CONNECT TO YOUR BODY AND HELP IT LET GO
Somatic Therapy Sessions in Melbourne
If you are looking for somatic therapy in Melbourne, you may already understand your patterns but still feel tense, overwhelmed, shut down, or constantly on edge. Unmask Therapy supports both your thoughts and your nervous system, helping your body gradually experience more safety, presence, and ease without forcing change.
somatic Therapy in Melbourne: relearn your body's signals and release trauma
With Somatic Therapy in Melbourne, you learn to pause trying to explain, decipher, fix, or intellectualise how you feel.
Instead, we’ll work together to help you notice and understand the signals your body is sending you, and recognise your automatic responses to those feelings. Noticing your response is the first step in deciding whether you like it or whether you want to try something new.
Connecting, without judgment, to your body might sound relaxing – or it might sound terrifying. It’s a bit of both. And you won’t have to do it alone. Trauma-Informed and neurodivergence-led care means that our goal won’t be to make you feel everything that has been hidden away. There are reasons it was hidden. Instead, we’ll develop tools to help you choose how much is hidden, and when.
Somatic Therapy can help when…
- You’ve done talk therapy before, but it only took you so far, and you want to try something new
- You “dissociate” or feel distant from yourself when you’re stressed or scared
- You “run away” from problems – sometimes to new jobs, relationships, or countries – but don’t feel in control of why you run
- You feel tension and don’t know why
- You sometimes feel nothing at all and don’t know what you like or dislike, what makes you happy, or what to do with your life, because there are no internal signals to guide you
it's easy to get lost in your head, connecting to your body can help
Somatic Therapy in Melbourne is a space to reconnect and understand yourself on a deeper level, and focus on yourself in ways that might be harder in your daily life. Somatic Therapy can be used in support of all the other areas I work with…
- Reducing Alexythymia (difficulty noticing or interpreting what you’re thinking or feeling)
- Helping with analysis paralysis by tracking how options feel, instead of only what is “the best choice”
- Noticing discomfort before it turns into overwhelm
- Taking back control of your body and your choices by respecting your sensitivity, instead of denying it
- Caring and acknowledging yourself, as an act of resistance, and an act of love
- Noticing “gut feelings” and trusting them, so you can build safety in yourself and your relationships
- Exploring queer trauma separate to the social and political narratives – just you, and what you’re feeling
- Turning down the intensity of your body’s demands for rest by knowing what to listen for early – and how to respond
- Separating what’s “normal” from what’s “good for me” and discovering the signals that will explain them
- Notice what feelings sit heaviest, and where, and the work, home, and social spaces that take the biggest toll
Core Elements of Somatic Therapy
Nervous System Awareness
A central part of somatic therapy involves learning how your nervous system responds to stress. Many people notice patterns of fight, flight, freeze, or shutdown without realising what is happening in the moment.
Through gentle observation, you begin to recognise early signs of activation or collapse. This awareness alone can reduce reactivity and help you respond with more choice.
Mindful Attention Without Overwhelm
Somatic work is slow by design. We pay attention only to what your system can handle. This might mean noticing sensations for a few seconds, then returning to something neutral or supportive.
This pacing helps prevent overwhelm and supports trust in your body’s signals. There is no expectation to stay with discomfort longer than feels manageable.
Body Informed Meaning Making
Over time, bodily sensations begin to connect with emotions, memories, and beliefs. This happens organically rather than through analysis. As these connections form, many people find that long-standing patterns start to shift without forcing change.
your wants and needs are important, and the longer you ignore them, the louder they get
Somatic Therapy can be used alongside talk therapy, in your daily life, and during moments of fear and stress to offer you new tools and ways to understand and protect yourself. Curious about Somatic Therapy in Melbourne? Book an appointment with Felix at the Initial Consultation for $156 for an hour session.
How Somatic Therapy Works
Our experiences don’t only live in our brains, but become part of our body: how it moves, how it feels, and how it responds. Somatic therapy helps us develop new relationships with our bodies and helps us to recognize and understand the body’s signals, to help us recognize the impacts that people, events, and situations have had.
