Anxiety isn’t just in your head
Why Your Anxiety Isn't Just in Your Head (And What a Somatic Therapist in Brooklyn Can Do About It)
If you've tried talk therapy for anxiety and found yourself thinking, "I understand this intellectually…very, very well, almost too well, but I am still bracing constantly, waiting for something bad to happen," you're just running into the limits and the frustrations of a purely cognitive approach. And as a disclaimer, I want to be very clear that talk therapy is good and beautiful and so important. I don’t want this to be a black and white discussion, because it is most definitely not. Sometimes the cognitive awareness is where you need to start and what feels safe and approachable to you in your life, right now. Another thing I think about a lot is say you’ve had a big somatic experience in session, talking about the experience with your therapist for a few sessions and not doing much “somatic work” can be a way you take care of yourself and help your system metabolize what just happened. So just know this isn’t a talk therapy: bad, somatic therapy: good, conversation. That is silly and also…wrong.
So in holding that, let’s explore more about anxiety and what’s happening inside of you and why somatic therapy could be helpful!
Anxiety doesn't just live in your thoughts. It lives in your shoulders, your jaw, your stomach, the way you hold your breath without noticing. Tension is movement held back and if you’ve had to live in spaces or relationships that didn’t nurture the fullness of you and instead needed you to conform, your nervous system skillfully figured out how to make that happen and it’s going to make itself known in constriction patterns in your body. That's where somatic therapy comes in, and it's a big part of why more people in Brooklyn are looking for a somatic therapist instead of, or alongside, traditional talk therapy.
What Somatic Therapy Actually Means
Somatic therapy is body-based therapy. Instead of only talking about what's stressing you out, we pay attention to what's happening in your nervous system while you talk about it. Where do you feel tension? What happens in your body when you mention your job, your family, that one relationship?
This isn't about ignoring your thoughts or ignoring the past. It's about not getting so lost in the thoughts that you lose track of yourself. It’s about recognizing that your nervous system holds onto stress and old patterns whether or not you've consciously processed them, and that lasting change usually needs both: understanding and a body that knows how to move with the activation and stay present. Working with anxiety isn’t purely about symptom reduction or only feeling calm all the time, it’s about growing your capacity to be with yourself in the activation and work with it instead of against it. With it being summer time, I’m thinking about the metaphor of learning to ride the waves instead or spending so much energy trying to not get knocked down by the waves.
I'm trained as a Somatic Experiencing Practitioner, which means I use a specific, well-researched approach to help people notice and release the physical patterns that keep anxiety on a constant low-grade simmer that in it’s own time shifts into a rolling boil.
Why Anxiety Sticks Around Even When You "Know Better"
I tend to see folks that have done some beautiful work in therapy prior to reaching out to me. They can explain their anxiety with impressive clarity. They know their triggers, their attachment style, their family patterns. And they're still anxious, they’re body is still something to be avoided.
That's because anxiety is often a nervous system that's stuck in a state of alert, not a thought pattern that needs correcting. Your body learned, at some point, that staying activated was the safest option. Talking about that can help you understand it, but it doesn't always teach your body a new way to respond.
Somatic work targets that gap directly. Instead of just talking about the anxiety, we work with it as it's happening. That might look like:
Slowing down enough to notice a small, physical sensation of tension, and staying with it until it shifts
Learning to recognize the early signs your body gives you before anxiety fully takes over
Practicing titration, which just means working with small, manageable amounts of activation instead of diving into the most overwhelming material right away
Building your capacity to feel calm in your body, not just understand calm as a concept
What This Looks Like in a Session
Somatic therapy sessions aren't only about your history, though we do talk about it. A lot of the work happens in the present moment, tracking what's happening in your body as we talk. I might ask what you're noticing in your chest right now, or invite you to pause before reacting to a hard memory, so we can work with your nervous system at a pace it can actually integrate. Somatic therapy sessions focus more on inviting you and your body to have an experience that’s different, that shows your body a new way to be with yourself. We aren’t just talking about how to do things differently in session, we are being playful and imaginative and curious so you can actually feel the difference.
This is trauma-informed work, which means we go slowly and we don't push past what your system can handle in a given session. This can take practice. Sometimes you might be so used to saying yes and overfunctioning that you might not even realize the bracing pattern that’s showing up your shoulders. It’s our work together to notice that and also notice what that pattern might be wanting to communicate. Being able to say no or not today or not yet is really powerful work. The goal isn't to relive difficult experiences. It's to help your body learn, gradually, that it's safe to come out of high alert.
Finding a Somatic Therapist in Brooklyn
If you're searching for a somatic therapist in Brooklyn, you're likely already sensing that something beyond conventional talk therapy might help. That instinct is worth trusting.
I'm a somatic and trauma-informed therapist currently based in Charlotte, NC, relocating to Brooklyn this fall, with an in-person Brooklyn office in the works for late 2026. In the meantime, I offer virtual sessions to clients across New York, so you don't have to wait for the office to open to start this work.
If anxiety has started to feel like background noise you've just learned to live with, it doesn't have to stay that way. A somatic approach can help your nervous system, not just your thinking, actually settle.
Learn more about working together as a Brooklyn-based somatic therapist →Blake Blankenbecler, LMHC, is a somatic and trauma-informed therapist and Somatic Experiencing Practitioner (SEP), currently serving clients virtually across New York, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Texas.
If you’d like to schedule a complimentary phone consult to learn more about somatic therapy and what working together could feel like, reach out below.
Other services offered with Fig Holistic Psychotherapy
At Fig Holistic Psychotherapy, we provide a range of services to help meet you where you’re at. Individual psychotherapy is not a sterile, three step formula for healing (that sadly does not exist…), it’s long-term treatment that ebbs and flows based on who you are and the story you’re bringing into our work together. Additional mental health services include eating disorder therapy, friendship therapy, EMDR, and trauma therapy. For more questions, here’s the FAQ page. Also, not quite ready to start therapy but would love a book recommendation? Browse our library here where we update what we are reading regularly because we really like reading. :)