During a recent retreat (which was actually a training session, let’s be honest), there was an ongoing and echoed discourse: Talk therapy isn’t going to help; only Somatic Experiencing (SE) will.
While heads nodded, my jaw clenched.
Now, don’t get me wrong: I have no issue with Somatic Experiencing. In fact, I find movement-focused therapies and body work to be extraordinarily helpful. Powerful, even.
As a psychotherapist, I use this approach with clients, and I’ve seen the benefits. However, while my issue isn’t with SE itself, I take issue with this purist thinking. The belief that one method is the only path to healing isn’t helpful, nor is it practical. It’s a tone I’ve noticed more and more in certain healing spaces, especially those that prioritize the body over the mind, or sensation over story.
I understand where the disillusionment with talk therapy comes from. But I also believe we need to talk about what gets lost when we dismiss language entirely. In a way, this isn’t a critique of somatic work at all; it’s a call for nuance, flexibility, and, most importantly, remembering that healing is not, and never will be, one-size-fits-all.
Why One Modality Isn’t Enough for People To Heal
I agree that different modalities support different people and different parts of the healing process. You might not be ready to access the body. Someone else may not yet connect with parts work to find that type of approach effective.
Depending on where they’re at, some people might feel confused by visualization or resistant to cognitive reframing. That’s okay. People are different and complex, and so are their needs, trauma histories, and nervous systems.
My point is, isn’t it retraumatizing to force someone into their body when their system is screaming “No!” on all fronts? A professional who meets a client with this purist thinking (“This is the only way to heal”) risks turning healing into a performance, or, worse, gaslighting someone who isn’t ready by framing their boundaries or discomfort as resistance, avoidance, or ego! In a delicate situation, that isn’t trauma-informed, compassionate, or healing.
We Need a Full Set of Tools Because It’s Complicated
The core principle of ethical, compassionate therapy is simple: meet the person in front of you where they are at right now. Doing this successfully means having a full toolbox, not just a hammer, so that you can offer possibilities and choices, not prescriptions. It means listening deeply to what feels tolerable, what feels safe, what is in the person’s window of tolerance, and what isn’t working for them.
When something doesn’t “work”, it is never because the client is “doing it wrong.” If we become too rigid about what therapy should look like, don’t we risk placing blame on the person who’s already suffering, and who has already been blamed or is blaming themselves for their situation? Centering the method over the human being isn’t helping anyone.
Talk Therapy Helped Me, Too
This idea of avoiding purist thinking isn’t just theoretical for me: talk therapy has helped me more than I can express. I have personally appreciated the reparative relationship of being heard, seen, validated, nurtured, and cared for in a place where I could vocalize my boundaries, thoughts, feelings, and emotions, and not experience judgment or repercussions. Those things changed me, providing the resourcing and the safety I needed to move through the world and to start feeling and inhabiting my body.
I’ve realized in this line of work that purism also creates divides between therapists. Instead of fostering collaboration, it can breed judgment, subtle or overt, about what “real” therapy looks like. I’ve heard therapists dismiss entire modalities, or roll their eyes at anything that doesn’t fit their framework.
When we become more invested in defending our model than in supporting each other, we lose something essential: curiosity, humility, and the willingness to learn. The truth is, no single therapist or modality has all the answers. If we forget that, won’t we stop growing?
We Know That It’s Integration That Heals
Trauma doesn’t just live in the body. It lives in story, in language, and in silence. It lives in repetition, in belief, and in identity.
To reduce healing to any one part of that is to miss the complexity of what trauma actually is, or of what the human experience actually is. Shouldn’t we make space for both?
I understand the desire to disown what didn’t work and to throw out the modality that let us down that one time. But therapy is not a dogma, and the work of helping someone to heal should not be a battleground. The most powerful work I’ve seen comes from curiosity, collaboration, and compassion, not allegiance to a single method.
We don’t need to throw talk therapy under the bus in order to honor the body’s importance. We don’t need to glorify the body to justify abandoning the story it’s living. Remember what we’re here for: to walk with people toward wholeness, regardless of theoretical orientation.
Professionally, I’ve seen beautiful healing through somatic work, EMDR, and parts work. I’ve also seen clients feel deeply met by active listening, validation, and narrative repair in talk therapy. The method isn’t what heals: it’s the fit, the safety, and the relationship.
Healing Is Not Just About The Method
I don’t believe that any single modality has it all figured out. What I do believe is that curiosity, humility, and the capacity to adapt to the person in front of me are of immeasurable value in the therapeutic relationship. The most powerful work I’ve seen comes not from sticking to a script or a method, but from staying present and responsive, and knowing when to pull back, when to offer choice, and when to shift.
We don’t need to throw one modality under the bus to justify another. We just need to keep asking: “What does this person need right now, and how can I help them find it?”
Continued Reading
https://www.verywellmind.com/integrative-therapy-definition-types-techniques-and-efficacy-5201904
https://www.verywellmind.com/integrative-therapy-definition-types-techniques-and-efficacy-5201904
