Reclaiming Healing Through Body, Soul, and Nature: Insights from Somatic Therapist Katie Asmus
Modern psychotherapy has made significant advances in cognitive understanding, yet many practitioners recognize a gap: profound healing does not occur through insight alone. Somatic therapist and educator Katie Asmus, MA, LPC, BMP, offers a compelling reminder that true transformation requires the integration of body, soul, and nature.
In a recent Colorado Association of Psychotherapists (CAP) educational session, Asmus guided fellow therapists through the foundations of somatic and nature-based therapeutic practice, emphasizing a return to the body as the original language of healing.
Illness as Stagnation — Health as Movement
Asmus shared a powerful premise: illness is not the opposite of health; rather, illness is what happens when movement becomes restricted. Instead of pathologizing symptoms, somatic approaches view physical and emotional pain as blocked energy. When individuals are supported to move — physically, emotionally, vocally, or energetically — flow returns and integration becomes possible.
While traditional talk therapy may inadvertently reinforce cognitive looping, somatic practices invite embodiment through breath, gesture, rhythm, and sensation tracking. These tools allow the nervous system to process what the mind cannot articulate.
The Body as First Language
According to Asmus, the body speaks before the mind does. Sensations arise before thought and often carry more truth than verbal interpretation. Instead of asking, “What are you feeling?” she encourages clinicians to begin with, “Where do you feel it?” This small shift helps clients bypass defensiveness and access deeper self-awareness.
Because trauma is stored physiologically rather than intellectually, therapeutic interventions must be designed to reach the felt sense, not just the narrative.
Nature as Co-Therapist
While somatic work can be done in any setting, Asmus emphasizes that nature significantly enhances therapeutic outcomes. Research shows that even brief exposure to natural environments can lower cortisol, stabilize heart rate, improve respiration, and promote emotional regulation.
Nature-based therapy does not require dramatic landscapes or wilderness immersion. Simple practices such as walking sessions, outdoor check-ins, sitting beneath a tree, or tracking weather patterns can deepen presence and increase resilience. For therapists working indoors or remotely, nature can be invited into session through intentional observation of light, natural objects, or pauses to orient toward sound or movement occurring outside.
Tolerating Sensation as Core Competency
One of the greatest barriers to healing is not emotion itself, but the inability to tolerate the bodily sensations that accompany it. Asmus teaches practical interventions that help clients build tolerance without overwhelm. These include:
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Moving between activation and resource (known as pendulation)
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Orienting the senses to reestablish safety and presence
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Utilizing grounding objects or postural containment
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Encouraging subtle movement to facilitate discharge without destabilization
These tools support autonomic regulation, enabling clients to complete emotional cycles rather than suppress them.
Soul-Based Therapy and Unstoried Trauma
Asmus also invites therapists to explore the layer of healing that exists beyond spoken language. She refers to this as soul work — where movement, sound, ritual, and imagery become valid pathways for integration. Not all trauma is storied, and not all healing requires verbal processing. Some experiences are meant to be sung, cried, shaken, or symbolically laid to rest.
This perspective honors the wisdom of indigenous and ancestral healing traditions, where emotion is not managed but expressed communally through ceremony and movement.
Integrating Somatic and Nature-Based Practices — Even Without Formal Certification
Asmus reassures clinicians that they do not need to be extensively trained in somatics or wilderness therapy to begin incorporating these modalities. Small, accessible invitations can be added to any session:
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“Let’s pause and notice how your body is supported right now.”
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“Before we continue, let’s both look around the space and take in what’s here.”
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“Would it feel grounding to step outside for a moment before moving forward?”
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“If your hands could express what your words cannot, what movement might they make?”
These interventions create openings for embodied awareness without requiring significant restructuring of one’s primary modality.
Call to Action: Engage with the CAP Community
The Colorado Association of Psychotherapists (CAP) remains committed to advancing therapeutic education that honors the full spectrum of healing practices — cognitive, emotional, somatic, and spiritual. Therapists who wish to deepen their professional network, access high-quality trainings, and support psychotherapist advocacy in Colorado are encouraged to explore membership or attend future events at coloradopsychotherapists.org.
Continue Learning with Katie Asmus
Therapists seeking further training in somatic and nature-based modalities can explore Katie Asmus’ extensive offerings. She provides in-person and virtual workshops, professional certification tracks, individual consultations, and seasonal retreats designed to help practitioners embody their own regulation while guiding others.
Her trainings include topics such as:
- The Somatic Road Map Webinar
- Ethical, Logistical and Practical Considerations for Outdoor Therapy Webinar
- A Guide to Creating Personally Meaningful & Culturally Relevant Ceremony
- The 5 Nature Therapy Practices Guide
More information about her programs can be found at Somatic Nature Therapy Institute at www.somaticnaturetherapy.com.
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