know I was safe—that I was no longer that boy trapped in a room with my grandfather.
As I scanned the room, she gently asked if I noticed that I looked fully to the right, but seemed to hit a wall of resistance when I tried to look to the left. I hadn’t noticed it. But the moment she said it, I knew why.
In my memory of the abuse, I was curled into a corner. To my right was the wall. To my left was my grandfather. My body had stayed in that “corner” for decades. My neck wouldn’t turn left because, in my nervous system’s timeline, he was still standing there.
This is the silent burden many of us carry: we are living our adult lives through a nervous system that is still “braced” for a past event. We often think we are overreacting to the present, when in reality, we are accurately reacting to a past that our body doesn’t realize is over. I was a grown man living in a four-year-old’s geometry.
The Reframe: We often try to think our way out of trauma, but the body keeps a different kind of record. To heal, we need to build Somatic Literacy—the ability to read the unspoken stories our physical bodies are telling.
My intellect knew I was safe—I had read the books and studied the theories—but those lessons hadn’t integrated until I addressed the physical resistance in my own neck. This integration is what I think of a Somatic Integrity. It’s the moment the “head-knowledge” of safety finally reaches the “body-knowledge” of peace.
Your body isn’t just a vehicle for your brain; it is the archive of your life. It doesn’t use words; it uses tension, breath, and posture. Listen to its resistance. Ask yourself: “What is this tension trying to protect?”
If you find yourself hitting a “wall” in your own scan of your life, remember that noticing it is the first step toward moving out of the corner.
Take care of yourself, and you’ll hear from me next week.
Show Notes
- Book: The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel van der Kolk
- Resource: Somatic Experiencing International
- The Concept: Somatic Literacy
Don't Just Keep Up.
Define the New Rules.
3-Minute Reframe isn't just another newsletter. It’s where new language for modern leadership is forged. Explore some of the frameworks shaping the future of personal and professional growth.