Maria had tried everything for her chronic fibromyalgia. Medications, physical therapy, diet changes, supplements—nothing provided lasting relief. Then her doctor mentioned something that surprised her: “Have you considered that your pain might be related to your nervous system’s stress response?”
This question opened a door to understanding that transformed Maria’s relationship with her chronic pain. Within months of working with somatic therapy techniques focused on nervous system regulation, her widespread pain began to shift in ways that no previous treatment had achieved.
Maria’s story reflects a growing recognition in pain science: chronic pain often has less to do with damaged tissues and more to do with a nervous system stuck in protective patterns that have outlived their usefulness.
Understanding Your Nervous System’s Role in Chronic Pain
Your nervous system is remarkably intelligent. Every millisecond, it’s processing thousands of internal and external signals, determining whether you’re safe or under threat, and adjusting your body’s responses accordingly. This happens entirely below your conscious awareness, yet it profoundly influences every aspect of your physical experience—including pain.
The Three States of Safety and Threat
Modern neuroscience, particularly polyvagal theory developed by Dr. Stephen Porges, reveals that your nervous system operates through three primary states:
Safety and Social Connection: When your nervous system perceives safety, it supports optimal functioning. Your digestion works well, your immune system operates effectively, inflammation decreases, and your body’s natural healing mechanisms are fully active. Chronic pain often improves in this state.
Fight or Flight Mobilization: When threat is detected, your nervous system activates stress responses. Heart rate increases, muscles tense, inflammation rises, and non-essential functions like digestion and healing are suppressed. While perfect for actual emergencies, this state becomes problematic when it becomes chronic.
Shutdown and Withdrawal: When threat feels overwhelming and escape impossible, your nervous system may shift into a shutdown state characterized by fatigue, depression, brain fog, and sometimes chronic pain as your system essentially “plays dead” to survive perceived danger.
When Protection Becomes the Problem
Here’s where chronic pain enters the picture: your nervous system’s threat detection system—called neuroception—doesn’t always distinguish between actual danger and perceived threat. Emotional stress, past trauma, overwhelming responsibilities, or even chronic inflammation can trigger the same protective responses as physical danger.
Once your nervous system gets stuck in these protective states, several things happen that can create or maintain chronic pain:
- Chronic muscle tension from being constantly prepared for action
- Increased inflammation as your immune system remains on high alert
- Disrupted sleep and healing as resources are diverted to threat response
- Heightened pain sensitivity as your nervous system becomes hypervigilant
- Reduced social connection and support, which are crucial for healing
The Somatic Revolution: Healing Through the Body
Traditional approaches to chronic pain often focus on the painful area itself—the aching back, the tight shoulders, the inflamed joints. Somatic healing takes a different approach: instead of just treating symptoms, it addresses the nervous system patterns that may be driving those symptoms.
What Makes Somatic Healing Different
Somatic therapy recognizes that your body holds wisdom and intelligence that your thinking mind might miss. Rather than analyzing pain cognitively, somatic approaches help you develop what’s called “embodied awareness”—the ability to sense what’s happening in your nervous system and body from the inside.
This matters because many of the patterns that contribute to chronic pain operate below conscious awareness. You might intellectually know you’re safe, but if your nervous system is still responding to old threats or current stressors, your body will continue producing pain responses.
Key Principles of Somatic Pain Healing
Bottom-Up Processing: Instead of trying to think your way out of pain, somatic healing works from the body up, helping your nervous system experience safety at a physiological level.
Tracking Sensations: Learning to notice subtle changes in tension, temperature, breathing, and energy helps you become aware of your nervous system’s responses before they escalate into pain.
Pendulation: Rather than staying stuck in pain states, somatic therapy teaches your nervous system to move fluidly between activation and calm, preventing chronic patterns from becoming fixed.
Titration: Working with small amounts of sensation or activation at a time, rather than overwhelming your system, allows for gentle, sustainable change.
