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This paper discusses the functions of somatic experience within the therapeutic and analytic processes as both the nonverbal expression of conflicts long held within the patient’s (or analyst’s) body structure as well as a movement toward self-agency. Therapeutic attention and responsiveness to nonverbal communications and spontaneous bodily actions are seen as providing significant avenues of access to the forward intentionality of unconscious, dissociated states of being. Direct, analytic involvement with somatic experience is illustrated through sensate focus, movement, and physical contact between patient and therapist.