“I think God is when you are truly, fully in your body, when you have your thoughts and you have your body in there somehow messily joined for a few seconds… when all the disparate parts of your body join each other in this exultant moment of power that is divine. This, that is God. And when I stopped being in my body, I lost God.” — Ana, Jonah
Humans are full-body communicators, using body language and physical cues to indicate how we’re experiencing the world. That physical processing goes beyond what’s external; our bodies carry internal messages too. The lump in one’s throat when carrying guilt, the burning sensation of holding back tears, the butterflies of excitement or anticipation, the tension of fear or stress. The emotions we feel are a full-body experience, and when those emotions go unprocessed, their physical impact can linger. In Jonah, Ana’s mental challenge to understand and grow from her childhood experiences extends to her body. Throughout the play we see Ana engaged in the crucial work of reconnecting her emotional and physical realities. When unprocessed hurt or trauma creates tension a person doesn’t consciously understand, somatic therapy offers tools to rebuild that connection between the mind and the body.
The field traces back to the 1930s, when psychoanalyst Wilhelm Reich theorized that suppressed emotions were “armored” into the body, causing pain and muscular tension. Later, Alexander Lowen and Peter Levine expanded these ideas, studying how both humans and animals store and release trauma. In the 1980s, Levine coined the term somatic experiencing to describe his method of helping clients calm the body’s survival and panic responses.
In more recent years, books like Bessel van der Kolk’s The Body Keeps the Score (2014) have sparked interest in somatic practices, encouraging conversation about how trauma is stored in the body. Unlike cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), which focuses on redirecting thought patterns and desensitizing clients to tension, somatic therapy aims to address the tension straight on, encouraging awareness and release through body-oriented techniques. It is frequently used to support people navigating PTSD, anxiety, grief, chronic pain, and survivors of sexual assault and domestic violence.
A 2007 NIH study by Cynthia Pierce followed 24 young women recovering from childhood sexual abuse. One group received therapeutic massage; the other practiced body-oriented somatic techniques such as breath work and tension release. At the one- and three-month follow-ups, nearly all participants in the somatic group reported feeling more connected to their bodies and better equipped to regulate difficult emotions. Eleven of the twelve continued using the techniques in daily life, citing greater self-knowledge and resilience.
In-office somatic techniques are usually applied through body awareness, locating tension within the body and identifying its source; pendulation, settling clients into a relaxed state, then transitioning into emotional recall of traumatic experiences and then back into a relaxed state; titration, guiding clients through memory and identifying physical responses to that memory; and resourcing, recalling resources that promote feelings of joy and safety.
In addition to guided practices, here are some of the somatic techniques that can be used to navigate daily life.
Breath work: Using deep breaths or repeated breath cycles such as box breathing, breathing in for four counts, holding for four, exhaling for four, to regulate the nervous system.
Body scans: The process of grounding the body and intentionally examining the internal sensations from head to toe to identify and dispel tension.
EFT tapping: a four-step process combining verbal acknowledgment of distress with tapping acupoints to soothe the nervous system. The method guides participants to name a problem, rate its intensity, create a brief affirmation, and repeat a reminder phrase while tapping through acupoints. Studies show it can deactivate stress responses and ease physical strain.
For audiences watching Jonah, understanding somatic practices offers insights into the ways Ana seeks to reconnect with herself. Even when her mind is traveling, she’s able to empower herself through grounding of her body.
—Nayanna Simone