Somatic therapy · Ottawa & online

Somatic Therapy in Ottawa

When your body won’t power down.

You can know, logically, that you’re safe, and still feel your heart racing, your jaw clenched, your shoulders up around your ears. That’s not a character flaw. It’s a nervous system still doing a job it learned a long time ago. Somatic therapy works with the body directly, so you don’t have to think your way out of something your body is holding.

Tension your body has been holding can learn to let go.

Book a free 15-minute call

Who somatic therapy is for

You might recognize yourself here:

You’re exhausted but wired. Sleep doesn’t fix it.
Your body reacts before you do. A slammed door, a certain tone of voice, and you’re flooded.
You’ve done talk therapy. You understand your patterns. They keep happening anyway.
Stress shows up physically: tension, stomach trouble, headaches, a chest that never quite loosens.
Feeling calm almost feels unsafe, like you’re waiting for the other shoe.

These are common ways a nervous system carries unresolved stress and trauma. Somatic therapy is built for exactly this.

What is somatic therapy?

Somatic therapy is a body-centred approach to psychotherapy. Instead of starting with thoughts and working down, it starts with what your body is doing: tension, restlessness, numbness, shallow breath. The work begins there.

The premise is simple: when something overwhelming happens and you can’t fight or flee, the survival energy your body mobilized doesn’t just disappear. It can stay in the system, showing up years later as hypervigilance, chronic tension, or shutdown. Somatic work helps your nervous system finish what it started, at a pace it can actually tolerate.

My approach draws on my ongoing training in Somatic Experiencing (SE), the body-based trauma method developed by Dr. Peter Levine, alongside mindfulness-based practice.

How does somatic therapy work?

We don’t dig for your worst memories. Somatic therapy doesn’t require you to retell your trauma story in detail. For many people, that’s exactly what makes it feel possible when other therapy hasn’t.

Instead, sessions focus on present-moment sensation. You learn to notice what your body does as things come up and, just as importantly, what it does as they settle. By moving slowly between activation and settling (SE calls this titration and pendulation), your nervous system gradually relearns that it can feel something difficult and come back down. Over time, that “coming back down” gets easier and more automatic.

This is the same nervous-system foundation I use across trauma work. For some people somatic therapy is the whole approach. For others it’s the ground floor that makes deeper processing with EMDR or parts work (IFS) possible later, only when you’re ready, and never before.

What happens in a session?

No two sessions are identical, but the shape is consistent:

1
We start where you are
What’s present today, in your week and in your body.
2
We track sensation, gently
I’ll ask things like “where do you notice that?” You never have to perform or produce anything.
3
We work in small doses
Touching the edge of something activating, then settling. The settling is the work. You leave with your feet under you, regulated, not raw.

Sessions are 50 minutes. You stay fully clothed and in control throughout. Somatic therapy here is awareness-based talk therapy that includes the body; it is not massage or bodywork.

Somatic therapy online, across Ontario

Somatic work translates well to video sessions; your nervous system is wherever you are. I offer virtual somatic therapy to adults anywhere in Ontario, with the same structure and pacing as in-person work. Many clients find working from their own space actually makes it easier to settle.

Fees and practical details

Free 15-minute consultation. A low-pressure call to see if this feels like a fit. No forms, no commitment.
Individual session (50 minutes): $200.
Insurance: you pay per session and receive a receipt to claim through your extended health plan. Most plans in Ontario cover Registered Psychotherapists. I don’t bill insurance directly.
In person at 9 Melrose Ave in Hintonburg, Ottawa (near Wellington Village, a short walk from Tunney’s Pasture), or online across Ontario. No referral needed.
You’ll be working with Masood Suliman, Registered Psychotherapist (CRPO #11921).

Questions people ask before starting

Do I have to talk about my trauma?

No. Somatic therapy is specifically designed so that healing doesn’t depend on retelling events in detail. We work with what your body is carrying now. If and when you want to say more, that’s your call.

How is somatic therapy different from regular talk therapy?

Talk therapy primarily works top-down, through thoughts, insight, and meaning. Somatic therapy adds the bottom-up channel: sensation, breath, and the body’s stress responses. Insight is useful; for trauma and chronic stress, working with the body as well may reach what understanding alone hasn’t.

Is somatic therapy evidence-based?

Somatic approaches are an active area of clinical research, and studies on Somatic Experiencing suggest it may help reduce PTSD symptoms. It’s fair to say the evidence base is younger than CBT’s or EMDR’s. In my practice, somatic work is integrated with established trauma therapies like EMDR rather than replacing them.

Is it safe if I have complex trauma?

The method is built around not overwhelming you: small doses, constant consent, settling before going further. If you live with complex trauma, you may want to read my guide to complex PTSD treatment in Ottawa, which covers how somatic work fits into phase-based trauma care.

Can somatic therapy help with anxiety?

Often, yes. Anxiety is one of the most body-loud conditions there is. Somatic tools for noticing and settling activation are a core part of how I work with anxiety, especially for people whose anxiety lives in their chest and gut more than in their thoughts.

How long does it take?

Honestly: it depends on what your nervous system is carrying and the pace that feels safe to you. Some people feel a difference in how they settle within weeks; longstanding trauma takes longer. We review together as we go. You’ll never be left guessing about where things stand.

One small ripple is enough to start.

A free 15-minute call. No forms, no pressure to tell your story before you’re ready.