Somatic Therapy San Francisco | Reconnect with Your Body, Reconnect with Yourself
In the fast-paced culture of San Francisco, with its constant deadlines, drive for success, and pressure to perform, it’s easy to lose touch with yourself. On the outside, you might look like you have it all together. But inside, there’s often a quiet disconnect: your chest tightens when you finally pause, your thoughts spin nonstop, your body aches in ways you can’t quite explain.
As a licensed professional clinical counselor and Board-Certified Dance/Movement Therapist, I’ve seen this pattern again and again in my practice. Many of my clients come to me because they’ve spent years surviving by thinking their way through everything. Somatic therapy invites something different: a way to slow down and listen to what your body has been trying to tell you all along instead of ruminating and staying stuck in thought.
Somatic therapy is a body-centered approach to healing. It’s not just about talking. . . it’s about acknowledging yourself by tuning into sensations, posture, breath, and movement so you can reconnect with the intelligence of your body.
On my website I describe somatic therapy as a process of listening to what your body is saying through sensation, posture, breath, rhythm, and nervous system responses. When you begin to pay attention in this way, the body becomes an ally and a source of guidance, regulation, and wisdom.
The Benefits of Somatic Therapy
Working with the body and nervous system — not just the mind
Traditional talk therapy focuses mostly on thoughts, beliefs, and behavior. Somatic therapy includes the body as a vital part of the healing process identifying how your nervous system reacts, how your muscles hold tension, how your breath changes when emotions arise.
So much of what we experience emotionally is stored in the body. When you bring awareness to your physical experience, you begin to regulate your nervous system from the inside out.
For many of my clients here in San Francisco i.e. people who are used to doing, achieving, and analyzing their way through life, learning to include the body in the conversation can be a revelation. It allows them to find calm, clarity, and connection that mental strategies alone can’t reach.
Easing anxiety, burnout, and emotional disconnection
Many of the people I work with come in describing chronic anxiety, stress, or perfectionism. Some feel numb, burned out, or emotionally distant — like they’re functioning but not feeling.
In somatic therapy San Francisco sessions, we explore how these experiences show up in your body e.g. the tightness in your neck the shallow breath, the sense of collapse in your chest, and we gently learn how to respond rather than override them.
Over time, clients often notice:
Earlier awareness of stress before it becomes overwhelming
A greater ability to self-regulate and soothe their nervous system
More connection to their intuition and aliveness
A deeper sense of groundedness and calm
An ability to define and execute goals instead of decision paralysis
When you include your body in healing, you stop fighting against yourself and begin working with your own natural rhythms.
Healing trauma and stored patterns
Psychological trauma isn’t just something that lives in the mind; Trauma also lives in the body. The body remembers what the mind might not fully express. That is why talking alone may not be the path to healing.
Through gentle movement, mindfulness, and awareness practices, somatic therapy helps you reconnect with those held patterns safely. You don’t have to relive trauma to release it and we work slowly, at your pace, with a focus on regulation and safety.
My own approach to somatic therapy in San Francisco is rooted in dance therapy, an evidence-based practice that uses movement as a pathway to emotional healing and expression. You don’t need to be a dancer — in fact, most of my clients are not. Movement simply becomes another language for exploring your inner experience. Music can also be used in dance therapy sessions to help encourage movement and explore new movement patterns.
Real, embodied change takes time
This work is not about quick fixes. It’s about creating a lasting, embodied shift.
When clients begin this process, I often explain that this work can be uncomfortable. . . not because you’re doing it wrong, but because you’ve spent a long time surviving by not feeling. The good news is that you don’t have to do this work alone or all at once!
I ask new clients to commit to at least twelve sessions to give the body enough time and safety to begin to unwind old patterns and create new possibilities. Healing at the level of the nervous system takes consistency and patience — and it’s worth it.
Reconnecting with your vitality
One of the most beautiful outcomes of somatic therapy is the return of feeling alive.
When you stop numbing the hard stuff, you also stop numbing the good stuff. Clients often tell me they begin to feel more connected to their emotions, their relationships, and their sense of purpose. They notice joy again, pleasure again, and feeling vibrant again.
The shift from surviving to living fully is at the heart of my work. I want you to feel safe enough in your body to experience the full range of life and not just the parts that feel manageable.
Accessible in-person or online
You don’t have to be in the room with me for this work to be effective and many of my clients choose to do somatic therapy online and find it just as powerful. I’d be happy to guide you in setting up a space that feels safe and supportive wherever you are.
If you’re local to San Francisco, we can also meet in person so we can have space for movement, grounding practices, moving to music, and deep connection in a private setting.
Why Work With Me
As a Licensed Professional Clinical Counselor (LPCC) and Board-Certified Dance/Movement Therapist (BC-DMT), I bring over a decade of experience of both talk therapy and body-based approaches, in particular dance therapy and dynamic attachment repatterning.
In our work together, you’ll never be pushed to perform or move in a way that feels unsafe. Everything happens at your pace, with consent and curiosity. Together, we’ll help your body and mind work as a team again.
If you’re curious about somatic therapy in San Francisco, I offer a free 15-minute consultation so we can see whether this approach feels like a good fit for you.
Getting the Most Out of Somatic Therapy
If you decide to begin this work, here are a few things I recommend:
Commit to consistency. Weekly sessions help create the momentum your nervous system needs to trust the process.
Wear comfortable clothing. You don’t need to be a dancer but you will need room to breathe and move naturally.
Notice your body between sessions. Observe how emotions show up in your body throughout the week. These small moments of awareness are the key to build change.
Be patient with discomfort. It’s normal to feel resistance or even an absence of sensations or feelings when you first start to examine your relationship to your body and emotions. That discomfort means something new is happening.
Let curiosity guide you. You don’t have to know what will happen or even why it is happening. If you just show up and are willing to listen to your body, that is enough.
A Path Back to Yourself
If you’ve been trying to live life by only using your brain and you’re longing to feel more grounded, connected, and at home in your body, somatic therapy might be what you need!
Through this work, you can reconnect with your body’s natural intelligence, release what’s been held for too long and is weighing you down, and rediscover the parts of you that feel alive and whole.
If you’d like to explore somatic therapy San Francisco, I’d love to talk with you. You can learn more or schedule a free consultation on my website: lisamanca.com/somatic-therapy-san-francisco.
Together, we can help you come home to yourself.