.png)
At Schoen Clinic Chelsea, we offer somatic body mapping therapy, a unique body-oriented psychotherapy designed to help individuals explore the physical manifestation of emotions and past experiences. Led by Lead Psychotherapist Gabriele McErlean, this therapeutic approach integrates creative arts with the exploration of the body's internal sensations, providing an innovative way to address issues like trauma, anxiety, and emotional dysregulation.
This therapy is ideal for individuals who may struggle to articulate their emotions through words alone, offering a more embodied, expressive pathway toward healing.
What is somatic body mapping?
Somatic body mapping is a therapeutic technique that integrates the body’s physical sensations into the psychotherapy process. This form of embodied therapy allows individuals to gain awareness of their bodily responses to stress, trauma, and emotional distress. By mapping out where emotions manifest physically, individuals are empowered to recognise, process, and heal from unresolved feelings.
Through a combination of body awareness, art, and movement, somatic body mapping enables clients to explore how their bodies hold onto stress, trauma, and emotional patterns, facilitating deeper emotional processing and healing.
In this video, Lead Psychotherapist, Gabriele McErlean explains that this therapeutic process helps clients who may find it difficult to express themselves verbally: “The process involves creating a life-size representation of one's body outline, which becomes a landscape for internal experiences that are often difficult to communicate with words alone."
In addition to using creative materials, clients may incorporate poetry or writing into their body map if they find it helpful. This combination of art and self-expression allows individuals to visually and creatively explore their emotions, resulting in a rich, multilayered representation of their emotional state.
Get in touch with our caring team in London today.
If you're looking for specialist therapy sessions, please don't hesitate to reach out to our team.
Our mental health and wellbeing clinic, Schoen Clinic Chelsea offers private outpatient individual and group therapy sessions with appointments in as little as 24 hours.
Email our caring team today, or complete our Online Registration Form & Screening Questionnaire to get started.
How does somatic body mapping work?
During therapy sessions, clients are encouraged to focus on specific sensations, pain points, or areas of tension in their bodies, mapping how these relate to their emotions. This form of therapy helps individuals identify physical manifestations of psychological conditions, such as:
Chronic stress and anxiety leading to tension in the neck, back, or shoulders.
Trauma responses stored as pain or stiffness in particular body areas.
Depression symptoms, which can be associated with fatigue, heaviness, or a lack of energy in the body.
By addressing these physical sensations through somatic therapy techniques, including mindfulness, movement, and guided visualisation, individuals can release trapped emotions and improve their mental well-being.
Benefits of somatic body mapping for mental health
Somatic body mapping offers a range of benefits for individuals dealing with emotional and mental health challenges:
Increased emotional awareness: The therapy enhances the ability to recognise and articulate emotions by understanding their physical counterparts.
Healing trauma: By processing traumatic experiences that are stored in the body, individuals can alleviate symptoms of PTSD, anxiety, and depression.
Emotional regulation: Body mapping helps clients learn techniques to regulate their emotions and responses to stress by increasing their bodily awareness.
Stress reduction: By identifying areas of physical tension, clients can learn relaxation techniques that promote overall stress reduction and improve emotional wellbeing.
Somatic body mapping is particularly effective for individuals seeking trauma recovery, helping them to heal through a mind-body connection approach.
Conditions treated with somatic body mapping
Somatic body mapping can help treat various mental health conditions, including:
Anxiety disorders: By mapping how anxiety presents physically, clients can learn coping strategies to manage their symptoms.
Depression: This therapy helps individuals with depression become aware of how their bodies reflect their emotional state and encourages physical movement to promote emotional healing.
Trauma: Somatic body mapping helps individuals recover from trauma by allowing them to process their experiences through their body, not just their mind.
Chronic stress: Through body awareness techniques, individuals can release the physical tension caused by stress.
If you are struggling with any of these issues, somatic body mapping therapy at Schoen Clinic Chelsea can provide the tools for lasting emotional and mental healing.
What to expect in somatic body mapping sessions
During a typical somatic body mapping session at Schoen Clinic Chelsea, you can expect the following steps:
Body awareness exercises: Your therapist will guide you through mindfulness techniques to bring awareness to different parts of your body.
Mapping physical sensations: Together with your therapist, you will create a ‘map’ of your physical sensations, identifying areas of tension, discomfort, or numbness.
Processing emotions: You will explore the emotional experiences associated with these physical sensations and work through any unresolved feelings.
Movement and expression: The therapist may guide you in using movement to help release emotional tension stored in your body.
Reflection: At the end of the session, you’ll reflect on how the experience has impacted your emotional and physical state.
This process allows for a deeper connection between the mind and body, facilitating emotional release and mental clarity.
The role of creativity in somatic body mapping
One of the distinctive aspects of somatic body mapping therapy is its focus on creativity. This therapy goes beyond traditional talk therapy by engaging clients in a creative, non-verbal process that incorporates art and nature. By using paints, pencils, pastels, and other artistic materials, clients can express their emotions in a way that is not bound by words. According to Gabriele, some clients also bring natural materials—like leaves or flowers—to use in their body maps, creating a tangible connection between nature and their healing journey.
This creative element allows clients to express emotions that may feel overwhelming or too complex to explain. The process of creating a visual and tactile representation of these emotions can be deeply healing, offering clients a new perspective on their feelings and experiences.
Why choose somatic body mapping at Schoen Clinic Chelsea?
At Schoen Clinic Chelsea, we provide a compassionate, supportive environment for individuals seeking body-oriented psychotherapy. Our highly skilled therapists tailor each session to meet the unique needs of every client, ensuring a personalised approach to mental health care.
Whether you're looking for relief from anxiety, trauma, or emotional dysregulation, our somatic body mapping therapy offers a transformative path to healing.
