Body Anchor

Somatic Relief Guides

Thirteen short sequences drawn from body psychotherapy. Each one takes about five minutes and needs nothing but a room.

13 guides · 218 exercises behind them · free to read

Every sequence here is pulled from the same library the Body Anchor app uses, in the same order the app would give it to you. Start with whichever line below sounds like your week.

Start from what you feel

When you can name the feeling but not the place.

• How to Release Anger From Your Body — anger
• Somatic Exercises for Sadness That Will Not Move — sadness
• Grounding Exercises for Fear and Panic — fear
• How to Calm a Racing Mind Through Your Body — anxiety
• Somatic Exercises for Exhaustion and Low Energy — exhaustion

Start from where you feel it

When your body is more specific than your words.

• How to Release Eye and Forehead Tension — eyes and forehead
• How to Release Jaw Tension — jaw
• How to Release Neck and Shoulder Tension — neck and shoulders
• Why Your Chest Feels Tight, and How to Open It — chest
• How to Stop Breathing Shallowly — breathing
• How to Release Belly Tension — belly
• How to Release Tension in Your Hips and Lower Back — hips and lower back
• A Full-Body Reset When You Cannot Name What Is Wrong — whole body

Where this comes from

Reich mapped seven rings of muscular armor down the body, from the eyes to the pelvis. The guides below follow that map: seven of them take one ring each, five start from a feeling instead, and one works across all of them at once.

Body Anchor’s method is inspired by four foundational thinkers in body-based psychotherapy. Their work is the lineage every sequence on this site sits in.

• Wilhelm Reich — Character analysis and the concept of muscular armor.
• Alexander Lowen — Bioenergetic analysis and grounding-based bodywork.
• David Boadella — Biosynthesis approach connecting movement and emotional process.
• Gerda Boyesen — Biodynamic psychology and gentle somatic release work.