How Body-Based Psychotherapy Supports Healing in Functional Neurological Disorders (FND)

Functional Neurological Disorders (FND) can be confusing, frightening, and deeply disruptive. Symptoms such as seizures, paralysis, tremors, gait disturbances, or sensory loss feel very real—yet standard neurological testing often comes back “normal.”

For many people, this creates a painful mix of self-doubt, frustration, and fear. But FND is not imagined and it’s not voluntary. It is a genuine disorder of the brain–body connection.

Body-based psychotherapy (also called somatic therapy) is emerging as a supportive and effective therapeutic approach for FND. Below, we explore what FND is and how somatic treatment helps restore the nervous system’s capacity to regulate movement, sensation, and safety.

What Is Functional Neurological Disorder?

FND occurs when the nervous system has difficulty sending and receiving signals accurately. Instead of structural damage (like a stroke or tumour), the problem lies in how the brain is functioning and how it interprets information from the body.

Common symptoms can include:

• Functional seizures (non-epileptic)

• Limb weakness or paralysis

• Tremors or jerks

• Difficulty walking (gait disorders)

• Vision or hearing changes

• Speech difficulties

• Numbness or sensory loss

These symptoms are real and research suggest that they are rooted in nervous system dysregulation. Many individuals with FND have a history of chronic stress, trauma, medical trauma, or sudden overwhelming events that may have taxed their nervous system’s ability to cope with difficult sensations and emotions.

Why Body-Based Approaches Help

FND is a disorder of function, not structure. That means a lot of treatment happens not through medication or surgery, but through retraining the nervous system.

Body-based psychotherapy works directly with:

• The autonomic nervous system

• Brain–body communication

• Implicit memory held in muscle tone, posture, and reflexes

• Patterns of protection the body learned during stress or trauma

When the body enters survival states (fight, flight, freeze, collapse), it changes movement patterns, reflexes, breathing, and sensory processing. Over time, these survival responses can become “stuck,” with the new theories suggesting that these may lead to FND symptoms.

Somatic therapy helps the nervous system find safety again—allowing symptoms to reduce or resolve.

How Body-Based Psychotherapy Helps Treat FND

1. Rebuilding a Felt Sense of Safety

Many people with FND unconsciously live in a chronic state of threat in their nervous system. Even if life is objectively safe, the body may still signal danger.

Somatic therapies such as Somatic Experiencing® and polyvagal-based approaches help clients:

• Track body sensations gently

• Notice cues of safety

• Slow down protective reflexes

• Rebuild trust in internal signals

When the body stops preparing for danger, symptoms like shaking, paralysis, and functional seizures may decrease.

2. Completing Interrupted Defensive Responses

During overwhelming events, the body may begin a fight-or-flight response that never fully completes. This leaves the nervous system “stalled,” which can contribute to FND symptoms.

Somatic therapy helps complete these biological impulses in a safe, titrated way—releasing activation and restoring natural motor patterns.

Clients may notice:

• Increased fluidity in movement

• Less rigidity or collapse

• A return of strength or sensation

• Improved coordination

This process feels subtle, not dramatic—slow micro-shifts that accumulate over time.

3. Rewiring Brain–Body Communication

The brain constantly maps the body. In FND, the map becomes confused or disrupted.

Body-based psychotherapy supports neuroplasticity by helping clients:

• Explore gentle movement

• Reconnect with areas of numbness or immobility

• Practice grounding and orienting to safety

• Feel internal states with more accuracy

• Reduce hypervigilance to symptoms

This rewiring creates new patterns of movement and sensation, reinforcing the brain’s ability to send and receive signals correctly.

4. Restoring Autonomic Balance

The autonomic nervous system (ANS) influences:

• Muscle tension

• Sensory processing

• Reflexes

• Energy levels

• Coordination

Somatic therapy includes practices that regulate the ANS, such as:

• Breathwork

• Gentle tracking of sensations

• Orienting to the environment and to feelings of safety

• Developing tolerable windows of activation and rest

A more regulated ANS often leads to fewer flare-ups and more predictable functioning.

5. Addressing Trauma Without Overwhelm

Many individuals with FND have a trauma history, yet talking directly about trauma can worsen symptoms. Body-based psychotherapy allows clients to process trauma indirectly and safely through:

• Slow pacing

• Noticing micro-sensations

• Working with posture and breath

• Tracking nervous-system shifts

• Accessing emotion gradually, without flooding

This approach respects the body’s pace and prevents retraumatization. As old survival energy resolves, symptoms can reduce and resolve.

6. Supporting Emotional Expression and Regulation

FND symptoms often emerge when emotions feel too difficult to experience or express. Somatic therapy helps clients recognize:

• What feelings are arising

• Where they show up in the body

• How to stay present with them

• How to move through them without shutting down

Over time, clients gain confidence in their ability to feel without being overwhelmed—reducing the need for the body to express distress through neurological symptoms.

7. Rebuilding Agency and Confidence

FND can create a deep sense of helplessness—“Why is this happening?” “Will this ever get better?”

Body-based psychotherapy fosters agency by helping clients:

• Notice even the smallest shifts

• Celebrate small recoveries and changes

• Understand the meaning behind symptoms

• Participate actively in nervous-system retraining

This empowerment is a core part of healing.

What Treatment Looks Like

A somatic approach to FND is gentle, collaborative, and paced. Therapy might include:

• Slow tracking of sensations

• Grounding and orientation practices

• Imagery and guided movement

• Breathwork

• Exploring places of comfort and ease

• Pendulation (moving between activation and calm)

• Releasing incomplete fight/flight impulses

• Gentle touch or self-touch (when appropriate)

Sessions often focus on building capacity, not digging into trauma memories.

A Hopeful Path Forward

Functional Neurological Disorder is highly distressing but also is treatable. Modern research shows that the nervous system can change, heal, and rewire. Body-based psychotherapy gives clients tools to reconnect with their bodies, retrain reflexes, and restore a sense of safety from the inside out.

Healing doesn’t happen overnight, but with the right support, many people experience:

• Reduced frequency or intensity of symptoms

• Increased mobility or sensation

• More emotional stability

• Greater confidence and independence

• A renewed relationship with their body

If you or someone you know is living with FND, body-based psychotherapy offers a validating, compassionate, and effective path toward recovery.