Resource Building: Developing your nervous system’s capacity to return to calm, regulated states even when challenges arise.
Common Nervous System Patterns Behind Chronic Pain
Through working with hundreds of people experiencing chronic pain, certain nervous system patterns appear repeatedly. Understanding these can help you recognize what might be happening in your own system.
The Hypervigilant System
Some people develop nervous systems that constantly scan for danger. This often stems from early experiences where threats were unpredictable, creating a system that never fully relaxes. Physical manifestations include:
- Chronic neck and shoulder tension from constantly being “on guard”
- Headaches from muscle tension and overstimulation
- Insomnia and fatigue from never fully resting
- Digestive issues from chronic stress activation
- Widespread muscle pain as the body remains perpetually braced
Sarah’s Story: Sarah, a marketing executive, developed chronic neck pain that began after a difficult divorce. Despite the legal proceedings being over, her nervous system remained hypervigilant, constantly scanning for emotional threats. Through somatic work, she learned to recognize early signs of activation and guide her system back to calm, dramatically reducing her chronic tension.
The Collapsed System
When stress becomes overwhelming, some nervous systems shift into shutdown mode. While this can feel like relief from anxiety or hyperactivity, it often comes with its own set of painful symptoms:
- Chronic fatigue and exhaustion
- Depression and emotional numbness
- Digestive sluggishness and weight changes
- Widespread pain and inflammation
- Brain fog and cognitive difficulties
James’s Experience: James had been managing chronic lower back pain for five years following a period of intense work stress and family crisis. His system had essentially “given up,” leaving him exhausted and in pain. Somatic work helped him gently reactivate his system’s capacity for engagement while building tolerance for life’s demands.
The Dysregulated System
Some people experience nervous systems that swing between extreme activation and shutdown, creating an internal roller coaster that manifests in unpredictable pain patterns:
- Fluctuating pain levels that seem to have no obvious triggers
- Episodes of intense symptoms followed by periods of relative calm
- Difficulty sleeping and irregular energy patterns
- Emotional volatility that seems connected to physical symptoms
- Multiple unexplained physical symptoms
Practical Somatic Techniques for Pain Relief
While working with a qualified somatic therapist provides the most comprehensive support, there are evidence-based techniques you can begin exploring on your own.
Nervous System Reset Breathing
This simple technique helps shift your nervous system from activation toward calm:
- Sit or lie comfortably and place one hand on your chest, one on your belly
- Breathe naturally for a few cycles, noticing which hand moves more
- Gradually shift toward breathing that gently expands your belly on the inhale
- Make your exhales slightly longer than your inhales
- Continue for 5-10 breaths, noticing any changes in sensation
The longer exhales specifically activate your parasympathetic nervous system, signaling safety to your body.
The STOP Technique
When you notice pain or tension arising, try this four-step process:
S – Stop what you’re doing and pause T – Take a conscious breath O – Observe what’s happening in your body without trying to change it P – Proceed with awareness of what your system needs
This helps interrupt automatic pain responses and gives your nervous system space to recalibrate.
Gentle Movement Exploration
Rather than forcing movement or stretching through pain, try exploring movement that feels genuinely good to your nervous system:
- Very slow, gentle movements that your body seems to want
- Following impulses to stretch, shake, or move in particular ways
- Dancing or moving to music in ways that feel pleasant
- Walking in nature while paying attention to how your body responds
The key is letting your body guide the movement rather than imposing movement on your body.
Resource and Regulation Practices
Building your nervous system’s capacity to self-regulate is crucial for long-term pain management:
Identify Your Resources: Notice what helps your nervous system feel calm and regulated. This might be certain people, places, activities, or even memories. Make a mental list of these resources.
Practice Micro-Moments: Throughout your day, take brief moments to connect with these resources, even if just remembering them for 30 seconds.
Environmental Awareness: Notice how different environments affect your nervous system. Some spaces might increase activation while others promote calm.
