Dr. Arielle Schwartz: Your Body Knows Before Your Brain Does

Dr. Arielle Schwartz: Your Body Knows Before Your Brain Does

From Simplify by Kollo Media, Caitlin Schiller

May 4, 2026 · 47 min · Episode 108

About this episode

Caitlin Schiller interviews Dr. Arielle Schwartz about the insights of somatic therapy and how our bodies communicate experiences and emotions.

What if the part of you that knows what's actually wrong isn't your brain? This week on Simplify, Caitlin sits down with Dr. Arielle Schwartz —clinical psychologist, somatic therapy expert, and author of more books than seems reasonable for one person—to talk about what your body has been trying to tell you for years. Arielle has been working in somatics for thirty years, long before TikTok turned it into a buzzword, and her gift is making something that can feel slippery and slightly woo-woo feel concrete and useful. And, delightfully, she'll get us there via rivers, vagus nerves, and the wisdom of your gut. The conversation moves through somatic therapy itself, what an actual session looks like, and why the chairs aren't bolted to the floor, polyvagal theory broken down for a five-year-old, and why some of the most stubborn anxiety patterns aren't really about what's happening out there, exactly—they're about what's happening inside your. body. There's also a thread that quietly runs through the whole episode about how our earliest experiences—earlier than we usually consider—shape how safe the world feels in our bodies for the rest of our lives. Her parting demystification of…

People in this episode

Host: Caitlin Schiller

Guest: Dr. Arielle Schwartz

Topics covered

  • somatic therapy
  • anxiety patterns
  • polyvagal theory
  • body awareness
  • mental health
  • trauma

Keywords

  • somatic therapy
  • anxiety
  • polyvagal theory
  • mental health
  • body awareness
  • trauma
  • gut wisdom

Mentioned in this episode

Books & works: The Post-Traumatic Growth Guidebook, Braiding Sweet Grass, Tell Me Where it Hurts

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