Why do Somatic IFS?
Because IFS already works with the body—thoughts, feelings, impulses and sensations—and Somatic IFS uses a similar process through a different lens, taking us even deeper.
What is it?
A simple-yet-complex integration of IFS, trauma/neuroscience and polyvagal theory with somatic practices.
Benefits of Somatic IFS (with individual benefits covered later):
Pretty good, eh?
The book to read on integrating IFS and somatic therapy is Susan McConnell’s Somatic Internal Family Systems Therapy. These notes come mainly from her book and trainings I’ve done with her, alongside Deb Dana’s polyvagal work—her books (Anchored, 50 Polyvagal Practices), her card deck, and her IFS talk.
Susan McConnell identifies a clear set of practices—used in order and woven into each IFS step:
Somatic awareness, conscious breathing, radical resonance, movement, and attuned touch.
Developing body awareness—becoming aware of your parts so you can befriend them, notice polarisations, and restore you at the centre of your system.
Breathing consciously activates the ventral vagus, releasing hormones and enzymes that blunt sympathetic arousal. It reduces blood pressure, cortisol, anxiety and depression, boosts immunity, and supports embodied Self energy. It re-establishes psychobiological regulation, bringing stability and safety to the body–mind.
Increasing the capacity for resonance and healthy relationships. Involves mirror neurons, heart, gut, and the ventral vagus. Allows the ANS to rewire and influence gene expression and body systems—a rich, relational “horizontal field” brimming with connection.
Free, expressive, empowered movement to restore safe, trusting connections with self and others. When we are witnessed, the prefrontal cortex engages and sensations, beliefs, thoughts, images, and behaviours can flow again rather than remain compartmentalised or stuck. Five basic movements: yield, push, reach, grasp, pull —as distinct from habitual, repetitive patterns, inhibited moves, impulsive bursts, and chronic postural holdings.
The most primary and potent form of communication. Releases oxytocin and regulates the vagal brake—calming and bonding. A corrective experience of the pleasure and comfort of touch that can reverse physiological effects of trauma.
What Somatic IFS does is combine neuroscience and trauma understanding, polyvagal theory, IFS, and somatic work. It’s complex to integrate all of this into one approach, so I personally find it most helpful to keep it experiential. I’m going to invite you on a journey…
(For those who want more theory: my rough notes follow after the experiential section—better still, read the book or join a training. You can look up polyvagal theory, or see my explanation here: https://www.stroudtherapy.com/news/polyvagalandifs. I strongly recommend Deb Dana—her videos and books are very accessible.)
I’ve made an infographic (doodled from one of her talks) to show how her work and IFS can be held together. In polyvagal terms there are two parasympathetic states: ventral (green), where things feel good and which approximates Self in IFS terms; and dorsal (red), the collapsed state. Sympathetic (amber) is the classic “fight/flight” activation in response to threat. Freeze hangs between dorsal and sympathetic; fawn often straddles them too.
Most importantly here:
We tend to get stuck in polarisations and yo-yo between states. So yes—already complicated: Managers, Firefighters, and Exiles moving between dorsal parasympathetic and sympathetic. Luckily, there’s you in the centre. It is possible to slow down, pause, and breathe.
Here’s the explanation—and an experiential.
Imagine this: you’re going about your day feeling OK—calm, relaxed, curious about the world. Your ventral vagus (parasympathetic) is engaged and things feel fine. Then something happens. As soon as the body perceives a danger it can’t escape, the amygdala unleashes a biochemical blast, activating the hypothalamus and switching on the sympathetic, hyper-aroused branch of the autonomic nervous system.
Once the threat is over—if the being (animal or person) escapes—the nervous system usually returns to baseline quite quickly. The person goes back to what they were doing; the animal to grazing or swatting flies. We relax and get on with our day. Phew.
However, when trauma is severe or repetitive, and we haven’t been able to metabolise it, it gets stuck in the body —often from very young, most likely under age 20. A protective part quickly steps in to watch for the exiled feeling and protect us. It remains as a stuck pattern and returns at full strength when that feeling is triggered in later life. (Here we can pause and connect with embodied Self or the warm presence of a co-regulating other—breathe, pause, and befriend the protector…)
If no help is available, and the stuckness becomes overwhelming, the system can drop into dorsal (parasympathetic). We become numb, dissociated, and our feelings are depressed.
Much of the story is then locked in the lower brain, often inaccessible to words.
Stuck trauma shows up as symptoms—tight shoulders, painful neck, insomnia, numbing, intrusive memories, shame, self-hatred, panic attacks, hypervigilance, nightmares, flashbacks, startle response, chronic pain, migraines … These may have stories to tell —or be taking on a protective role. Let’s listen.
