Healing Through the Body: Somatic Therapy in Santa Monica, CA
You've talked things through. You understand your history. And yet your shoulders still tighten before a difficult conversation, your chest still tenses in certain rooms, your body still braces as if something is about to go wrong. Insight alone hasn't been enough to shift it because trauma can continue influencing how your body responds, even after you understand what happened.
As a trauma therapist serving Santa Monica, Jacklynne Marder offers somatic therapy to work directly with the physical patterns that talk therapy alone sometimes can't reach. Rather than starting with the story, somatic work starts with what's happening in your body right now, helping you build greater capacity for regulation, safety, and connection.
What Is Somatic Therapy?
Somatic therapy blends traditional psychotherapy with body-based awareness techniques. It focuses on how emotions, memories, and patterns manifest physically—through posture, tension, or breath. By noticing and gently working with these sensations, clients can release stored trauma, regulate their nervous system, and cultivate resilience. This process creates space for healing that feels grounded and authentic, rather than purely cognitive.
What Is Somatic Therapy?
Somatic therapy is a body-based approach to trauma treatment that works with physical sensation, breath, and grounding rather than relying primarily on conversation. Somatic approaches understand trauma as something that can continue shaping physical sensations, defensive responses, and patterns of nervous system activation long after an experience has passed, even when it's been fully understood on an intellectual level.
Jacklynne draws on Somatic Experiencing and Hakomi, a mindfulness-based somatic approach, tailoring the pace and depth of the work to what your nervous system can integrate at any given time. This work does not require yoga poses or a set movement practice. It follows the sensations, impulses, and nervous system responses that arise in the moment, as they arise in the present moment.
Working Within Your Window of Tolerance
Jacklynne works within your "window of tolerance," the range where you can stay present without becoming overwhelmed or shutting down. She may use titration, approaching sensations in small amounts, and pendulation, moving gently between tension and ease, so the process remains manageable rather than flooding your system all at once.
Who Somatic Therapy May Help
Somatic therapy may be especially helpful for people who:
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Understand their trauma intellectually but still feel it in their body.
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Experience chronic tension or body discomfort that persists alongside stress or trauma-related patterns, after relevant medical concerns have been evaluated.
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Notice a pattern of freezing, shutting down, or going numb under stress.
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Have tried talk therapy and feel like something is still unresolved.
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Struggle to feel settled or at ease, even when nothing is currently wrong.
What a Somatic Therapy Session Looks Like
Sessions focus on noticing what's happening in your body as it happens, rather than recounting the full narrative of what occurred. You won't be asked to relive difficult events in detail. Instead, Jacklynne will guide you to track sensation, breath, and impulses in real time.
This can feel unfamiliar at first if you're used to therapy being primarily verbal. This shift, from talking about the body to actually listening to it, can create space to notice experiences that are often difficult to access through conversation alone.
Is Somatic Therapy Right for You?
If you've done the work of understanding your story but still feel physically stuck, somatic therapy may fill that gap. It may be combined with EMDR therapy in Santa Monica when specific memories continue feeling emotionally charged, or with IFS therapy in Santa Monica when physical tension is closely connected to protective patterns or inner conflict.
During your consultation, Jacklynne will help you think through whether somatic work should be the primary focus of treatment or one part of a broader plan.
Meet Your Somatic Therapist
Jacklynne Marder is a licensed marriage and family therapist, California License No. 131000. She completed Somatic Experiencing Levels 1 and 2 through the SE Institute, an Integrative Somatic Trauma Therapy certificate through the Embody Lab, and training in Hakomi, a mindfulness-based somatic psychotherapy.
This body-aware training allows her to bring nervous system regulation into trauma treatment alongside more traditional talk-based approaches, depending on what each client's healing calls for.
Somatic Therapy for Santa Monica and the Westside
Jacklynne offers virtual somatic therapy for clients in Santa Monica and throughout California, with in-person sessions available at her Los Angeles office. Virtual somatic therapy can offer Santa Monica clients a private, familiar setting for exploring body-based responses without the added stress of travel.
Coming Back to a Body That Feels Safe
Somatic therapy offers a way to relate differently to those body-based responses and build a greater sense of safety in the present. Reach out to schedule a free 15-minute consultation and see whether this approach feels right for you. You can also explore trauma therapy in Santa
Monica for a fuller picture of Jacklynne's integrative approach, or learn about EMDR therapy in Santa Monica if a specific memory feels like the right place to start.
Frequently asked questions
TESTIMONIALS
"Jacklynne has helped me so much. I have chronic illness and struggle with anxiety, pain and other issues and she has used a mix of somatic therapy, helped me build self-compassion, EMDR which have all been very helpful. I have made progress in many areas and have noticed major improvements in my sense of well-being, self-compassion, and self-esteem as well as a greater window of tolerance. I always look forward to our sessions because I trust her so much, and feel truly cared for by her. I highly recommend Jacklynne as a therapist! "
"I've been working with Jacklynne for a little over a year now and my experience has been very positive. Jacklynne is great at asking the right questions and giving you space to figure things out on your own. This is my second time experiencing therapy and we're just now getting into some methodologies like "parts work" that I didn't know existed which have been very enlightening. Thank you Jacklynne for showing up and spending time and energy with me so I can get to know myself better :)"
"I was immediately impressed by the thoughtful and incisive questions Jacklynne asked. She has a kind presence and I felt very comfortable sharing with her. She presented me with tools in a clear and concise way which I appreciate because I have a short attention span. When I asked questions about the application of the tools, she gave clear and quick feedback. I left my session impressed by her listening skills, her observations and helpful recommendations. I felt a sense of relief after the session and I couldn’t stop smiling. It felt good to feel comfortable sharing things I usually keep to myself. I look forward to working with her."