Cheryl Groskopf, LMFT, LPCC
Somatic therapist in Los Angeles specializing in trauma, attachment, and anxiety therapy
Somatic Therapy in Los Angeles for Trauma, Anxiety & Attachment Healing
TikTok Made Trauma Talk Trendy—But That’s Not the Whole Picture
TikTok has completely changed how we talk about mental health. Trauma responses, attachment wounds, nervous system regulation—these topics are everywhere. But here’s the thing: while TikTok makes psychology more mainstream, a lot of its advice is oversimplified or just plain wrong.
As a somatic therapist in Los Angeles, I see this all the time. Every week, I get emails from individuals stating, “I know I have anxious attachment, but now what?” or “I tried the TikTok healing hacks, but I still feel stuck.” That’s because healing isn’t just about knowing what’s wrong—it’s about retraining your nervous system to feel safe again.
Somatic Trauma Therapy in Los Angeles Helps You Heal at the Root
Is TikTok Helping Normalize Trauma—or Oversimplifying It
If you’ve been stuck in the TikTok mental health rabbit hole and still feel anxious or dysregulated, you’re not alone. Social media gives quick tips, but not the deep work that actually heals—and that’s where somatic therapy comes in.
In this post, we’ll cover:
- What TikTok gets right about trauma and attachment
- Where it falls short
- How somatic therapy in Los Angeles actually helps you heal, instead of just analyzing your trauma
If you’re ready for real healing strategies beyond viral trends, keep reading. You can also check out my guide on nervous system healing techniques for practical tools that actually work.
What TikTok Gets Right About Trauma and Attachment
Understanding the Fight, Flight, Freeze, and Fawn Responses
1. Trauma Responses Are More Recognized Than Ever
One of the best things about TikTok? It’s helped more people understand their trauma responses than ever before. Terms like fight, flight, freeze, and fawn aren’t just therapist-speak anymore—you see them everywhere. That’s a big deal because so many people used to think their reactions to stress were just “overreactions” or “personality quirks.” Now, they’re realizing that these responses are wired into the nervous system.
For example:
- Fight: You get defensive or lash out when you feel threatened.
- Flight: You avoid conflict, leave situations, or distract yourself with work or scrolling.
- Freeze: You feel stuck, numb, or paralyzed when overwhelmed.
- Fawn: You people-please to keep the peace, even at your own expense.
TikTok somatic trauma healing in Los Angeles
How Somatic Therapy in Los Angeles Helps Regulate Trauma Responses
Knowing your trauma response is great, but what happens next? That’s where somatic therapy comes in. Because trauma isn’t just a thought pattern—it lives in your body. You can’t outthink a nervous system response.
Somatic therapy helps by:
- Expanding your window of tolerance, so stress doesn’t send you into overdrive or shut you down
- Using body-based techniques (like breathwork, grounding, and movement) to calm the nervous system
- Helping you recognize triggers earlier, so you can respond instead of react.
If you’re looking for a somatic therapist in Los Angeles, working with someone who understands both trauma and the nervous system can make all the difference.
How Attachment Patterns Form (and How They Can Change)
2. Attachment Styles Are Finally Being Talked About
Another big win? Attachment theory has gone viral. More people than ever are learning about:
- Anxious attachment – constantly worrying if people will leave you, needing a lot of reassurance.
- Avoidant attachment – feeling suffocated by closeness, shutting down when things get too emotional.
- Fearful-avoidant attachment (also called disorganized) – swinging between craving intimacy and pushing people away. This is huge because so many people used to feel broken in relationships—not realizing their patterns come from how their nervous system learned to seek safety in childhood.
The TikTok Problem: Oversimplifying Attachment Labels
While it’s great that more people are learning about attachment, TikTok makes it sound like attachment styles are set in stone—which isn’t true.
Here’s what’s missing from the conversation:
Attachment isn’t a personality type. It’s a learned pattern—meaning it can change.
Most people aren’t 100% one attachment style. You can have traits from multiple styles.
Knowing your attachment style doesn’t heal it. It’s a first step, but real change happens through nervous system work.
