Somatic grounding occupies a foundational position within the depth-psychological literature on trauma, functioning simultaneously as a physiological intervention, a regulatory resource, and a philosophical orientation toward embodied presence. Pat Ogden’s sensorimotor framework offers the most technically elaborated account, defining grounding as the directed flow of somatic energy toward the earth, with specific attention to legs, feet, and gravitational contact — a capacity that underlies psychological stability, intentionality, and present-moment coherence. Heller’s NARM model situates grounding within a broader nervous system regulation protocol alongside containment, orienting, titration, and pendulation, emphasizing its role in both top-down and bottom-up therapeutic approaches. A persistent tension in the literature concerns the distinction between chronic ungroundedness — manifest in locked knees, restricted breathing, pelvic tension, and dissociative drift — and overgroundedness, a rigidity or heaviness that equally impairs adaptive functioning. Across authors, grounding is not conceived as a static state but as an acquired, repeatable skill, one that requires deliberate practice to create new neural pathways. The concept thus bridges bioenergetic traditions, polyvagal theory, and mindfulness-based somatic approaches, serving as a clinical entry point into regulation, self-structure, and the restoration of embodied selfhood in traumatized populations.