It can feel confusing — even unsettling.
Something happens in your body:
- a tremor, a tic, or a sudden weakness
- pain that doesn’t show up on tests
- fatigue that doesn’t lift
- bodily symptoms that come and go without explanation
And at some point, you might wonder:
“Why does my body keep feeling this way?”
Or even: “Is this just in my head?”
If you’ve had that thought, it’s important to say clearly — this is real. Your body is doing something meaningful, even if it has not yet been fully understood.
So… What Are Psychosomatic Symptoms?
“Psychosomatic” signifies how the mind and body are connected.
It doesn’t mean symptoms are imagined.
It means some psychological factor is also being expressed physically.
This can include:
- Functional Neurological Disorder (e.g., non-epileptic seizures, paralysis, tremors, difficulty speaking)
- Tics or involuntary movements that worsen with stress
- Chronic pain or fatigue without a clear medical cause
- Digestive symptoms like IBS or nausea
These are real, physical experiences involving the nervous system. There are in no way “made up” symptoms.
When the Body Speaks What Words Can’t
In psychoanalytic thinking, the body sometimes expresses what hasn’t been put into words.
Psychologists like Mark Solms (2025) have described how inner conflict or emotional strain can emerge as bodily symptoms, not because the body is malfunctioning, but because it’s communicating in a different manner.
More recent research continues to support this connection — showing that when emotional processing is limited, distress is more likely to appear as physical symptoms (Chen et al., 2026)
In other words, the body may carry what hasn’t yet been fully felt.
This idea connects closely with how emotions are processed and symbolized in the mind. If you’re interested in understanding this further, you may find it helpful to explore Bion’s Theory of Thinking.
Why This Happens
We learn how to experience feelings in a relationship.
If emotions were once:
- overwhelming
- dismissed
- unsafe to express
- or simply unrecognized
You may have adapted by moving away from feeling.
But the emotional energy doesn’t disappear.
Research shows that difficulty identifying emotions — often called alexithymia — is strongly associated with psychosomatic symptoms and conditions like functional neurological disorder. (Demartini et al., 2014)
When feelings can’t be identified or described, the body may then automatically express that internal state physically. (Ibid.)
From a psychoanalytic perspective, this isn’t random. It’s a form of expression when symbolic processing (in feeling and thought) hasn’t been available.
Many of these patterns begin early in life, shaped by how emotions were responded to in relationships. To understand more about this foundation, you might explore why early relationships matter.
“But It Feels Completely Physical”
That’s because it is.
In conditions like Functional Neurological Disorder, people can experience:
- real paralysis
- shaking or seizures
- loss of coordination
- speech difficulties
These symptoms are not imagined — they involve real changes in how the brain and body are functioning.
What’s different is how the symptom is being generated.
Rather than coming from structural damage in the body, it emerges from the interaction between emotional processing and the nervous system. Hence, the psychology in psychosomatics.
If you relate to this, please feel free to book a free 20-minute consultation with me.
The Body Isn’t Betraying You
It can feel that way.
But psychoanalytic and psychosomatic theories suggest something different:
The body may be trying to resolve or express psychological pain, attempting to release tension that hasn’t been processed consciously (Solms 2025).
Not in a neat or symbolic way — but in the most available way.
Your body isn’t working against you.
Truthfully, it has been trying to work for you.
If this resonates, you may also find it meaningful to explore how emotional disconnection can take shape in different ways.
How Therapy Helps
Therapy doesn’t dismiss physical symptoms.
It helps you begin to connect them to your inner experience.
Together, we might gently explore:
- when the symptoms began
- what was happening in your life at the time
- what your body does under stress
- what feelings may seem hard to access
Over time, working together, something gradually shifts.
Very plainly, research suggests that when emotional awareness and processing increase, the intensity of somatic symptoms can decrease. (Chen et al., 2026)
What was once only felt in the body may begin to take on meaning — and become something you can think about, feel, and process. This is the path towards healing in a meaningful way.
How to Start
I’m Curtis, a psychodynamic psychotherapist whose practice focuses on feeling and understanding the nuances of our emotional lives. Together, we’ll understand what it feels like to be you, and how the body continually seeks to ‘keep the score’ of our psychological lives.
I offer in-person psychodynamic psychotherapy in Vancouver, Yaletown, and online across BC.
If you’re considering reaching out, you can book a free 20-minute consultation to explore what support might look like moving forward.
You may have been struggling to alleviate your physical symptoms. Medications and exercises only seem to take you so far. Real change in this regard, perhaps, may start to take place through our minds, in our sessions together. Through connecting with feeling once again, it is our hope to relieve you from your physical and mental pain. We do this together, gradually, each day at a time.
I’ll be glad to meet with you sometime soon.
References
Chen, J., Ma, D., Cao, J., & Wei, J. (2026). Alexithymia mediates the pathway from negative life events to somatic symptoms: a cross-sectional study in a psychosomatic outpatient sample. Frontiers in psychiatry, 16, 1680463. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2025.1680463
Demartini, B., Petrochilos, P., Ricciardi, L., Price, G., Edwards, M. J., & Joyce, E. (2014). The role of alexithymia in the development of functional motor symptoms (conversion disorder). Journal of neurology, neurosurgery, and psychiatry, 85(10), 1132–1137. https://doi.org/10.1136/jnnp-2013-307203
Solms, M. (2025). “Function” in functional neurological disorders: the common ground of neuroscience and psychoanalysis. Neuropsychoanalysis, 27(1), 5–18. https://doi.org/10.1080/15294145.2025.2472340