The Somatic Origin, Not The Trend

What Yoga Already Knew Holistically, We’re Now Separating and Calling Somatic Work

I’ve been noticing something interesting happen over the last few years when a new trauma modality comes out. Therapists are being introduced to body-based approaches through a lot of different modalities — somatic experiencing, parts work, EMDR adaptations, even newer things like ART™, accelerated resolution therapy.

And within each of those systems, there are these techniques that seem or feel… new. But when I look at them, I don’t experience them as new. I recognize them.

Because yoga has been working with these same principles for a very long time. But the difference is, it hasn't been in a clinical language. Yoga introduced it in the body.

Drishti, Gaze, and Where We Place Our Attention

There’s a technique used in some trauma modalities where a client is guided to look at something close — like the back of their fingernail — then shift their gaze outward, then come back again.

It’s used to help the nervous system move between emotional / mental states. To help a client orien and self regulate.

In yoga, this is called drishti.

We’ve always worked with gaze. Where you place your eyes changes your internal state. It changes balance, attention, even emotional tone. Sometimes the gaze is soft and diffuse. Sometimes it’s focused and sometimes it’s internal. It’s a simple technique, but it’s not random. It's been part of the postures for over 5000 years.

In Yoga, Holistic Embodiment Has Always Been the Entry Point

Another example I see a lot is the use of animals in somatic work.

Clients are asked to notice how an animal moves. How it embodies safety, or power, or rest. They’re invited to take on aspects of that. Again, helpful. Meaningful.

But yoga has always done this too. Not just as imitation — but as embodiment of archetype.

How Yoga Postures Help Us With The Digestion of Poisonous Experiences

Take Peacock Pose (Mayurasana).

On the surface, it looks like a strength posture. Arm balance. Core engagement. Something physical. But traditionally, it’s associated with aiding in digestion.

A peacock can consume poison and not be affected by it. It actually transforms it. And that's what the posture teaches us. Don't be consumed by or get stuck in the poison of life, digest it.

In Ayurveda, we talk about ama — undigested material or waste in the gut, and often translated into "Not Mothering". Sometimes that’s physical. Yet sometimes it’s emotional or metaphorical. Experiences that were too much, or not fully processed. They stay in our system as waste, or ama.

Those experiences stick with us and make us sick.

When you work with a posture like Peacock Pose, you’re not just strengthening the body. You’re working with the idea of digestion, especially digesting the ama that could have taken us down — physically and metaphorically.

What does it mean to take something that was “poisonous” and not be taken down by it?

What does it mean to process, rather than store the experience?

That’s not abstract. That’s the work many therapists are trying to do with clients right now.

This Isn’t About Discounting Other Modalities

This isn’t about saying one system is better than another. There’s value in all of these approaches.

But what I see happening is that many of the concepts being introduced as new are actually rediscoveries of what yoga has already been doing — just described in a different language. Working with drishti, ama and breath has always been a part of the deeper yogic tradition.

What I teach as Parts Work therapy in our 500 hour training is rooted in the yogic system. It is not IFS™. It’s not Somatic Experiencing™.

It’s NSR™ — Nervous System Recalibration™ — and somatic movement rooted in yoga.

And yoga already holds these frameworks:

• attention and gaze (drishti)

• breath as a regulator

• movement as expression and integration

• archetypal embodiment through posture

• the relationship between physical and emotional digestion

  
  

It’s all there in traditional Yoga.

Why This Matters for Therapists

Right now, your clients are learning about trauma in ways they weren’t before. They’re hearing about the nervous system, about stored experiences, and about the body needing to be part of the process.

And they’re starting to expect that their therapist understands that.

Not theoretically — but practically.

What I’ve found is that when therapists begin to understand these yogic principles in a clinical, grounded way, something begins to unfold. They stop feeling like they need to “add” something complicated. They start recognizing what’s already happening in the room — in breath, posture, pacing, tone.

A Different Way to Look at It

So instead of asking:

“What somatic technique should I use?”

It becomes more like:

“What is already happening in this person’s system that I can help them process… digest… move through?”

That’s a very different question.

And honestly, a much more sustainable one.

Yoga didn’t miss this.

It’s been here the whole time (5000 years!).

Yet, we’re just starting to see it again.

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