Online Somatic Therapy in Montana & Utah — Help Your Nervous System Feel Safe Again

If you've done talk therapy and still feel anxious, on edge, or shut down — like your mind knows you're safe but your body never got the memo — somatic therapy works at the level where that feeling actually lives: your nervous system. Eden Mental Health and Wellness offers online somatic therapy to clients across Montana and Utah, so you can do this work from a place where you already feel comfortable.

Who is somatic therapy for?

You might be a good fit for somatic therapy if you notice things like:

Feeling anxious or "wired" much of the time, even when nothing is wrong

Being stuck in fight-or-flight — tense, restless, easily startled — or in the opposite: numb, foggy, and shut down

Carrying tension in your body that never fully lets goUnderstanding intellectually that you're safe, while your body keeps reacting as if you're not

Having tried talk therapy and feeling like something deeper hasn't shifted

If some of that sounds familiar, you may be experiencing the lasting physical imprint of stress or trauma — and it's something that can change.

What is somatic therapy?

Somatic therapy is a body-centered approach that helps you process stress and trauma through the nervous system rather than through talking alone. Where traditional therapy works "top-down" — from thoughts to feelings — somatic therapy works "bottom-up," starting with the physical sensations your body is holding and helping your system complete the stress responses that got interrupted.

The word somatic comes from the Greek soma, meaning body. The core idea, supported by a growing body of trauma research, is that overwhelming experiences can become "stored" in the body as chronic muscle tension, shallow breathing, and ongoing nervous-system dysregulation — long after your conscious mind has moved on. Somatic therapy gives your body a safe, gradual way to release what it's been holding.

Somatic therapy vs. talk therapy: what's the difference?

Both approaches help — they just work on different parts of the problem.

‍Talk therapy asks, "What were you thinking?" It engages your reasoning mind through conversation and reflection.

‍Somatic therapy asks, "What do you notice in your body right now?" It works with sensation, breath, and movement to shift your physical state.

This isn't either/or. Many people use somatic therapy alongside talk therapy for deeper, more lasting integration. If you've felt like you "understand" your patterns but can't seem to feel different, the body-based piece is often what's been missing.

How we work

We draw on several evidence-informed, body-aware approaches and tailor them to you:
‍Somatic and nervous-system work to help you notice, tolerate, and release physical tension and return to a regulated state
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‍Polyvagal-informed care to make sense of your fight, flight, freeze, and shutdown responses — and gently expand your sense of safety
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‍Internal Family Systems (IFS) and parts work to meet the protective parts of you with compassion rather than force
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‍EMDR for reprocessing distressing memories when that's the right fit
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‍DBT and CBT skills woven in for grounding, regulation, and day-to-day copingWe meet you where you are and move at a pace your nervous system can handle.

what to expect in a session

Sessions are gentle and paced by you — there's no pushing or re-living the worst moments. Early on, we focus on safety and building your capacity to stay present with sensation. From there, we work slowly with what your body is holding, letting your nervous system discharge stress in small, tolerable steps. Because this is telehealth, you can do the work somewhere you already feel grounded — your own home, your favorite chair, even with your dog beside you.

does somatic therapy work

Yes — and a growing body of research supports it. A 2017 randomized controlled trial published in the Journal of Traumatic Stress found that somatic experiencing significantly reduced PTSD symptoms compared with a waitlist control group (Brom et al., 2017). A separate randomized trial found that adding somatic experiencing to usual care meaningfully reduced PTSD symptoms in people with chronic pain (Andersen et al., 2017).This reflects what decades of trauma science — including the work of Bessel van der Kolk (The Body Keeps the Score), Peter Levine (the founder of Somatic Experiencing), and Stephen Porges (polyvagal theory) — has shown: trauma affects the body and brain, not just our thoughts, which is why body-based approaches can reach what talking alone sometimes can't. You can learn more about trauma and its effects from the National Institute of Mental Health.

about us

Eden Mental Health and Wellness is a telehealth group practice founded and clinically directed by Lexie Haslem, LCPC. We are licensed to serve clients in Montana and Utah, and our clinical background spans residential treatment, hospital settings, and behavioral health consulting, with a strong focus on trauma and the mind-body connection. We're committed to ethical, compassionate, evidence-informed care.
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‍If you are in crisis or thinking about harming yourself, help is available right now. Call or text 988 (the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline) for free, confidential support, 24/7.

References: Brom, D., Stokar, Y., Lawi, C., Nuriel-Porat, V., Ziv, Y., Lerner, K., & Ross, G. (2017). Somatic Experiencing for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: A Randomized Controlled Outcome Study. Journal of Traumatic Stress, 30(3), 304–312. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28585761/Andersen, T. E., Lahav, Y., Ellegaard, H., & Manniche, C. (2017). A randomized controlled trial of brief Somatic Experiencing for chronic low back pain and comorbid post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms. European Journal of Psychotraumatology, 8(1). https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28680540/National Institute of Mental Health. Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/post-traumatic-stress-disorder-ptsdvan der Kolk, B. (2014). The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma. Viking.Levine, P. A. (2010). In an Unspoken Voice: How the Body Releases Trauma and Restores Goodness. North Atlantic Books.Porges, S. W. (2011). The Polyvagal Theory: Neurophysiological Foundations of Emotions, Attachment, Communication, and Self-Regulation. W. W. Norton.
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