What Are Chakras? Integrating Chakra Work with Evidence-Based Mental Health Practices

When people hear the word chakra, they often picture rainbow-colored diagrams, yoga studios, or wellness influencers on Instagram. But beneath the imagery, chakras offer a surprisingly useful framework—especially in mental health work that honors both the emotional and somatic experience of being human.

As a trauma therapist who also practices Reiki and energy work, I often get asked: How do chakras actually fit into therapy? Is it just a spiritual thing? Is there any real value in using them in clinical spaces?

The short answer: Yes. For the right clients, chakra work can be a powerful, integrative tool. It’s not a replacement for evidence-based care—but it can enhance it. Here’s how.

What Are Chakras?

Chakras are often described as energy centers in the body that correspond to different areas of life—like safety, expression, relationships, intuition, or identity. There are seven main chakras, running from the base of the spine to the crown of the head, each associated with emotional themes and physical regions of the body.

In Eastern healing traditions, chakras are considered vital for wellness. In Western psychology, we might think of them more as archetypal or symbolic systems—like Jung’s archetypes or the internal dynamics explored in parts work. Whether you see chakras as literal energy points or not, they serve as a map. A language. A way to connect emotional experience with somatic sensation and personal insight.

How Chakras Align with Evidence-Based Practice

Chakra work is more compatible with traditional therapy than it might seem at first glance. Many evidence-based models already recognize the connection between mind and body:

• Somatic Therapies (like EMDR, SE, or Sensorimotor Psychotherapy) work directly with body-based memory and sensation. Chakra-focused work simply adds another layer of specificity to where and how emotion may be stored.

• Polyvagal Theory emphasizes nervous system regulation through body awareness, safety cues, and self-attunement. Chakras can serve as focal points for that attunement, especially when clients describe “feeling off” or “out of alignment.”

• Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) and mindfulness-based approaches encourage noticing sensations, accepting internal experience, and tuning into values. Chakra language can offer metaphor and insight into those values—like voice, power, love, or intuition.

• Parts Work / Ego State Therapy often overlaps naturally with chakra work. For instance, a protective part focused on control may show up strongly in the solar plexus (personal power), while a wounded inner child might emerge in the heart or sacral region. Chakra themes can offer another lens through which to explore internal dynamics and the body-based experience of those states.

The goal isn’t to replace clinical models—it’s to offer clients language and tools that resonate with them, especially when traditional talk therapy isn’t quite getting to the root.

A Closer Look: The Throat Chakra and the “Ball in the Throat”

The throat chakra governs communication, voice, expression, and truth. When it’s flowing, people feel more confident speaking up, setting boundaries, and sharing their feelings. But when it’s “blocked,” clients often report a tightness or pressure in the throat—like something is stuck.

You know that feeling. You’re trying not to cry. You’re holding something back. You’re scared to say what you really think. That ball-in-the-throat feeling isn’t just metaphor—it’s a somatic cue.

Clinically, this could reflect a freeze response, emotional inhibition, or a history of being silenced. Energetically, we might say the throat chakra is constricted. Either way, it’s a moment where emotion meets body. And chakra language gives us a shared way to explore it—especially when words are hard to find.

A Closer Look: The Solar Plexus and the Pit in Your Stomach

The solar plexus chakra is tied to identity, autonomy, power, and self-esteem. It lives in the space just above the navel, and when it’s unbalanced, clients often report somatic distress in this region.

It might feel like a sinking stomach, nausea, butterflies that aren't the good kind, or a heavy pit after a conflict. People often say things like “I feel like I got punched in the gut” or “I just lost my sense of control.”

From a trauma lens, this is often the body’s reaction to shame, powerlessness, or internalized fear of failure. In chakra terms, it reflects a disturbance in our ability to act on our own behalf. Whether you call it energy or not, the signal is clear: something in this area needs attention. And naming the experience—even symbolically—can give clients a sense of insight, validation, and access to healing.

Is It Really a Chakra, or Just Shared Language?

That’s a fair question. And the honest answer is: it depends.

Some clients truly feel energy move in their bodies when doing chakra-focused work. Others relate more to metaphor—using chakra language as a way to describe deep emotional experiences that don’t quite fit into clinical checkboxes. And both are valid.

The point isn’t whether chakras are “real” in a scientific sense. The point is whether the framework helps the client connect more deeply to their own healing. If it invites curiosity, offers clarity, and supports self-awareness, then it’s doing something right.

A Note on Cultural Appropriation and Using Chakra Work Ethically

Because chakra systems come from ancient Indian traditions—particularly within Hinduism, Tantra, and Buddhist teachings—it’s important to acknowledge that this isn’t just a wellness trend. These are sacred frameworks with deep cultural and spiritual roots. When we bring chakra language into Western healing spaces, we have a responsibility to do so thoughtfully.

In my own work, I use chakra language as a symbolic and somatic framework. It’s one of many tools I offer to help clients connect with their inner experience, especially if they resonate with intuitive or energy-based work. But I also name the fact that I’m not teaching the traditional lineage these systems come from. I’m borrowing language and concepts that help give shape to emotional and embodied experiences—but I do so with respect and a clear acknowledgment that this framework isn’t mine by origin.

It’s also worth understanding the concept of closed practices—spiritual or cultural traditions that are reserved for members of a specific community or lineage, often due to historical oppression or sacred initiations. Examples include many Indigenous ceremonies, certain forms of African traditional religions, and some specific practices within Vodou or Santería. Chakra work, by contrast, is not considered a closed practice. It comes from open spiritual traditions that have been shared across cultures for centuries. That said, open doesn’t mean “free for all”—it still calls for humility, curiosity, and care.

If you’re using chakra work—personally or professionally—here are a few ways to approach it ethically:

• Learn where it comes from: Take time to understand the roots of chakra systems. Explore their original context—not just the Western repackaging.

• Avoid oversimplification and aestheticism: Chakra work is more than wearing a color or picking the “right” crystal. It’s about meaningful body-based awareness and deep emotional processing.

• Be transparent about your role: I don’t present myself as a spiritual teacher of this system. I’m a therapist and intuitive guide who uses chakra language as a symbolic lens, when it’s appropriate and helpful.

• Always center client consent and cultural humility: As with anything in healing work, chakra integration should never be imposed. If it resonates, we explore it together. If it doesn’t, we use a different map.

I genuinely believe we can engage with traditional wisdom—including practices that originate in cultures different from our own—without crossing the line into appropriation. Integration doesn’t mean stripping something of its meaning or taking it out of context. It means approaching it with humility, respect, and a commitment to honoring where it came from.

Bottom Line: Integration Over Either/Or

Chakra work doesn’t replace trauma-informed care, nor does it take the place of evidence-based practices like EMDR, ACT, or CBT. But for many clients—especially those who are spiritually inclined, somatically aware, or just burnt out on purely cognitive work—it can open doors that otherwise stay closed.

As therapists, coaches, and healers, we don’t have to choose between science and soul. We can honor both. And in doing so, we meet our clients where they are—with all the tools they need to heal.