If you’ve ever felt like you understand your anxiety or stress but your body still reacts the same way, you’re not alone. This article explores the difference between top-down and bottom-up therapy approaches, including why insight alone doesn’t always change body sensations or emotional responses. Learn how body-based therapies like Sensorimotor Psychotherapy and EMDR work with the nervous system and implicit memory to support deeper, more lasting change.

Internal Family Systems (IFS) therapy helps you understand yourself as a system of parts, each trying to protect you, even when old patterns or shame keep you stuck. By connecting with your Self, the calm, compassionate center inside you can reparent wounded parts, release shame, and build inner harmony. IFS offers a gentle, effective path to healing trauma, regulating emotions, and cultivating self-compassion, creating lasting change in both your inner world and relationships.

Somatic therapy is a body-centered approach that helps people process trauma, stress, and tension stored in the body. By bringing mindful awareness to physical sensations, breath, and movement, it supports nervous system regulation, emotional balance, and resilience. This approach is particularly effective for managing anxiety, chronic stress, and attachment challenges, providing a holistic path to long-term healing and well-being. Through gentle, guided practices, individuals can release trapped energy, reconnect with their bodies, and cultivate a greater sense of safety and presence.

Trauma can leave lasting emotional and physical effects, making it hard to feel safe, calm, or in control. EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) offers a structured, supportive approach to help the brain process difficult memories so they no longer carry the same emotional weight. Using gentle guided techniques, like eye movements or taps, EMDR helps reduce anxiety, stress, and depressive feelings while promoting emotional release and physical relief. Over time, clients often regain a sense of balance, reconnect with their strengths, and move forward with greater confidence, hope, and resilience.

Some experiences leave marks we can’t always see—memories that linger, emotions that feel just out of reach, or a constant sense of bracing for something to go wrong. This is the quiet reality for many living with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).

Healing from PTSD takes time and patience. It begins with feeling safe—physically and emotionally—before gently processing what’s been buried and learning new ways to soothe the nervous system. While the path isn’t always straightforward, each small step toward safety and self-compassion helps to restore trust in yourself and the world.

What is trauma and how can you know if it is something you have gone through?

Our emotions, mental state, and physical body are deeply and intrinsically connected, each influencing the other. Acknowledging this relationship and taking deliberate steps to take care of our bodies can have a transformative impact on our mental health journey. By embracing practices such as deep breathing, muscle relaxation, and gentle movement, we equip ourselves with powerful tools to navigate life’s ups and downs with resilience.

In today’s clinical world, there are myriad therapy modalities, and it can be overwhelming as a client to know what...

If your therapist has mentioned EMDR as a potential treatment option, you might be wondering what to expect. As you...

Many clients have been helped at Journeys Counseling Center with the help of EMDR therapy. Learn more about Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) and how it might help you on your healing journey.

During some seasons in life, we are lucky to have the needed support to gain resilience and recovery from these difficult experiences.

The development and function of the adolescent brain is no doubt very different than that of an adult. 

In addition, sometimes abusive behavior is a current issue in marriage. Our highly skilled therapists can assess the situation and make appropriate referrals.