Somatic Therapy

For what talking hasn’t changed

When You Can’t Think Your Way Out

Maybe you understand your history well and still feel your chest tighten as the car turns into the driveway. Maybe there’s a weight across your shoulders that’s been there for months and nothing you can point to explains it. Maybe you can name exactly what you’re feeling — dread, anxiety — without knowing what set it off, or why it comes and goes the way it does. Or maybe you feel very little at all, and the flatness is its own problem.

These are different experiences, but they share something: more thinking doesn’t tend to resolve them. Stress and trauma responses run largely below conscious control, and explaining a reaction is a different task from changing one. Often the more direct route is to work with what’s happening while it’s happening — slowing down when you notice something change as we’re talking, whether that’s a tightening, a going blank, or the urge to move on, and staying with it instead of pushing straight ahead. Given that kind of attention, these states often begin to change. Without it, they tend to persist.

Vista Counselling provides somatic therapy in Langley, BC, with Dr. Kevin Klassen — in person at our Langley office or online across BC.

What can’t be explained can still be worked with.

How Somatic Therapy Works

Mostly it means slowing down enough to pay attention to what you’re noticing physically while we talk — where tension sits, what your breathing does when a particular name comes up, the urge to change the subject that arrives a half-second before the thought does.

From there we work with what we find rather than around it. That might mean staying with a sensation long enough for it to change instead of talking past it; tracking what happens physically as a memory comes into focus; noticing when a protective part of you becomes evident; or pausing to let things settle before going further. The pace matters more than the technique — going faster than you can absorb is how people end up overwhelmed and convinced therapy made things worse.

This isn’t limited to one kind of problem. It comes up regularly with anxiety, which is as much a bodily state as a train of thought; with trauma and PTSD, where people often understand exactly why they react the way they do and still can’t turn the intensity down; and in first responder work, where hypervigilance and the wired-but-flat state show up in sleep, startle and the inability to come down after a shift, not only in what you’re thinking about. Those are examples rather than a list — most of what people bring has a physical dimension once you start paying attention to it.

How This Works With EMDR, AEDP and IFS

Somatic processing is built into each of the approaches Kevin uses — it’s part of how they work:

EMDRReprocessing tracks physical sensation as much as image or thought — where a memory sits in the body is part of the information.

AEDPEmotions are followed as they move physically, not just named. Feeling something through to completion is a physical event before it’s an insight.

IFSThe parts of you that protect you often become evident as sensation first — a tightening when a subject gets close.

“Somatic therapy” is a broad label covering many different methods rather than one defined treatment, and the research reflects that. The most-studied named approach, Somatic Experiencing, has preliminary evidence of benefit for PTSD symptoms from a 2021 scoping review of 16 studies — promising, and well short of the evidence base behind EMDR or CBT. Somatic work at Vista isn’t offered as a standalone treatment on that basis; it’s part of how approaches with stronger research support are delivered.

The pace matters more than the technique.

Who Provides This at Vista

Dr. Kevin Klassen, Registered Clinical Counsellor in Langley, BC

Dr. Kevin Klassen, PsyD

Registered Clinical Counsellor & Registered Marriage & Family Therapist

Kevin works this way through the models he’s trained in — AEDP Level 1 through the AEDP Institute, EMDR, and IFS — each of which pays attention to what you’re noticing physically as part of how it works, alongside continued reading and training in this area. He doesn’t hold a separate certification in a named somatic method such as Somatic Experiencing or Sensorimotor Psychotherapy. If that’s specifically what you’re after, it’s worth knowing before you book. RCC #3496, RMFT #2017033.

More about Kevin →

This isn’t a separate treatment — it’s part of how the rest of the work gets done.

What to Expect

1. We notice firstEarly sessions are partly about getting to know what happens for you under stress, which isn’t something most people have had reason to track.

2. We go at a pace you can absorbUsually slower than people expect, and slower than the urge to push through. This is the part that most determines whether the work helps or overwhelms.

3. We work with what’s thereSensation is followed rather than analysed, usually inside EMDR, AEDP or IFS rather than as a separate treatment.

4. We check what changedIncluding whether it held between sessions. Change from this kind of work usually shows up in ordinary moments rather than in the session itself.

Sessions are 50 minutes, with a 75-minute option when the work benefits from more room. Available in person at our Langley office or online across BC.

Is This Right for You?

This may be a good fit if you:

Understand your patterns well and still feel them physically
Feel something physical you can’t name or explain
Can name what you feel but have no idea why it’s there
Freeze, go blank, or feel far away when a subject gets close
Carry stress physically — jaw, gut, shoulders, sleep

It may be less of a fit right now if physical sensation itself feels frightening or unbearable — that’s not a reason to avoid this work, but it does change where we start. We’d build steadiness first.

FAQs

Does somatic therapy involve touch?

Not as part of the work. Some approaches in this area do use touch, so it’s a reasonable thing to check. Here the therapy happens through conversation and attention — noticing what’s happening, and giving it room to change. Sometimes a person wants a hug or a hand on the shoulder at the end of a hard session, but that’s never assumed, and it’s never a technique.

Is this the same as Somatic Experiencing?

No. Somatic Experiencing is a specific training with its own certification, and Kevin isn’t certified in it. What he offers is therapy that works with physical experience inside the approaches he is trained in — AEDP, EMDR and IFS — all of which do this as part of how they function.

What if I can’t feel anything in my body?

That’s common, and it’s information rather than an obstacle. Numbness and disconnection are a common response to long-term stress and trauma. Noticing the absence is a legitimate starting point, and sensation often returns gradually as things settle.

Can this be done online?

Yes. This kind of attention works over video — you’re in your own space, which some people find makes it easier to notice what they’re feeling, not harder.

What does a session cost?

Sessions are 50 minutes. The fee is $200 per session with Dr. Kevin Klassen. Many extended health plans cover counselling with a Registered Clinical Counsellor — it’s worth confirming your coverage before your first session. Full details, including our cancellation policy, are on our FAQ page.

Wondering whether this fits what you’re carrying? You don’t need a diagnosis or a referral to start.

Book a session through our secure online booking, or contact the office if you’d like to ask a question first.