Why Grounding Isn’t Always Enough: Expanding Somatic Tools Beyond the Basics
When Grounding Falls Short
Grounding exercises, like noticing your breath, naming objects in the room, or pressing your feet into the floor are often the first tools people learn to manage stress and trauma responses. They can be calming, but many people discover that grounding alone isn’t enough.
Sometimes, grounding doesn’t stop racing thoughts, or it feels frustrating when your body is already overwhelmed. You may even feel worse when asked to “pay attention to your body.” This doesn’t mean you’re failing or doing something wrong. It means your nervous system may need a wider range of somatic tools to feel supported.
Why Grounding Isn’t the Whole Story
Grounding helps bring attention back to the present moment, but trauma often shapes the body in more complex ways. For some, focusing inward increases anxiety because the body still holds unresolved tension. For others, grounding works briefly but doesn’t shift the nervous system out of fight, flight, or freeze.
Think of grounding like learning to tread water, it can keep you afloat, but it doesn’t always get you to shore. The nervous system doesn’t just need awareness, it often needs movement, expression, and regulation. Expanding beyond grounding gives your body more ways to release stress and return to balance.
Everyday Situations Where Grounding Isn’t Enough
After a tense meeting at work, your body is buzzing with adrenaline. Naming five objects in the room feels flat, but shaking out your arms and legs helps release the extra energy.
You wake from a nightmare, heart pounding. Focusing on your breath makes you feel more panicked, but pressing your hands into the wall helps you feel strength and stability.
During an argument with your partner, you try to stay grounded by noticing your feet on the floor, but the rush of anger doesn’t calm until you step back and push gently against a doorway to move the energy.
These are moments many clients in Surrey and Langley describe times when grounding helps a little, but not enough to restore a sense of steadiness.
Expanding Somatic Tools
Somatic therapy includes a wide range of practices that go beyond basic grounding:
Movement and Gesture: Gentle shaking, stretching, or pushing against a wall can discharge energy when the body feels “stuck on high.”
Orienting: Slowly turning your head to look around the room, letting your eyes land on safe objects, signals to your nervous system that there is no immediate threat.
Resourcing: Calling to mind a memory, person, or place that feels safe provides a stronger anchor than neutral objects.
Pendulation: Shifting awareness between areas of tension and areas of calm in the body teaches the nervous system that it can move between states without being overwhelmed.
Touch and Containment: Placing a hand on the heart, resting hands on the thighs, or wrapping arms around the torso can give the body a sense of holding and safety.
These practices offer not just presence, but regulation. They help the nervous system move out of survival states and back into balance.
How Therapy Helps Build Somatic Range
Trying new somatic tools on your own can sometimes feel confusing or even triggering. In therapy, a trauma-informed counsellor can introduce practices gradually, making sure they feel safe and manageable. At Tidal Trauma Centre, we integrate approaches such as:
Somatic Therapy: Guides you through grounding, movement, and containment practices in-session so you can use them confidently on your own.
EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing): Helps reprocess traumatic memories so the body no longer reacts as though the trauma is happening now. For example, a slammed door may stop triggering the same startle response.
IFS (Internal Family Systems): Supports you in understanding parts of yourself that resist or shut down during somatic practices, helping you meet them with compassion instead of frustration.
AEDP & Emotion-Focused Therapy (EFT): Provide relational safety for expressing emotions like fear or grief, so the body no longer has to carry them silently.
These modalities don’t replace grounding, they expand your toolkit so you can respond in more flexible, adaptive ways.
Living Beyond Survival Responses
When grounding alone isn’t enough, it doesn’t mean you’ve failed. It means your nervous system is asking for more. By expanding your somatic toolkit, you create space not just for calming down but also for experiencing connection, vitality, and choice.
Healing isn’t about forcing yourself to stay grounded. It’s about giving your body enough range that it knows it has multiple pathways back to safety.
Expanding Your Somatic Toolkit
If grounding hasn’t been enough for you, it doesn’t mean you’re doing it wrong. It means your body is ready for more support. Therapy can help you expand your somatic toolkit, build resilience, and move beyond survival mode into steadiness and connection.
Contact us or fill out a New Client Form to be matched with a therapist. If you’re ready, you can also book a free consult or appointment directly.
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For some people, focusing inward can heighten anxiety because the body is where unresolved trauma still lives. In these cases, therapy introduces gentler tools like orienting outward or using supportive touch to help regulate without overwhelm.
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Some practices, like gentle movement or orienting, can be safe to explore independently. But many tools are best introduced with professional support, where pacing and safety can be tailored to your needs.
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Grounding is a set of basic practices to bring awareness to the present. Somatic therapy goes further, offering a wider range of body-based techniques, movement, touch, resourcing that help the nervous system regulate more fully.
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It doesn’t mean you’re beyond help. It usually means the tools need to be adjusted or introduced more slowly. A therapist can help find the right starting place and build from there.
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Not at all. Many clients benefit from combining both. Talking helps make sense of experiences, while somatic work helps the body release survival responses that words alone can’t shift.
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Disclaimer: The content on this website is for informational purposes only and does not constitute medical, psychological, or mental health advice. It is not a substitute for professional care. Always consult a qualified healthcare provider for diagnosis and treatment.