Trauma is not just a story we carry in our minds. It lives in our bodies — in the tension we hold in our shoulders, the tightness in our chest, the way we flinch at sudden movements. Understanding somatic trauma is essential to the healing of Black men.
Beyond Talk Therapy
For decades, the dominant approach to healing trauma has been talk therapy — sitting in a chair and narrating our pain. And while there is profound value in giving voice to our experiences, research by pioneers like Bessel van der Kolk and Resmaa Menakem has revealed that trauma lives deeper than language can reach.
Van der Kolk's groundbreaking work, "The Body Keeps the Score," demonstrates that traumatic experiences are stored not just in our memories but in our nervous systems, our muscles, and our cellular biology. The body literally keeps the score of every wound we've endured.
Racialized Trauma in the Body
For Black men, this understanding is particularly critical. Resmaa Menakem's "My Grandmother's Hands" explores how centuries of racialized trauma have created somatic patterns that are passed from generation to generation. The hypervigilance that kept our ancestors alive during slavery and Jim Crow now manifests as chronic stress, hypertension, and an inability to fully relax even in safe spaces.
We carry our ancestors' survival responses in our bodies. The clenched jaw. The squared shoulders. The readiness to fight or flee at a moment's notice. These are not character flaws — they are inherited survival strategies that have outlived their usefulness.
Somatic Healing Practices
Healing the body requires body-based practices. In our sessions, we incorporate:
Breathwork — learning to use the breath as a tool for nervous system regulation. Many Black men have never been taught to breathe deeply and slowly as an act of self-care.
Body scanning — developing awareness of where we hold tension and learning to release it consciously.
Grounding exercises — techniques for returning to the present moment when trauma responses pull us into the past.
Movement — gentle, intentional movement that helps release stored energy and restore a sense of agency in the body.
A New Relationship with Your Body
For many Black men, the body has been a site of pain, labor, and surveillance. Somatic healing invites us into a new relationship with our physical selves — one based on awareness, compassion, and care.
Your body has been carrying you through impossible circumstances. It deserves your attention. It deserves your tenderness. It deserves to finally rest.