Integrating somatic practices into counselling and psychotherapy programmes: a systematic review

Somatic and body-based practices are gaining recognition within the doctrines of counselling and psychotherapy. In higher education training programmes specifically, the integration of such methods reflects a widening recognition that attention to embodied experience could be a valuable resource to traditional talking therapies, and a potential asset for developing therapeutic alliance and relational depth. Yet how such practices are integrated, to what extent, and what benefits or limitations they offer, remains unclear. This systematic review examined how somatic approaches are incorporated into higher education training programmes, the pedagogical purposes they serve, and the benefits and challenges encountered. A systematic search across PsycINFO, ERIC, and Scopus yielded seven studies that met the inclusion criteria. Narrative thematic synthesis revealed diverse yet uneven patterns of integration, with preliminary evidence suggesting benefits for embodied awareness, emotional regulation, and reflective capacity. The findings highlight both the advantages of somatic training and the need for more rigorous, standardised evaluation of its outcomes.