You’re Not Here Just to Process Pain: Aliveness & Awe In Somatic Therapy

Aliveness Isn’t the Reward... It’s the Medicine

A lot of people imagine healing as a kind of finish line.

Once they’re finally regulated...
Once the trauma’s resolved...
Once they stop spiraling, freezing, or people-pleasing...

Then they’ll get to feel alive, present, and joyful. Then they'll feel like themselves.

And sometimes, that's exactly how it happens: I have seen people move from pure anxiety and disconnection to feeling more confident, more joyful, and truly at home in their lives.

But it's good news to know that you don't have to stoically excavate every traumatic memory in order to heal.

Because pleasure, aliveness & play are essential ingredients in our process.

When Joy Is the Work

When we approach our inner process, it can be tempting to default to excavation... processing the deepest wounds, naming the hardest patterns, confronting the most painful places.

But joy, pleasure, curiosity, creativity, awe...
aren’t distractions from the work.

They’re part of the work.

Sometimes, they are the work.

Especially if you’re used to fixing yourself.

Our brains naturally default to scanning for flaws, fixing problems, and focusing on pain... especially if we’ve lived through environments where safety was unpredictable.

So for some people, play and pleasure aren’t just nice-to-haves.
They’re countercultural.
They’re reparative.

Sometimes letting something feel good (without having to earn it or justify it) is its own kind of nervous system re-patterning.

Healing Isn’t Always Quiet

There’s a subtle message out there that becoming more regulated means becoming more still. More quiet. More inward. More contained.

And yes, there’s a time for stillness.
A time for slowing down.
A time for turning inward and tending gently.

But there's times when we need to GROWL. DANCE. SHINE.

Because healing doesn’t mean we lose our spiciness or our edge.
Our inner work often brings our spark back online.

And it means you can feel more, express more, explore more, try more.
It means your system is responsive, flexible, and engaged with life.

Why Aliveness Heals

This isn’t just poetic... it’s biological.

Our nervous systems aren’t just shaped by threat.
They’re shaped by what happens after the threat.
They’re shaped by what we do with our freedom.

In somatic work, we talk about neuroplasticity (the brain and body’s ability to change).
And one of the most powerful drivers of that change?

Play.

Novelty. Movement. Expression. Connection.
These are the experiences that open the system to something new.

So when a client laughs, or bursts into spontaneous movement, or feels awe or imagination flicker into the room... that is the work. When we take some time to experiment, play, focus on what feels good...

That’s not a break from healing. It's a prerequisite.

A Note on Spirituality

This is also where therapy starts to feel spiritual for many people.

I watch people's process become less about managing symptoms, and connecting with something deeper about who they are, why they're here and what they want to contribute to the world.

Not in the sense of dogma or bypassing - but in the sense of wonder.

Because when you're connected, moving, sensing, creating...
you remember something deep and ancient about who you are.

And even if life has been hard...
Even if grief is present...
That spark doesn’t have to be earned.

It’s already yours.

What This Looks Like in Session

In somatic work, we don’t just process trauma by reliving it.

We resource what feels good.

We experiment, we move. We get it wrong on purpose and try again. There's space for laughter, swearing, and putting your feet up on the couch.

In this, we build the capacity to feel what else is possible.

That might look like:

• Following an impulse to move or stretch

• Laughing during a moment of release

• Feeling a sense of power come online and striking a superhero pose

• Growling and pushing away with my help

• Finding what feels good (and staying with it)

  
  
  Because trauma healing isn’t always about excavating the hardest thing.
  
  Sometimes it’s about discovering that all parts of you are welcome, and letting your artist heart shine.

For those exploring: somatic therapy, nervous system healing, pleasure and play in trauma work, post-traumatic growth, embodied spirituality, neuroplasticity, experiential therapy, aliveness and regulation, pleasure

Watch the short video: You're Not Just Here to Process Pain: Aliveness & Awe in Somatic Therapy

This post is for entertainment purposes only and is not intended as therapeutic advice or treatment. Everyone’s experience is different. Please work with a qualified practitioner for individualized care.