Somatic Experiencing for Panic and Body-Based Symptoms
Panic is rarely as logical or straightforward as we wish it were.
Maybe it starts with your chest tightening, a flutter or sinking feeling in your stomach, or your heart beating faster without a clear reason. You tell yourself you are not afraid, yet your body reacts as though something is wrong. Other times, what you are panicked about feels very real, even overwhelming, as if it could be the end of the world or close to it. And sometimes the distress does not feel like fear at all. It feels like tension, unease, or that your body is doing its own thing without your permission.
For many people, panic and anxiety do not begin with thoughts. They begin in the body. You might notice shortness of breath, muscle tightness, dizziness, waves of heat or cold, or a sudden urge to escape.
When this happens, it is natural to start wondering what is going on inside your body.
What is happening to me?
Why does this feel so intense?
Why does my body keep doing this?
These questions are often the beginning of understanding how your nervous system has learned to respond to your life.
Who Am I and Why Am I Talking About This
Hi, I’m Amy Hagerstrom. I’m a licensed clinical social worker and a Somatic Experiencing practitioner.
I also know anxiety and strong body-based reactions from the inside. There was a period in my life when I lived with debilitating anxiety and overwhelming physical symptoms that affected everything, including my self-esteem. This work did not come to me only through training. It came through my own body and my own life.
This is the work that helped me see that I was not defective for what I was experiencing. My brain and body were doing what they are designed to do. They were trying to protect me from what they perceived as danger. I spent a long time trying to think and talk my way out of my anxiety and suffering. That did not work.
For a long time, I felt the panic and intensity in my body but did not yet have a way to understand what was happening. My system was busy trying to survive it. Learning how my nervous system worked began to reduce the shame I carried about my anxiety and my reactions.
Somatic Experiencing helped my brain and body begin to recognize that much of what I had been perceiving as danger actually was not. That shift brought real relief. And the work itself went deeper.
Why Somatic Experiencing Matters for Panic and Body-Based Anxiety
Panic and anxiety are not just emotional or mental experiences. They live in the nervous system. Your heart rate, breathing, muscle tension, digestion, temperature, and sense of safety are all shaped by how your nervous system is responding to your life.
Somatic therapy works directly with this system.
Somatic Experiencing is the form of somatic therapy I am trained in and the foundation of my work.
Rather than starting with trying to analyze your thoughts or change what you believe, we begin by paying attention to what your body is already communicating. Sensations. Shifts in breath. Tightness or heaviness. Subtle impulses to move. Moments when your system speeds up. Moments when it begins to settle.
This work helps your nervous system build capacity.
Capacity to stay present with sensation.
Capacity to move through activation without becoming overwhelmed.
Capacity to be with the hard parts of life as well as the good parts.
Capacity to feel more steady and at home inside your own body.
For many people, anxiety and panic are ways the nervous system is trying to communicate something about what has been too much, too fast, or too overwhelming. This work creates space to listen.
Sometimes that information is about experiences from the past that never had room to be processed. Other times it is about what is happening now, where you may be pushing yourself, where you feel uncertain, or where your system has learned to expect the worst as a way of staying prepared.
This work makes room for all of it. The body. The emotions. The thoughts. The meaning you make of what you have been through.
As that listening happens, the nervous system often begins to settle and reorganize. And at times, the work also reveals where action is needed, changes that want to be made, boundaries that need strengthening, or choices that help your system feel more supported. We pay attention to that too, and we work with it together.
How Panic and Somatic Anxiety Develop
When a panic response gets triggered, your nervous system shifts into survival mode. This is the part of your system that runs automatically and is always scanning for danger.
For many people, panic and anxiety start as a surge of activation. Your heart races. Your chest tightens. Your breathing changes. Your thoughts speed up. Your body feels wired, restless, or on edge. It can feel like everything inside you is saying, Something is wrong. I need to get out of here.
But for a lot of people, especially when this has been happening for a long time, the nervous system does not stay there. It shifts into a state that feels like the gas and the brake are on at the same time.
You might feel panicky and frozen at once.
Anxious but numb.
Alert but exhausted.
Desperate to escape but unable to move forward.
If this pattern keeps going, the system can begin to lose energy altogether. You may feel depleted, foggy, unmotivated, or shut down. Even small things can start to feel overwhelming.
This also helps explain why panic can feel like it comes out of nowhere, or why it can get triggered by something you logically know is not a big deal. At this point, it does not take a real threat to set it off. A thought, a memory, a sensation, or even stillness can trigger the response. Your body is reacting to something your mind does not always have access to.
