Ways to Process Depression Through a Somatic Lens

There are many ways depression shows up in the mind an body—many ways depression shows up interpersonally and behaviorally. I talk about a few of the physiological ways depression shows up and how we might process about them while exploring different related themes.

Mental and physical Fatigue.

"Why do I feel so tired all the time?"

• Explore how depression is not just mental, but physical—chronic fatigue, heaviness, and numbness are real body symptoms.

• Work with the body's protective shut-down (freeze/collapse) responses, not just the mind.

• Identify how the body’s shut-down impacts thoughts, feelings, behaviors, interpersonal relationships and other aspects of life.

Feeling disconnected.

"I don’t even know what I feel or want anymore." or "I’m so disconnected from myself."

• Support reconnection to self and community: preferences, boundaries, desires.

• Understand interdependence vs. enmeshment in interperpersonal relationships

• Work with the body as a source of wisdom, not just symptoms.

• Notice dissociation, zoning out, or feeling “foggy” or absent.

• Learn how to come back into the body safely, little by little.

• Somatic practices like grounding, orienting, or gentle movement to establish safe and present connection to self.

Numbness or Overwhelm or Both.

"I can't feel anything, or I feel everything."

• Notice and name emotional numbness or emotional flooding as adaptive (possible trauma-related) patterns, not personal failures or stuckness.

• Build a wider "window of tolerance" (capacity for daily stressors) for emotional experiences.

• Explore both activating and joyful feelings and sensations while widening “window of tolerance”; engage in life with more emotional and mental flexibility.

• Understand and identify what shifts you in and out of numbness and overwhelm.

When you spend time tending to your physiological symptoms with a therapist, you can re-introduce your body and brain to feelings of safety. When you feel safe in your body you can move through your life with more ease, clarity, peace, and joy.