Attachment Therapy Los Angeles
How Somatic Therapy in Los Angeles Helps with Attachment Healing
Attachment wounds don’t heal in isolation. You can’t “self-help” your way into secure attachment just by watching TikToks. Healing happens in relationships—with safe, attuned connections that retrain your nervous system to trust closeness.
Somatic therapy can help by:
1) Rewiring your nervous system’s response to connection (so relationships feel less triggering).
2) Helping you feel safe expressing needs (instead of suppressing them or fearing rejection).
3) Teaching co-regulation skills—because attachment healing happens through relationships, not just in your head.
If you’ve realized TikTok’s attachment advice isn’t actually helping you shift your patterns, working with a therapist trained in somatic therapy in Los Angeles can make a huge difference. Finding a therapist who integrates nervous system healing into attachment work helps create real, lasting change instead of just understanding your patterns intellectually.
You Don’t Have to Stay Stuck—Real Healing Starts Here
3. Nervous System Dysregulation Is Being Normalized—But TikTok Doesn’t Teach You How to Fix It
One of the biggest shifts in mental health conversations? People are finally learning that their emotions and stress responses aren’t just “in their head” but are actually wired into their nervous system. That’s a huge win. More and more people are recognizing that chronic anxiety, emotional shutdowns, or feeling on edge all the time aren’t personal failures—they’re signs of nervous system dysregulation.
But here’s the problem: TikTok talks a lot about dysregulation—but doesn’t teach people how to actually heal it.
The Problem with Surface-Level Advice on Nervous System Regulation
If you’ve scrolled through mental health TikTok, you’ve probably seen advice like:
1) “Just take deep breaths and journal about it.”
2) “Cold plunges reset your nervous system.”
3) “Stop overthinking and get out of fight-or-flight.”
Now, there’s nothing wrong with deep breathing or cold plunges. In fact, they can be helpful tools. But if your nervous system is stuck in survival mode, these tricks often don’t work—or even make things worse.
For example, if you’ve been in chronic fight-or-flight mode for years, being told to “just breathe” can feel impossible. And if your body is stuck in freeze mode (dissociation, emotional numbness, shutdown), extreme cold plunges or intense stimulation can make your system shut down even more.
This is why so many people try TikTok’s “nervous system hacks” and feel frustrated when they don’t work. It’s not that they’re doing it wrong—it’s that real nervous system healing isn’t about quick tricks. It’s about teaching your body how to feel safe again.
TikTok somatic trauma healing
How Somatic Therapy in Los Angeles Actually Helps with Nervous System Healing
Unlike viral trends that focus on hacks, somatic therapy actually retrains your nervous system from the inside out. Here’s what that looks like:
1) Identifying Your Nervous System State –
Are you in fight (anger, irritability), flight (anxiety, overthinking), freeze (numbness, shutdown), or fawn (people-pleasing, over-apologizing)? Understanding where you are is the first step to working with your body, not against it.
2) Creating Safety in the Body First –
A dysregulated nervous system doesn’t trust that it’s safe, so no amount of deep breathing will work if your body still feels like it’s in danger. Somatic therapy teaches your body how to shift into safety in a way that feels natural—not forced.
3) Building Nervous System Flexibility –
The goal isn’t to never feel stressed, anxious, or overwhelmed. It’s to help your nervous system move out of survival mode more easily, so you don’t stay stuck in chronic stress patterns.
If you’ve tried every TikTok nervous system hack and still feel stuck, working with a therapist trained in somatic therapy in Los Angeles can help you go beyond quick fixes and create real, lasting change.
Healing People-Pleasing Patterns Through Body-Based Work
4. The “Soft Girl Healing Era” Trend: Why Self-Compassion Feels So Hard for People-Pleasers
One of the biggest TikTok trends right now? The “Soft Girl Healing Era”—a movement encouraging rest, self-care, boundaries, and self-compassion. It’s all about slowing down, prioritizing yourself, and embracing ease over hustle.
Sounds great, right?
For some people, yes. But if you’re a lifelong people-pleaser or perfectionist, the idea of “softness” might not feel healing at all. It might actually feel deeply uncomfortable—or even unsafe.
Self-Compassion Isn’t That Simple for People-Pleasers
TikTok makes the “Soft Girl Healing” trend look effortless—bubble baths, journaling, cozy mornings with matcha. And while those things can be great, they don’t address the deep-rooted nervous system responses that make rest feel impossible for people-pleasers.