Why Thinking Your Way Out of Panic Rarely Works
Many people come into therapy having already done a lot of thinking about their anxiety. They understand where it comes from. They can explain their history. They know their patterns. Some are incredibly self-aware.
And yet their bodies still react.
They may find themselves suddenly panicked in the grocery store, unable to sleep at night, or overwhelmed by sensations that seem disconnected from what is happening in their lives. This can feel especially frustrating for people who are used to solving problems through insight and effort.
The nervous system does not change through insight alone.
It changes through experience.
When the body has learned to stay on high alert, it needs to experience safety in small, consistent, relational ways. This is where somatic work becomes essential.
What Somatic Experiencing Supports
Somatic Experiencing helps you make sense of your reactions.
It supports your nervous system in learning how to move through activation without becoming overwhelmed, how to settle more fully after stress, how to stay present with sensation and emotion, and how to better recognize the difference between actual threat and safety.
As this capacity grows, you may begin to notice things shifting, not just in your body, but in how you experience yourself and your life.
You might experience fewer sudden spikes of panic.
The intensity of body-based anxiety may soften.
Recovery after stress can start to feel quicker and more natural.
There may be a growing sense of steadiness inside.
As your system becomes steadier, your emotional world often does too. Feelings that once felt overwhelming may become easier to stay with and understand. Thoughts can feel less reactive and less driven by worst-case scenarios. You may find it easier to take action, set boundaries, and make choices that actually reflect what you need and value.
As your system steadies, your relationship with yourself can begin to change. Self-trust and self-esteem often start to rebuild. You begin to experience yourself as more capable, more grounded, and more at home in your own life.
This work builds resilience in your nervous system and in how you move through the world.
What Sessions Are Like
In sessions, we move slowly and with care.
Some sessions have more talking. Some have less. There is space for all of you here: your thoughts, your emotions, and your body. With Somatic Experiencing, we bring the body into the work and pay attention to what it is communicating in the moment. Sometimes that means simply noticing what is there. Other times it means following what your system seems to need.
We stay focused on what is happening right now, in both your mind and your body. Sensations. Emotions. Images. Subtle shifts in breath. Moments when your system becomes more activated and moments when it begins to settle.
Sessions can look very different from one person to another and even from week to week. Some are more still. Some are more active. We may be sitting the whole time, or at times standing. You might gently hug a pillow or yourself, press your hands into the desk or the wall, squeeze your fists, or use a weighted blanket. All of this happens slowly and mindfully.
Sometimes we move between what feels more difficult, emotionally or physically, and what feels easier or more neutral. This back-and-forth is how the nervous system learns flexibility and trust. We stay tuned in to your system and adjust as we go.
With consistent support, it becomes possible for reactions to soften, for recovery to feel steadier, and for a deeper sense of presence to take root in your life.
Somatic Experiencing for Panic and Trauma
Somatic Experiencing is commonly used for panic, trauma, chronic stress, and body-based anxiety because it works with the nervous system directly. It helps create space to notice what your system is doing, understand what it is responding to, and support it in moving out of survival.
If you have done a lot of talking and insight work and your body still reacts, this approach can help bridge that gap.
Can Somatic Experiencing Help if Panic Is Triggered by “Small” Things?
Yes. Panic can get triggered by situations you logically know are not a big deal because the nervous system is responding to cues it learned long ago. This work helps you track those cues and gradually build a steadier sense of safety inside your body.
An Integrative Approach to Anxiety
Somatic Experiencing is the foundation of my work, and I also integrate other supports when they feel like a fit, including the Safe and Sound Protocol and the Rest and Restore Protocol.
I take an integrative approach to this work. That means we also pay attention to things like sleep, movement, nourishment, light exposure, stress, and daily rhythms, because these all affect anxiety, and anxiety affects them in return. They matter.
A Different Relationship with Panic
This work can change your relationship with panic. Sensations start to make more sense. The fear that builds around the sensations can soften. Your body can begin to feel like a place you can live in, rather than something you have to manage.
As your system becomes steadier, it becomes easier to stay present with emotions, make decisions with more clarity, and take action in ways that match what you value. Self-trust and self-esteem often begin to rebuild from there.
This is steady, nervous-system-based work. It creates change you can feel in real life.
Working With Me
I offer online somatic therapy and integrative mental health sessions for adults across Florida and Illinois, along with limited in-person availability in Delray Beach. I also work with clients across South Florida, including Boca Raton, Fort Lauderdale, and West Palm Beach.
If your anxiety and panic live in your body as much as your mind, this work offers a grounded and supportive way forward.
You can learn more about my work and schedule a consultation through my website if you’d like to explore whether this approach feels like the right fit for you.