When the Body Speaks: How Somatic Healing Sets You Free – A Proven Path to Releasing Trauma and Regulating Stress

by Liz Tenuto

With 15 years of experience teaching somatic healing, trauma-informed practitioner and Instagram phenomenon “The Workout Witch,” Liz Tenuto, presents the ultimate guide to using somatic exercise to release tension, regulate the nervous system, and facilitate healing.

For fans of The Body Keeps the Score and What Happened to You?, Liz Tenuto’s Moving Through Trauma is a comprehensive guide to understanding how trauma and stress are stored within the body–and how somatic exercises can provide a powerful tool for healing. Defined as the study of the body as perceived from within, somatics emphasize internal sensory awareness and lived experiences as crucial for understanding and healing from tension, stress, and trauma. Written as an easy-to-digest primer, Tenuto explains the science of somatics, while offering simple, fully illustrated exercises to release tension through somatic practice.

Long-term stress and unresolved trauma can manifest in a host of ways—sleep issues, fatigue, muscle tension, digestive problems, cognitive difficulties, and numerous psychological conditions. By focusing on the body's innate capacity to heal, Tenuto teaches readers how to use movement to address these issues, allowing the nervous system to move from dysregulation to a state of homeostasis.

A survivor of childhood and adolescent trauma, Liz Tenuto began struggling with ailments like chronic pain and insomnia. After visiting doctor after doctor, she decided to learn more about somatic exercises–and it changed her life. Twenty years later, Liz is a trauma-informed practitioner with degrees in psychology and somatics, with millions of followers around the world. In her first book, Liz offers not only practical exercises and a deeper understanding of how the mind and body interact, but a pathway for self-compassion, empowerment, and a more fulfilling life.

Genres: Nonfiction, Psychology, Health, Self Help, Mental Health

272 pages, Hardcover

Published April 7, 2026

Reviews

[Sara (Sjthroughthelookingglass) · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was mostly a collection of stories from the authors personal experience and her work with students who experienced trauma, stress and/or disease who have benefited from somatic exercises.

Tenuto shares scientific research and health impacts of long term stress/trauma and how somatic exercise can help symptoms.

This was a lot of 'can you relate? - Then this is for you!' type stories.

The last portion of this book is devoted to showing some hot-to exercises.

Early in this book there was a QR code that brings the reader to a quiz to help figure out what stress response your body is currently in. The quiz tells you your answer and the next step to get help. The next step was: read this book.
That felt like some unfortunate circulatory advertising. There was a second quiz to figure out where/how you hold stress physically (ie: jaw pain, back pain, hip pain) but you could only select one answer. If you picked jaw pain, guess where you hold stress? Your jaw! What next? Read this book. In summary the quizzes don't add anything to this reading experience.

[Faye Anne]

Review to come once I have tried the somatic routines consistently for a month.

[Sonya J. · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a great primer on how stress and trauma are stored in the body and some of the common health conditions that can arise due to this bodily response. Liz also provides a selection of somatic exercises to help release these physical manifestations.

I first found Liz’s TikTok account, The Workout Witch, in the fall of ‘23 as decades of trauma and stress finally hit my breaking point and I was suffering from both burnout and Long Covid on top of multiple autoimmune conditions and cPTSD.

The gentle exercises in her Heal Your Nervous System courses have been helpful for calming my overactive sympathetic nervous system and letting my parasympathetic nervous system activate. Most of the exercises in the book are in the courses mentioned above, but I appreciated the deeper dive into the background of somatic exercises and the anecdotal stories shared throughout the book.

[Tempest · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was one giant ad for her courses through The Workout Witch. Roughly 80% of the book focuses on why somatic work is important and you should check out her website to learn more. However, there are much better books out there on the topic of how trauma affects the body (In an Unspoken Voice, The Body Keeps Score, The Wakeful Body, My Grandmother's Hands, Decolonizing the Body, and Lifting Heavy Things). Tenuto includes her own experiences along with a few client's in a 'this worked for me and them and can work for you too' model - just go to this (my) website.

I don't say this to knock the efficacy of somatic work or her programs. Heck, I've bought her programs before and they work for me. However, this book missed an opportunity to be more focused on various somatic exercises so folks can put together their own routines or integrate somatic movements into their daily lives. The market already has wonderful books on how the body stores trauma. Comparatively, this falls short on that front. And it also falls short on being a guide for somatic movement.

