Somatic therapy recognizes that psychological evaluation is stored and expressed in the body — and that healing requires attention to bodily experience, not just thoughts.
The Somatic Perspective on Psychological Evaluation
Traditional talk therapy addresses psychological evaluation primarily through cognition. Somatic approaches add the body's wisdom:
- Psychological Evaluation creates physical tension, postural patterns, and nervous system states that maintain it
- The body 'keeps the score' — especially when psychological evaluation has trauma origins
- Bottom-up (body to mind) processing can access material unavailable to cognitive approaches
Somatic Therapy Approaches for Psychological Evaluation
Somatic Experiencing (SE): Developed by Peter Levine, tracks bodily sensations to resolve trauma and psychological evaluation.
Sensorimotor Psychotherapy: Integrates somatic techniques with attachment theory for psychological evaluation.
EMDR: Uses bilateral stimulation to process traumatic memories contributing to psychological evaluation.
Body-oriented CBT: Adds somatic awareness to standard cognitive-behavioral work.
When Somatic Therapy Is Especially Helpful for Psychological Evaluation
Somatic approaches are particularly valuable when psychological evaluation has trauma origins, when talk therapy has plateaued, or when physical symptoms are prominent.