Somatic-Informed Therapy in Springfield, MO
Somatic-informed therapy brings your body into the healing process, so you can feel steadier and safer in your own skin.
Our clinicians use somatic, body-based approaches to support people across southwest Missouri and the Springfield, Missouri community. Here it happens inside a real relationship with your therapist, at a pace your body can handle.
- Grounded in SIP, our own model
- Often woven into EMDR
- You set the pace
What does somatic-informed mean?
Somatic means “of the body.” Stress and painful experiences do not only live in our thoughts. They show up as a racing heart, a held breath, tight shoulders, a knot in the stomach, or a sense of going numb and far away.
Somatic-informed therapy treats those signals as part of the conversation. Along with talking, you learn to notice what is happening in your body, to find what helps you settle, and to move through hard moments in small, manageable steps. Over time, many people find their body becomes a place they can come back to rather than a place they need to escape.
You do not have to be good at this already. Feeling disconnected from your body is a common and reasonable place to start.
What a session can include
Paying attention to sensation
Your therapist may invite you to notice what you feel as you talk: warmth, pressure, tightness, movement, or nothing at all. Noticing is the starting point for everything else.
Finding what helps you feel steady
Before going toward anything painful, you build a sense of what calms and supports you. That might be a memory, a person, a place, or simply your feet on the floor.
Working in small doses
Hard material is approached a little at a time, with room to return to steadiness in between. The goal is to stay within what your body can handle.
Coming back to the present
Orienting to the room, slowing your breath, or changing posture can help your body register that you are here, now, and safe enough.
Letting the body respond
Sometimes a small movement, a stretch, or a shift in position helps you feel more settled or more like yourself. You always choose what you try.
Leaving steadier than you arrived
Sessions end with time to settle, so you can leave ready for the rest of your day.
Grounded in our own model: SIP
Somatic Integration and Processing, or SIP, is Beyond Healing’s own model for understanding what brings someone to therapy. It helps our clinicians hold an attachment-informed and nervous system-informed view of your concerns, so the body is part of the picture from the first session.
Beyond Healing Institute, our training arm, teaches SIP to clinicians, so the way we practice and the way we teach inform each other. Bridger Falkenstien, PhD, LPC, NCC, wrote about SIP in a chapter for IFS-Informed EMDR: Creative and Collaborative Approaches, published by Routledge in 2025.
Somatic work also sits naturally alongside EMDR. EMDR already asks you to notice your body, and many of our clinicians weave somatic approaches into trauma processing. Learn about EMDR therapy at Beyond
Clinicians trained in somatic-informed care
Many clinicians at Beyond Healing Center have devoted their professional development and training to learning how to bring the body into psychotherapy and counseling. Among them, Rachel Cagle, LPC, SEP, is a Somatic Experiencing® Practitioner, and Caleb Boston, LPC, is a co-author of Somatic Integration and Processing I and II.
- Rachel Cagle, LPC, SEP
- Caleb Boston, LPC
- Brooklynn Cook, LPC
- Angel Jones, PLPC
- Emilie Bridges, PLPC
- Paige McMasters, PLPC
Somatic-informed care is available to clients across the lifespan.
What the research says
Research on body-based trauma therapy is younger than the research on EMDR, and the findings so far are promising. Here is what several recent studies found, including what they cannot tell us yet. Every study below is free to download.
Fifteen weeks of Somatic Experiencing eased PTSD
In the first randomized trial of Somatic Experiencing, 63 adults with PTSD either began 15 weekly sessions or waited for treatment. The Somatic Experiencing group saw large drops in post-traumatic stress and in depression, and the gains held at follow-up.
Worth knowing: people were compared with a waiting list, not with another therapy, so the study cannot say how Somatic Experiencing compares with other treatments.
D. Brom and colleagues, 2017, Journal of Traumatic Stress
Sixteen studies point in a hopeful direction
A review gathered every study of Somatic Experiencing it could find and closely analyzed 16. Together they offer early evidence that it helps with post-traumatic stress, and with mood, physical symptoms, and overall well-being. Clients and practitioners named building on personal resources as one of the approach’s key ingredients.
Worth knowing: the quality of the studies was mixed, and the authors call for more randomized trials.
M. Kuhfuß, T. Maldei, A. Hetmanek, and N. Baumann, 2021, European Journal of Psychotraumatology
Yoga reduced intrusive memories
A 2026 review pooled nine randomized trials of yoga with trauma survivors. Yoga led to small to medium reductions in intrusive memories and in PTSD symptoms overall. The authors suggest that practicing attention to the present moment may be part of why.
Worth knowing: the authors found a substantial risk of bias across the trials.
S. M. Sinnott and colleagues, 2026, Journal of Traumatic Stress
Body and movement approaches for adolescents
A 2025 review looked at body and movement-oriented trauma work with adolescents. Across nine studies, these approaches showed promise for reducing post-traumatic stress, along with related mood and anxiety struggles, and for helping teens regulate how strongly their bodies react.
Worth knowing: the authors describe the findings as preliminary. Most research in this area has focused on adults.
P. Pelixo, G. Veiga, A. Pereira, and G. D. Santos, 2025, European Journal of Psychotraumatology
Cost and insurance
Most of our counselors operate on a self-pay basis, with rates that vary by provider level. A small number of our clinicians are in-network with Cox HealthPlans, and we can provide a superbill for out-of-network reimbursement. Insurance and payment information
Therapy and medication
If you are also looking for medication support, Beyond Healing Psychiatry offers psychiatric evaluation and medication management, with its own intake and insurance list. Call (417) 641-2406 or visit Beyond Healing Psychiatry.
Frequently asked questions
Is somatic-informed therapy different from talk therapy?
You still talk. Somatic-informed therapy adds attention to what your body is doing while you talk, and uses that information to help you settle and work through what is hard.
Do I have to do anything physical?
No. You choose what you try, and you can pause or say no at any point. Much of somatic work is as simple as noticing your breath or the feeling of the chair beneath you.
What if I feel numb or disconnected from my body?
That is common, and it is a reasonable place to begin. Your therapist can start slowly, with small moments of noticing, and build from there at your pace.
Can somatic-informed therapy be combined with EMDR?
Yes. EMDR already includes paying attention to the body, and many of our clinicians weave somatic approaches into EMDR. You and your therapist decide together what fits.
Does insurance cover somatic-informed therapy at Beyond Healing Center?
Most of our counselors operate on a self-pay basis. A small number of our clinicians are in-network with Cox HealthPlans, and we can provide a superbill if you have out-of-network benefits. See our insurance and payment page for details.
What if I also want help with medication?
Medication support is available through Beyond Healing Psychiatry, which has its own intake, its own insurance list, and its own phone line: (417) 641-2406.