[Alicia Bayer · Rating 2 out of 5]

The vast majority of this book is chapters about various ways trauma and stress affect you, like sleep issues, autoimmune illnesses, etc. and personal stories about herself, along with stories of people she supposedly helped with her paid classes. The very end has groups of exercises with written instructions and black and white photos. There are not a ton of exercises and they tend to be things like lie on your side and lazily barely rock back and forth, sit in a chair and pull up on your ears, and stand and throw a pillow down again and again. The words lazy and lazily are used so often that I wanted to turn it into a drinking game. I have not tried the exercises yet but I will amend my review if I do and they are life changing.

Tenuto has no training or certification in somatic therapy, and she only started doing it during COVID, yet she now has a very profitable business selling courses and certifying other people for a very high cost. She has apparently said that she makes 8 figures on her business, which has been widely accused online of being a predatory scam. There are many Reddit pages warning about her (the workout witch) and a huge trove of one star reviews on Trust Pilot (there are also a ton of five star reviews but many people have come forward saying she is doing a big push to get her reviews up because of this book and that they got messages if they had paid for her expensive teacher certification saying that raising the number of five star reviews would lead to more business for people who are trying to get clients). There are also allegations that she uses AI to write her content and responses, which makes me wonder if she used AI to write this book. I can’t speak to that but most of the book is health and psychological information that she has no training in, so that seems plausible.

Many of the people who say they felt scammed by her say that the exercises and information is widely available online. I do plan to look into somatic healing more and to try these exercises along with others online. I would recommend flipping through the end of this book to see if these few exercises would be worth purchasing the book for yourself.

I read a digital ARC of this book for review.

[Debra · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thank you Dey Street #DeyStreetPartner #epictastemakers for my free ARC. These opinions are my own:

Liz Tenuto kicks off her practical guide on somatic healing by sharing her own story of how trauma and stress took their toll on her mind and body, and then how somatic healing has helped her heal. With this book, Tenuto provides an introduction to how stress and trauma can manifest in the physical body and what you can do about it. She starts with the biology of trauma and stress and how the mind and the body react to it physically, whether consciously or unconsciously. Then, she presents common health conditions that can stem from (or be aggravated by) the body's response to stress and trauma. Lastly, she provides practical examples of somatic exercises for these conditions (cross-referenced with the appropriate pages describing the condition), and provides step-by-step instructions on how to do each one. This guide provides theory, but it's mostly a practical handbook to address how one's body stores stress and trauma. I would note that Tenuto would agree that it's important to implement these exercises as part of a whole-person treatment of trauma and stress, and including a mental health professional in the treatment team is critical. If not, the root causes don't get addressed and the symptoms can persist. If you have experienced/are experiencing trauma and/or stress, please consult with a mental health professional you can trust, and use this guide to supplement as needed.

Triggers: sexual assault, sexual harrassment, death, misogyny, intimite partner abuse, physical abuse, emotional abuse

[Desi Ivanova · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutely love Liz and her somatic exercises. They truly are life changing. I've done her cortisol lowering courses and the abs workout course. I even signed up for her app and do her videos daily. Her work is rooted in healing mental health conditions in a natural way and her knowledge and experience in this field of work is outstanding. I loved her book as it was very informative and would definitely be helpful to anyone that is just starting out with somatics and isnt very familiar. She explained the concepts so well and it was a great read. Try her exercises, they are so helpful and so easy to do.

[Mtobrienn · Rating 5 out of 5]

THE book to read following The Body Keeps The Score by Bessel van der Kolk. Loved the science behind mind/body connection followed by research in how where and why trauma is stored (in sleep issues, gut issues, aches and pains, cortisol/hormonal issues, weight issues, psychological issues, cognitive issues and autoimmune conditions). The end has simple 1-2 minute somatic exercises on how to release this tension. Even as an audiobook, without the photos I found it easy to follow. Looking forward to using this with clients for a bottom up approach to psychotherapy as opposed to top down. Great read/listen

[Caroline · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ive been following Liz for years on social media as the workout witch and it was there i was introduced to the benefits of somatic exercise. These have literally saved my life during periods of depression, autistic burnout, and severe anxiety. Her book provides context to why these gentle exercises work and what their benefits are. Recommended read for anyone living with emotional disregulation and chronic illness.

[Helen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a really interesting book. It’s well written and the exercises are really useful. I will continue to work my way through them over time. I found the authors story inspiring and the text seemed well researched. I would definitely recommend it. Thanks to NetGalley and Dey Street Books for the ARC.

[Haley Williamson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Super great exercises at the back of the book!

[Chaotic.J · Rating 2 out of 5]

While I appreciate the in book quizzes, it felt more like a self promotion for her paid extremely expensive classes. The exercises in the book are super pedestrian and disappointing.

[Marci · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good overall summary in easy to understand language with practical application examples.