Somatic Movement Therapy for Pelvic Health
Authored by Dr. Maryssa Steffen, PT, DPT, Board-Certified Pelvic Health Clinical Specialist
“The white fathers told us: I think, therefore I am. The Black mother within each of us - the poet - whispers in our dreams: I feel, therefore I can be free.” - Audre Lorde
What Is Somatic Movement Therapy and How Is It Applied to Pelvic Physical Therapy?
Somatic movement therapy is an open-structured, creative, and individual-centered approach to movement and healing.
Somatic practices explore the principles of interoception, exteroception, and proprioception (more on these below), and research shows that somatic approaches support self-regulation, agency, and self-authority.
In the context of somatic pelvic therapy, these principles are applied to pelvic physical therapy and somatic wellness services to support people living with pelvic floor tension, chronic pain, trauma patterns, and stress-related conditions.
What Does “Open-Structured” and Self-Evolving Mean?
Your subjective experience is valuable material.
When attended to, it becomes a potent resource for:
Supporting your nervous system
Exploring creativity and embodiment
Moving with more ease—whether that’s walking, lifting weights, dancing, or resting
You are the expert in your own needs and capacities. You are in the driving seat.
How empowering. How grounding. How alive!
Interoception, Exteroception, and Proprioception
These are sensory systems that shape perception and motivate movement:
Interoception is awareness of the internal body (breath, heartbeat, gut sensations, emotion).
Exteroception is awareness of the external environment (touch, pressure, temperature).
Proprioception is awareness of your body in space and how you move.
Somatic pelvic therapy works by deepening the dialogue and interconnectedness between these systems—especially in bodies experiencing pelvic floor tension, trauma holding patterns, or global pain syndromes.
What About Pelvic Physical Therapy?
In pelvic physical therapy, distinct from but complementary to somatic approaches to psychotherapy, you receive a neuromusculoskeletal diagnosis and individualized exercise prescription.
Treatments include education, movement guidance, evolving home exercise practice, and hands-on modalities designed to help you move with more ease, pleasure, and choice.
With a somatic approach, the emphasis is on:
“Body awareness through reflection on movement habits, opening movement capacity, and developing self-directed or personal movement styles.”
This is especially relevant for people experiencing:
Pelvic pain
Pelvic floor tension
Trauma-related body holding
Neck pain and headache patterns that originate from global muscular guarding
Developing an Individualized Somatic Movement Practice
In somatic pelvic therapy, you are not handed a generic exercise list.
You:
Develop individualized movement practices in collaboration with your therapist
Invited to maintain presence and mindful to micro-attention during witnessed and gently guided movement
Learn through repetition, curiosity, and sensation
Experience spontaneous moments of ease or pleasure
Affirm your own subjective experience
Over time, sensory exploration can replace fear or doubt as trust in your body grows.
This is embodiment practice.
What Is Embodiment?
Embodiment is awareness.
You may notice that awareness itself changes your experience and is enough.
Awareness creates choice.
Choice creates freedom.
When we move with more options, we are less trapped in habitual pain patterns—whether those show up as pelvic floor tension, chronic pelvic pain, or even neck pain and headaches linked to stress and holding.
“But I’m Already Too Aware—That’s Why I’m in Pain!”
This is an important and valid concern.
Pain can be amplified through cognitive-emotional sensitization, where attention, fear, expectation, and past experience heighten nervous system activation and reactions.
This does not mean the pain is imagined.
It means the nervous system is doing its job “too well.”
This is where trauma informed pelvic therapy and interdisciplinary care matter. Complex pain is treated with pacing, safety, and collaboration—not force.
Polyvagal Theory and Trauma-Informed Pelvic Therapy
In polyvagal-informed physical therapy, interoception becomes a guide for exploring the relationship between body and emotion.
Somatic pelvic therapy may include approaches such as visceral fascial mobilization, which can support interoceptive awareness and nervous system support.
Research shows that as people develop awareness of bodily sensation and emotional state, they begin to experience their bodies as safer and more trustworthy.
When you slow down and listen, your body tells you:
When to stop
When to change
When to say no
When to say yes
Trauma, Safety, and the Pelvis
For many people, slowing down can feel frightening—especially when trauma is stored in tissues and the nervous system.
This is why trauma PT and trauma informed pelvic therapy matter.
Somatic and trauma-sensitive professionals create containers that:
Reduce overwhelm
Support gradual attention to sensation and perception
Allow stories held in the body to begin to metabolize gently
If this resonates, working alongside a trauma-informed psychotherapist may also be supportive.
You are not alone.
A Somatic Summary
Interoception: sensing gut, emotion, internal state
Exteroception: sensing touch, pressure, temperature, vibration
Proprioception: sensing movement, balance, and orientation
When these systems are integrated, self-awareness and body trust grow.
Somatic practices are often most meaningful when practiced with others, in relational and social contexts that support lifelong embodiment.
Somatic Therapy Is a Practice, Not a Destination
Somatic pelvic therapy is not about fixing or performing.
There is no “correct” way to move.
Movement options are freedom.
Pelvic pain, pelvic floor tension, neck pain, and headaches are often expressions of prolonged stress, trauma, and survival strategies stored in the body—often in the pelvis so the mind can keep going.
Pain is your body’s request for a change.
When you are ready, your body is there for you.
Always.
Working With a Pelvic Floor Specialist
At Bodyful Physical Therapy & Wellness, somatic pelvic therapy and trauma informed pelvic physical therapy are central to our approach.
Care is guided by a pelvic floor PT with deep training in somatic movement, trauma-sensitive care, and integrative pelvic health.
Somatic movement education is led by Dr. Maryssa Steffen, whose clinical and somatic background informs every layer of care.
If you are in California, you can book a discovery call to learn more about our somatic approaches to pelvic physical therapy.
We offer in-person care in Oakland, CA, as well as virtual pelvic floor therapy for those who cannot attend in person.
Your body is yours.
Your movement is yours.
Your healing unfolds at the speed of your nervous system.
References
Body-Mind Centering® An Embodied Approach to Movement, Body, and Consciousness
Meehan E and Carter B (2021) Moving With Pain: What Principles From Somatic Practices Can Offer to People Living With Chronic Pain. Front. Psychol. 11:620381. Doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.620381
Pain Physician 2012; 15:ES205-ES213 • ISSN 2150-1149
