The Evolution of Trauma Therapy: From Talk to Somatics
— Written by Eric Richers
We are living through a paradigm shift. For a century, the field believed we could think our way out of trauma. We now know that the body keeps the score.
The Three Waves
Wave 1: The Talking Cure (1900s - 1980s)
Cognitive supremacy. The belief that insight leads to change. If we understand why we hurt, we will stop hurting. Effective for anxiety, often insufficient for deep PTSD.
Wave 2: The Somatic Revolution (1990s - 2010s)
The work of Peter Levine (Somatic Experiencing) and Bessel van der Kolk changed everything. They proved that trauma is a physiological injury, not just a psychological one. We moved from "top-down" processing to "bottom-up" sensing.
Wave 3: Parts & Psychedelics (2020s - Present)
The integration of Internal Family Systems (IFS) and legal psychedelic-assisted therapy (MDMA, Psilocybin) represents the frontier. We are no longer just managing symptoms; we are accessing the "healing intelligence" of the system itself.
For the modern clinician, being "trauma-informed" is no longer a specialty—it is the baseline. The future belongs to those who can fluently speak the languages of both the story and the sensation.