The Integration Challenge: Bringing Healing into Daily Life
The real test of somatic healing isn’t what happens during therapy sessions or meditation practice—it’s how well you can apply these principles to your everyday life when pain, stress, or overwhelm arise.
Recognizing Your Early Warning System
Your body is constantly giving you information about your nervous system’s state, but chronic pain often develops because we’ve learned to ignore or override these signals. Learning to recognize early warnings can prevent small tensions from becoming chronic pain:
- Subtle changes in breathing patterns
- Slight increases in muscle tension
- Changes in energy levels or motivation
- Shifts in sleep quality or appetite
- Emotional responses that seem disproportionate to situations
Creating Safety in Your Environment
Your nervous system responds not just to internal states but to your external environment. Consider how you might modify your surroundings to support regulation:
- Reducing overwhelming sensory input when possible
- Creating spaces that feel genuinely safe and calming
- Limiting exposure to highly activating news or social media
- Surrounding yourself with people who support your nervous system’s calm
- Establishing routines that provide predictability and security
The Relationship Revolution
Perhaps most importantly, somatic healing often involves changing how you relate to your pain itself. Instead of seeing pain as an enemy to be defeated, you learn to recognize it as information from an intelligent system that’s trying to protect you.
This doesn’t mean accepting unnecessary suffering or avoiding medical treatment. It means developing a more collaborative relationship with your body’s signals, working with your nervous system rather than against it.
When to Seek Professional Support
While self-directed somatic practices can be profoundly helpful, certain situations call for professional guidance:
- Pain that significantly impacts your daily functioning
- History of trauma that feels connected to your physical symptoms
- Feeling overwhelmed when you try to tune into your body
- Chronic pain accompanied by anxiety, depression, or other mental health concerns
- Multiple unexplained physical symptoms
- Previous traumatic medical experiences that affect your ability to seek treatment
A qualified somatic therapist can help you navigate these complexities safely, providing personalized guidance for your specific nervous system patterns and pain history.
Your Personal Nervous System Revolution
Every person’s nervous system is unique, shaped by their genetics, early experiences, life circumstances, and current environment. Your path to healing will be individual to you, requiring patience, self-compassion, and often professional support.
The revolution isn’t about finding a quick fix or cure-all—it’s about developing a more sophisticated understanding of how your whole self participates in both pain and healing. When you learn to work with your nervous system’s intelligence rather than against it, possibilities open that may have seemed impossible before.
Your chronic pain isn’t a sign of weakness or failure. It’s often a sign of a nervous system that’s been working overtime to protect you, sometimes in ways that no longer serve your wellbeing. With understanding, patience, and appropriate support, you can help your system find new ways to keep you safe—ways that allow for both protection and the possibility of a life with less pain.
Moving Forward: Your Next Steps
If this understanding of chronic pain resonates with your experience, consider these steps:
- Begin with gentle self-observation: Start noticing patterns between your stress levels, life circumstances, and pain fluctuations.
- Experiment with basic nervous system regulation: Try the breathing and movement techniques described above, paying attention to how your body responds.
- Seek appropriate professional support: Consider working with practitioners who understand both the physical and nervous system components of chronic pain.
- Be patient with the process: Nervous system healing often happens gradually, in layers, as your system learns to trust new patterns of response.
- Maintain medical care: Continue working with healthcare providers while adding somatic approaches as complementary support.
Remember that healing is not a destination but a process—a ongoing relationship with your body’s wisdom and your nervous system’s remarkable capacity for change and growth.
About the Author: Abi Beri is an IPHM-accredited Integrative Holistic Therapist specializing in somatic therapy, family constellation work, and nervous system regulation. Based in Ireland, he supports individuals in developing healthier relationships with their bodies through evidence-based holistic healing approaches. Learn more at blissfulevolution.com.
Important Note: This article is for educational purposes and does not replace professional medical advice. If you experience persistent or severe pain, please consult with qualified healthcare providers for proper evaluation and treatment.