Building this connection leads to:
- Having more control and choice
- Developing ways to respond to your body, soothe it
- Gradually to pinpointing the areas and periods in your life that may have caused you the most pain
- Finding ways to release the tension and suffering these experiences have caused.
Many of the unhelpful patterns and beliefs that fill our lives are connected to painful experiences we went through, and how our body holds on to those experiences. It can be startling to recognize how something that happened a long time ago is influencing the big and small choices you make today, and how your body’s responses can help guide you towards – or away from- the choices that you want to make.
The Somatic Therapy Approach
At Unmask Therapy, somatic therapy is offered as a form of counselling informed by body-based awareness and nervous system science. The work is trauma-aware, paced carefully, and grounded in consent and collaboration.
Rather than pushing for emotional release or revisiting traumatic memories in detail, the focus is on building enough internal safety first. When the nervous system has more capacity, change tends to follow naturally.
This approach is informed by Somatic Experiencing principles, alongside broader counselling techniques. Somatic Experiencing is a well-known body-based framework, although somatic therapy itself is broader and can be integrated flexibly based on individual needs.
How Somatic Healing Develops Over Time
Somatic healing usually happens gradually. Early changes may include feeling calmer after stress, noticing reactions sooner, or recovering more quickly when things feel difficult. These shifts often appear before any major emotional insight.
As regulation improves, the nervous system becomes more flexible. This can reduce automatic responses like panic, shutdown, or chronic tension and create space for new ways of responding. Progress is not linear, and sessions move at a pace that supports safety rather than pushing for quick results.
somatic Therapy in Melbourne — Why Local Matters
Based in Melbourne, VIC, Unmask Therapy’s founder, Felix, offers in-person and online sessions to fit your lifestyle with 9 years of experience.
Somatic Therapy can work in-person and online, so you’re not limited to where you are. Working from home lets you connect to your body in a safe, known environment, and coming in to the office will show you how it responds in a whole new space.
You’re not just a brain in a jar (disappointing, I know), and the spaces you’re in – the public transport, the crowds, the quiet streets – all play a role in who you are and how you express yourself.
What Your First Somatic Therapy Session Looks Like
Before the Session
Your first session focuses on getting to know you. We discuss what brings you to therapy, what you hope for, and what helps you feel safe. Preferences, boundaries, and pacing are explored early.
During the Session
Sessions blend conversation with moments of slowing down. You may be invited to notice sensations or shifts, though you are always free to say no. Pausing and checking in is part of the process.
After the Session
It is common to feel tired, lighter, or emotionally tender after sessions. We talk about simple ways to support yourself afterwards. Progress is reviewed together over time rather than measured rigidly.
FAQs
How is Somatic Therapy different from talk therapy?
Somatic therapy focuses on noticing your body’s reactions and responses, and exercises that focus on moving your body to notice change. This makes it very present-focused, even when talking about the past. Talking is still part of it, but unlike talk therapy’s focus on the brain as the key to making meaning, somatic therapy treats your body as another vessel for your experiences, that can be understood and engaged with.
Does somatic therapy involve touching?
It doesn’t have to, and often will be using exercises that you can do alone. If physical touch ever seems helpful, we’ll have a conversation about what it would look like, why it would be beneficial, and boundaries.
Can somatic therapy be done online?
Lots of people do somatic therapy online – whether due to distance, accessibility, or personal comfort. Exercises don’t require any special space or equipment, and sometimes doing something from home can help you connect more deeply with how at home you feel in your body.
One note: unlike talk therapy, this is a tougher one to do from your car!
Is somatic therapy safe for people with complex trauma and PTSD?
Somatic therapy originated from the trauma space – it was always designed specifically for understanding trauma. Because of this, our work together will start off with talking about safety, and creating tools you can use to soothe yourself and step out of scary or overwhelming feelings. This way, as we progress, you will always be in control of where we go, when to stop, and what you can do to protect yourself.
What can I expect from a somatic therapy session?
A somatic therapy session usually combines conversation with moments of slowing down and noticing internal responses. You may be invited to check in with sensations, emotions, or impulses, though you always have the choice to decline. Sessions are paced to avoid overwhelm and focus on what feels manageable in the moment.
