SomatoSymbolicProcessing

“This isn’t trauma processing somatics, this is evolutionary somatics."

-Melissa Benintendi, co-founder of Somatosymbolic Processing

Some therapies help you heal. SomatoSymbolic Processing helps you come home to yourself.

SSP weaves together somatic awareness, symbolic imagery, and clinically grounded depth work. It invites you into the quiet places beneath your patterns, where your body and subconscious speak in sensations, metaphors, and truths you can finally feel. Clients often describe it as a profound inward journey — completely present, deeply revealing, and unmistakably transformative.

At Good EMDR Therapy, this work is facilitated by Jessica Good, MA, LPC, one of approximately 75 therapists trained directly by the founders of SSP. Jessica offers both SSP-only sessions and hybrid SSP/EMDR approaches for clients who feel called to explore what lives beneath the surface.

What is SomatoSymbolic Processing?

SomatoSymbolic Processing (SSP) is a therapeutic modality that feels like a blend between the flow of EMDR therapy, the embodiment of somatic therapy, and the deeply symbolic nature of psychodynamic therapy. This modality allows us to go deeper into a place of true embodiment and attunement with ourselves—exploring who we truly are underneath the masks we’ve learned to wear due to suppression, repression, and dissociation.

Why Is SSP Different?

The body stores emotional information differently than the thinking mind. Symbolic imagery gives shape to what is otherwise wordless. When you dialogue with both, profound integration becomes possible.

This is why SSP often reveals insights that talk therapy alone cannot reach.

The Science Behind SSP

Somatosymbolic Processing draws on research and work from:

  • Neuroscientific Theories:

    • Large Scale Brain Systems Theory — Eric Chamberlin, Carharrt-Harris, Menon, Karl Friston

    • Developmental Neuroscience with an emphasis on relationally-dependent brain state organization — Daniel Stern, Donnel Stern, Trevarthen, Tronick, Ginot

    • Affective Neuroscience and the conscious intentionality of Affect — Panksepp & Bivens, Solms

    • Memory Reconsolidation (special emphasis on somatic reactivation and embodied reconsolidation) — Bruce Ecker

  • Intervention Theories:

    • BodyDreaming by Marian Dunlea

    • Active Imagination by Carl Jung

    • Focusing by Eugene Gendlin

    • Somatic Release Therapies (Somatic Experiencing by Levine, Somatic Release Therapy, Body-Mind Centering by Bainbridge-Choen)

Key Information about SomatoSymbolic Processing

What Is a Somatosymbolic Session is Like?

Each SSP session is a slow, deep, experiential unfolding. Jessica guides the process with steadiness, relational attunement, and clinical insight, while giving your system the space and safety it needs to go deeper.

Sessions follow an emergent flow that often looks like:

1. Attune

Settling into your body, tracking sensation, and creating internal alignment before approaching the deeper material.

2. Symbolize

From this grounded place, symbols, images, sensations, or metaphors begin to arise naturally from your body and subconscious.

3. Dialogue

With gentle guidance, you explore the meaning of these symbols by feeling them rather than analyzing them — experiencing what your system is showing you moment by moment.

4. Integrate

You return to the present with clarity, insight, or a felt shift, and we debrief what emerged. This is the part where we “put the pieces together” and you decide knowledge you want to integrate into your life.

Somatosymbolic Processing is emotional, grounded, and deeply experiential. Not overwhelming, but potent.

Because the work unfolds slowly and somatically, clients remain present and regulated even as they explore profound internal material.

Who SSP Is For?

SSP is an excellent fit if you:

  • feel stable but sense “something deeper is calling”

  • want to understand yourself beneath the surface

  • feel disconnected from your body or identity

  • crave deeper insight into patterns or behaviors

  • are drawn to symbolism, creativity, or imagery

  • want an embodied alternative to overthinking

  • are ready to meet your “shadow” with compassion

  • want to feel more aligned with your true self

It’s especially helpful for clients who say:

  • “I don’t know why I feel this way.”

  • “I want a deeper relationship with myself.”

  • “Talk therapy isn’t touching the real thing.”

  • “I think I’m hiding from myself.”

SSP is not ideal for clients in active crisis or experiencing severe dissociation. Foundational stabilization work will happen first.

What Is a “Focal Point” in SSP?

Instead of targeting a memory (as in EMDR), SSP focuses on a focal point — something your system is ready to explore, such as:

  • a behavioral pattern

  • a relationship dynamic

  • an emotional theme

  • a moment of activation

  • a question you keep circling

  • a sense of “something is missing”

  • an inner conflict

  • a part of yourself you’re struggling with

  • or simply “I feel disconnected from myself”

Wherever we begin, your body and subconscious guide the direction.

Somatosymbolic Processing vs. EMDR: What’s the Difference?

Somatosymbolic Processing (SSP):

  • Slower, softer, and more experiential

  • Works symbolically and somatically

  • Uses a “focal point” instead of a memory

  • No bilateral stimulation

  • Integrates body + subconscious insight

  • Ideal for identity work, symbolic exploration, and deeper healing layers

EMDR:

  • Faster paced

  • Highly structured

  • More often used to target specific memories

  • Uses bilateral stimulation

  • Rapid symptom reduction

  • Ideal when the nervous system can process quickly

Many clients benefit from a hybrid approach, moving between EMDR and SSP depending on what their system is signaling.

Frequently Asked Questions

  • SSP sessions are often 90 minutes and are booked approximately every 3 weeks for many clients.

    However, in certain circumstances it may be appropriate to have sessions closer together or to utilize a 3 hour session format. This is especially true when clients are doing a blend of SSP and EMDR in their work.

  • 90 minute SSP sessions are $450 (the same as Jessica’s EMDR sessions)

  • No. You remain fully conscious and in control. It is grounded, embodied, and relational.

  • Some clients do; others don’t. Your system determines what appears, and everything is titrated for safety.

  • Not in a religious or metaphysical sense, but many clients describe it as meaningful, sacred, or transformative. Some clients even explore more existential themes around their search for meaning, identity, and other profound questions.

  • For some clients, yes. For others, it beautifully complements EMDR work.

  • No. We build your capacity to attune to and dialogue with your body together.

If you feel a pull toward this work…
If something in you knows there is more to your story than what you can articulate…
If you’re ready to listen to the language of your body and explore the symbolic truths living underneath your patterns…

SSP might be the path that finally feels like you.

I would be honored to guide you through it.

If You’re Ready to Meet Your Self Beneath the Surface

Let’s meet the deeper layers — together.

Book Your Free Consult Now