Healing Trauma Through Touch: The Quiet Power of Manual and Somatic Therapies
- Orie Quinn
- May 19
- 3 min read

In my clinical practice, I often meet people carrying invisible wounds—trauma etched not only in their memories but in their fascia, breath, posture, and nervous system. Long after the trauma is "over," the body continues to remember. Fortunately, there’s a growing body of evidence showing that gentle, skillful touch—what we might call "manual therapy"—can become a pathway back to safety, embodiment, and healing. Manual therapy is no longer just for back pain or tight muscles. When combined with a trauma-informed lens, it becomes a deeply somatic intervention—a way of accessing the autonomic nervous system, regulating stored survival responses, and restoring coherence between body and mind.
Trauma Lives in the Body
As somatic psychologist Peter Levine has long emphasized, trauma is not merely a psychological event—it is a physiological one. His work, Somatic Experiencing, is based on the idea that traumatic stress overwhelms the nervous system’s natural rhythm of activation and discharge, leaving us stuck in cycles of freeze, hypervigilance, or dissociation (Verywell Mind, 2021). Somatic therapy, therefore, is about inviting the body to complete the protective responses it couldn't finish during the traumatic event. This could look like breath returning to the diaphragm, mobility in a frozen hip, or tears surfacing after years of numbness.
Evidence for Manual and Movement-Based Interventions
In recent years, researchers have begun to quantify what trauma-informed practitioners have long observed: hands-on bodywork, when done mindfully, can reduce symptoms of PTSD. A 2015 study published in PMC found that complex manual therapy significantly reduced PTSD symptoms in torture survivors. These improvements were measured by changes in standardized PTSD scores and were maintained after the intervention concluded. Similarly, a review of Body and Movement-Oriented Interventions (BMOIs) concluded that they show promising results in reducing PTSD symptoms. While mechanisms need further clarification, the therapeutic potential is undeniable. One such movement-based method, Tension and Trauma Releasing Exercises (TRE), focuses on activating the body’s natural tremor reflex—a release mechanism often suppressed in modern culture. A study on East African refugees found that TRE led to measurable improvement in trauma-related symptoms.
Autonomic Recalibration: Touch That Talks to the Nervous System
Another powerful approach is Autonomic Recalibration, a manual therapy that directly targets the balance between sympathetic (fight/flight) and parasympathetic (rest/digest) systems. A pilot study documented reductions in chronic pain and trauma symptoms through hands-on techniques aimed at resetting autonomic tone. This is not "just" massage. These are highly attuned, often subtle techniques that invite the body to shift out of defense and into connection—often for the first time in years.
The Bridge Between Science and Story
What I’ve witnessed in practice mirrors these findings. I’ve seen clients begin to breathe again, sleep deeply, and feel safe in their skin—sometimes after just a few sessions. Not because I "fixed" them, but because their body remembered how to self-regulate, once given the right input. Somatic psychology—the clinical field that studies how our lived experience is shaped by our physiology—continues to affirm this: that healing is not top-down but often bottom-up (Wikipedia, 2025). It is through the fascia, the breath, the tremor, and the gentle pressure along the spine that trauma begins to release.
A New Paradigm of Healing
If you or someone you love is living with the effects of trauma, know that healing doesn’t always require reliving the story. Sometimes, the most profound shifts happen through the body itself—through safe touch, through movement, through a therapist who listens not just with their ears, but with their hands. At Ozark Holistic Center, we offer a range of somatic and trauma-informed therapies—from manual release and craniosacral work to Applied Kinesiology and nervous system balancing. You don’t have to carry it alone. Your body is not broken. It just needs to feel safe again.
Sources:
Effects of complex manual therapy on PTSD, pain, function, and... PubMed Central, 2015.
Movement‐Oriented Interventions for Posttraumatic Stress... PubMed Central.
The Effect of Tension and Trauma Releasing Exercises (TRE) on... SCIRP.
Autonomic recalibration: A pilot study documenting mechanistic... ScienceDirect.
How Does Somatic Experiencing Therapy Work? Verywell Mind, 2021.
Somatic psychology. Wikipedia, 2025.
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