What tends to happen next is a traumatic polarisation between hyper and hypo states—oscillating between these poles (two parts, often a Manager and a Firefighter, or two Managers, etc.). It’s exhausting —emotionally and physically. Metabolic waste products can lodge in muscles and organs, which may contribute to chronic illness.
Rather than more theory, let’s imagine a short journey —moving through the somatic sequence, bringing in polyvagal and parts work.
Please titrate: use your dimmer switch; invite parts to blend just a little—nothing major. Or, IFS-style, imagine you’re on a balcony looking down at the theatre where you’re on stage.
Picture yourself going to a train station, a shop (IKEA?), or a supermarket. As you arrive—people, buzz, busyness—someone shouts at someone else. There’s a mini hyper-arousal.
What’s happening in your body? (See after the box for more.)
A brief, hyper-aroused moment (see box— check your body: what’s going on in this mini trauma?).
Then:
However, sometimes safety isn’t available. Many of us may stay hyper-aroused (fight/flight), drop briefly into freeze (a sympathetic–parasympathetic combo), and/or blend with protectors. The situation may feel familiar—an echo that cues an old protector: “Get out the mask—keep the feelings at bay.”
Try noticing which part comes in.
For me, it’s an “I can do this—bulldoze through” part: tall stance, straight back, social smile. I can manage for a while.
What do you do? Guard dog? SWAT team? Walk out? Judge? “Look at me” performer? Get busy like a steam train? Social masking?
Notice the box: what are you doing somatically—breath, movement, posture? How do you engage with others—and they with you? This may work for a time, but if you can’t return to social engagement…
When the above stops working or becomes intolerable, the system can head down to dorsal: collapse, flop, dissociate.
For me: sit somewhere quiet, disengage, get food/drink, collapse a bit, scroll, numb out—blank.
Again, notice the box: how does your body feel—posture, breath, resonance, movement? What about touch?
Now shake it off or simply remember you’re here with us.
Good news: we have neuroplasticity. With Self energy and care we can begin to flow again. To get back to social engagement you often reverse through a little sympathetic before settling into ventral vagal.
In the moment:
PAUSE. Breathe. Feel your feet and the air on your skin.
How am I relating to myself and others?
Is there a movement that wants to happen, or touch (imagined or real)?
We can also work in sessions with these body sensations, chronic holding patterns, and interrupted movements.
“The feral animal of our body, startled by the light, may scurry back to hide in the dark corners. The touch, the nourishment, the movement that our body craves may be buried under history of neglect and trauma. We may feel our body has betrayed us. We may have internalised an objective attitude toward our body. Our individual hurts and collective societal burdens lodged in our tissues await the light of our courage and compassion shining into the depths of our interiority, leading us to the essence of our being.”
We do the same IFS, bringing body and breath into every step.
Right now: is there a place in your body that could benefit from your compassionate, focused awareness?
These are the nuggets I found particularly helpful from Susan’s book. I encourage you to read the book and study further if this interests you.
Managers
Often hyper-aroused from mini/major traumas. They inhibit body awareness; tense/brace/constrict; stay hypervigilant; hold rigid or diffuse boundaries; objectify, blame, or criticise the body.
Try: invite a familiar Manager to blend briefly (ask others to relax for a minute—you’ve got this).
Firefighters
Can be hyper or hypo: substances/self-harm to soothe or distract; or dissociation/numbing.
Try the same brief blend-and-observe (body, breath, relating, movement, touch).
Exiles
The feeling ones. (We won’t blend with them here.) Perhaps send warmth if it’s congruent. They often live in hypo (exiled), but can surge into hyper. They hold frozen body stories —and the chemicals released during trauma remaining in tissues/organs—leading to pain and, eventually, chronic illness.
Reading the body story: being a body rather than having one.
Three sensory processes:
Sometimes focus on positive/neutral body sensations to anchor the present. Ask protectors for a 30–60 second trial, then debrief: Was overwhelm OK? Would you try a little longer?
Conscious breathing activates the ventral vagus, easing sympathetic arousal; reduces blood pressure/cortisol/anxiety/depression; boosts immunity; supports embodied Self; re-establishes psychobiological regulation.
Relational right-brain/limbic interplay: mirror neurons, heart, gut, ventral vagus. Builds capacity for resonance and healthy relationships; allows the ANS to rewire and influence gene expression—rich, horizontal field of connection.
Free, expressive, empowered movement restores safe, trusting connection with self and others. Being witnessed engages the prefrontal cortex so sensations, beliefs, thoughts, images, and behaviours flow rather than stay stuck.
Bring mindfulness to a habitual posture, a gesture of reaching/pushing away, or a stuck place. Might this be the beginning of a part’s story?