TPP 294: Zach Morris Talks About Somatic Therapy for Processing Trauma in Differently Wired Kids
episode
Full-Tilt Parenting: Strategies, Insights, and Connection for Parents Raising Neurodivergent Children
51 min
2 speakers
8 chapters
transcribed 13 hours ago
Transcript
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Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
What is somatic therapy and why is it useful for differently‑wired kids?
But that's also maybe where the students started to really get to know, oh, what does panic feel like? What does anxiety feel like before it's banging down the door? Like before it's it's stopping me in my tracks. What does it kind of feel like? And perhaps that's where I find myself in that future moment and I and I start to notice that and I feel that I go, oh, I know what's happening. I'm gonna go use those strategies. I'm gonna go regulate myself in some way.
Hey there and welcome to Tilt Parenting, a podcast featuring interviews and conversations aimed at inspiring, informing, and supporting parents raising differently wired kids. I'm your host, Debbie Rieber, and my guest today is Zach Morris, a semi-frequent guest of this show. And I always love my conversations with Zach, so I was happy to bring him back to talk about somatic therapy and how this modality can be. especially powerful in supporting differently wired kids who are struggling with anxiety and depression or recovering from both big and little T trauma. In our conversation, we get into the polyvagal theory, what somatic therapy is, what it looks like in practice, the underlying power of somatic healing, and how it can help kids develop resilience even in the face of stressful situations.
And as always, when I have Zach on the show, we talk about what can seem like heady or theoretical concepts, but in a practical, accessible way, way that I hope. hope will help listeners feel not only more informed but inspired to incorporate some of what they learned through this conversation into their lives with their kids. And a little bit more about Zack before we jump in. Zach Morris supports individuals, families, and organizations who aim to develop a greater sense of safety and empowerment in themselves, in their relationships, and in their communities. He's inspired by the science of how people learn and change, and he aims to translate this to help individuals and communities improve awareness, communication, and structural support.
Zach has more than ten years experience in the classroom, ranging from inner city public school to rural therapeutic boarding school, and from non traditional private school to individual co op homeschool. Today he serves as a learning consultant and communication coach. If you're not on the Tilt Parenting newsletter, now's a great time to sign up. Every Thursday I send out a short email that has a little personal note for me, a look at upcoming events that should be on your radar and highlights of news items and other things that I think you might be interested in. So you can sign up for that at TiltParenting.com. All right, that concludes the PSA for this episode. Thank you so much. And here is my conversation with Zack.
Hey Zach, welcome back to the show.
Thanks so much for having me, Debbie. Happy to be here.
Yes, I'm so excited because we always have such interesting conversations and I'm just gonna say up front, listeners, if you haven't heard Zach yet talking um with me or just talking in general, be sure to check out the show notes page because I'll have links to our previous conversations as well as to Zach's podcast because they're always insightful, deep, all over the place, but in a very interesting way conversation. So go listen to those. That was.
Yeah, thanks, Debbie. You're you're inspiring me to also have to get my podcast going again. I took a little break from it. So
Yeah, absolutely. I would love to know kind of generally speaking, catch us up. Like what are you up to now? What's the work that you're doing in the world?
Yeah, you know, so I've really in the last couple of years moved into serving as a learning consultant and family support specialist, you know, working with individual families, working with other school programs and and other teams, you know, on on a lot of a lot of structural development for what's just supporting more connection, collaboration, understanding for for whatever we're sort of navigating. here. And so really similar to to the world I've been in when I was running the school and and doing all that.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What is somatic therapy and why is it useful for differently‑wired kids?
0:00–8:38
2
How does the Polyvagal Theory explain anxiety, fight‑or‑flight, and freeze responses?
8:38–15:13
3
What are “little‑t” traumas and how do they show up in neurodivergent children?
15:13–20:55
4
How can parents help kids notice and name their bodily sensations during stress?
20:55–26:47
5
What does a somatic “discharge” look like in practice (tears, sighs, shaking, etc.)?
26:47–33:35
6
How can simple body‑scan and breathing exercises build resilience over time?
33:35–39:07
7
How can adults model the pause‑and‑notice technique for their children?
39:07–45:26
8
What resources (books, podcasts, neurofeedback) can families use to start somatic work?
45:26–51:48
Speakers
2 identifiedMore from Full-Tilt Parenting: Strategies, Insights, and Connection for Parents Raising Neurodivergent Children
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TPP 522: A Whole Child Approach to ADHD with Phil Boucher, M.D.
TPP 091a: A Conversation With Steve Silberman About His Book “Neurotribes”
TPP 521: A Conversation with Dr. Peter Gray About Restoring Childhood
TPP 253a: Advocate and Author Jonathan Mooney on Why Normal Sucks
TPP 520: Dr. Özgür Bolat on Why Rewards Backfire and the Real Science of Motivating Kids