If you’ve spent your life prioritizing others, overworking, or trying to be “good” all the time, you might relate to this:
- Rest feels selfish – Your nervous system is wired to keep others happy at your own expense, so slowing down feels wrong.
- Slowness creates anxiety – You’re so used to doing, fixing, and anticipating others’ needs that stopping feels uncomfortable.
- You need productivity to feel “worthy” – You’ve tied your self-worth to being useful, so softening feels like you’re slacking.
People-pleasing isn’t a personality trait…it’s a trauma response. If your brain learned early on that being “good” kept you safe, it’s not going to suddenly switch off just because a famous influencer told you to rest.
Want Support That Goes Deeper Than Coping Skills?
Somatic Therapy in Los Angeles Supports Real Nervous System Healing
True healing isn’t about forcing yourself to relax or trying to enjoy self-care. It’s about retraining your nervous system to feel safe when you’re not over-giving, overworking, or over-explaining yourself.
Here’s how somatic therapy in Los Angeles can help:
1) Rewiring Your Nervous System’s Response to Rest
Instead of feeling lazy or guilty when you slow down, somatic therapy helps your body feel safe in stillness.
2) Building Tolerance for Slowness & Saying No
Small, body-based exercises teach you how to ease into rest without panic (because your nervous system needs time to adjust).
3) Expanding Self-Worth Beyond Productivity
You’ll learn how to feel valuable even when you’re not “doing” for others.
If you’ve tried every self-care hack but still feel anxious when you try to slow down, working with a therapist trained in somatic therapy in Los Angeles can help you heal at the nervous system level—so rest finally feels safe.
Calm Your Nervous System Through Therapy
Why Real Healing Takes More Than Viral Mental Health Trends
TikTok has done something huge for mental health—it’s made terms like trauma responses, attachment wounds, and nervous system regulation mainstream. People who never would have considered therapy before are now learning about their own patterns, and that’s a win.
But here’s the thing: understanding isn’t the same as healing.
You can know your attachment style, recognize your nervous system responses, and memorize every “self-care” hack, but if you still feel anxious, stuck, or emotionally exhausted, that means something deeper needs to shift. And that shift happens in your nervous system.
Meet Cheryl Groskopf, LMFT, LPCC, Somatic Therapist in LA
Somatic Therapist Los Angeles
Hi, I’m Cheryl Groskopf—a licensed therapist based in Los Angeles. I work with people who are smart, self-aware, and totally exhausted from trying to “fix” themselves with every podcast, TikTok tip, or healing hack out there. My clients are often people-pleasers, perfectionists, or folks stuck in push-pull relationships where closeness feels good—but also terrifying.
In my practice, I blend somatic therapy, Internal Family Systems (IFS), and a deeply trauma-informed approach. What does that mean in plain language? We work with your body and your nervous system—not just your thoughts—so you can actually feel safe again, not just act like you’re okay.
If you’ve been carrying the invisible weight of CPTSD, past trauma, constant anxiety, or old attachment wounds, I want you to know it’s not all in your head. It’s in your body—and that’s not a bad thing. That just means your body’s been working overtime to protect you. Therapy with me is about giving it new tools and signals of safety, so you can stop living in survival mode.
Think Somatic Therapy in LA Might Help? Let’s Talk
Ready to Try Somatic Therapy in Los Angeles?
This is not surface-level work. We won’t just talk about what’s wrong—we’ll teach your nervous system what safety actually feels like. You don’t have to perform, prove, or be “healed enough” to start. You just need to be willing to show up as you are. That’s more than enough.
Want to see how holistic therapy in Los Angeles works in real life? Or curious about how somatic therapy can help you feel more grounded, less reactive, and more connected in your relationships? Reach out here. I’d love to help.
If TikTok made you aware of your patterns, but not sure how to actually feel better—this is your next step.
If you’ve been following TikTok somatic trauma healing videos, but still feel stuck, there’s a reason for that…You don’t need more hacks. You need real healing that works with your body, not against it.
Ready to start? Reach out here and let’s talk about what healing could actually look like for you!
