Somatic Therapy (Body Centered)

Movement and play is the foundation of integration between our spirit and minds. The body gives a specific place for us to experience our lives and selves. We were given our bodies and despite the bumps, dips and trips it is our bodies that bring us to expeirncing our lives more fully and naturally. The body can be incorporated into our work in many ways: through physical movement; play, dream body experiences; body awareness; and internal "parts work".

Somatic Experiencing Practitioner

I invite you to take a moment now, to check in with your body. You don't need to change a thing physically, just allow your attention to shift inward as you continue to look at your phone or computer screen. What do you notice? By acknowledging and accessing our body's intelligence, therapy is much more effective and deeper than psychoanalysis alone. In our work, we will gently explore what it's like for you to be in your body, guiding you towards increased feelings of safety comfort and ease.

While what I do is not specifically therapy, it can be therapeutic. What this means is that my work, as opposed to therapy, is not focused on integrating the past. It can be deeply healing & transformative, but it is not medical care. We inevitably encounter the past in our work, since what has happened to us is often a large part of what is currently embodied, but our work is not focused on making sense of our histories.

The body is a source of information that, when we learn to listen, can often suggest a clearer path. Body psychotherapy enrolls the body directly in therapy, whether it’s through authentic movement or Somatic Experiencing, or more subtly through opening to the intuition of the nervous system, mind-body work, of becoming aware of the unique signals your body developed to communicate with you. Working with the body is the most direct means of healing trauma because it's where trauma is processed.

I have been a massage therapist for 30 years and found my way to Pyschotherapy as a result of the many emotional experiences that the body released during with newborns and their parents with CranioSacral therapy. I found that the implicit memories that keep people stuck can be accessed with or without the story being shared to be released and healed in the body and the mind.

What does somatic therapy mean and look like? Implicit memories (the ones without a movie in our head) are stored in the body keep people stuck. These memories can be released and accessed to heal the body and the mind with or without the story being shared or even touched. Together we bring on regulation, safety, with a compassionate witness to have a felt sense of being seen, heard and understood. Internalizing the safety into your body is the thrive of health.

Somatic therapy, also sometimes known as body-centered therapy, refers to approaches that integrate a client’s physical body into the therapeutic process. Somatic therapy focuses on the mind-body connection and is founded on the belief that viewing the mind and body as one entity is essential to the therapeutic process. Somatic therapy practitioners will typically integrate elements of talk therapy with therapeutic body techniques to provide holistic healing. Somatic therapy is particularly help

Peter Levine's "Somatic Experiencing" work is the core from which most of my interventions extend. I continue to assist these trainings around the country and have taken various master classes with Peter. (www.traumahealing.org) Additionally, I'm trained in Somatic Resilience & Regulation work which is a touch based model for developmental trauma developed by Kathy Kain & Steve Terrell and their book is called "Nurturing Resilience". My graduate training was in "Somatic Psychotherapy" from JFK

I primarily use somatic therapy techniques in trauma, body image, and emotional awareness development. Our bodies and minds connect in more rapid ways than direct thoughts, and until we develop our awareness of that connection, we are very likely to misunderstand what our body is trying to tell us which can create more distress than is necessary. This is also important for athletes to strengthen as they train so they can best utilize the skills they are developing.

We all experience emotions through our bodies. Body-centered allows a deeper level of clarity about your feelings, and a more direct way of engaging with them.

Everything in life is a physical, mental, social, and spiritual experience. Yet, many of us are disconnected from our bodies. I believe that our bodies are vessels of wisdom from which we hold our experiences of pain, joy, belonging, intuition, and information. Through the process of slowing down and noticing, we can uncover a well of resources you already have within you, as well as heal from a foundational level. I am a Certified Somatic Attachment Therapist.

I believe that most mental health issues are the result of our limbic brains working to keep us safe. Limbic brains don't understand logic, but they do understand stories and metaphors. I believe that change, at the limbic level, must include connecting to our bodies in new ways and that the most direct pathway of communication to the limbic brain is through bodily sensations. I use my training in tantric healing and in Somatic Experiencing to help guide you to healing.

I could have spent my whole life talking about trauma instead of moving it through. As a student who stumbled into the field, I was its biggest critic. I wanted evidence that the body mattered. In my most profound relationships now as client or healer, we don't talk a lot & the evidence is right there in the ability to process & release pain without analysis paralysis. I lead folx to learn from their own body how stress shapes the way they walk the world & they let it lead them toward freedom

During a Somatic Experiencing session, we will slowly revisit the trauma while taking the time to notice what arises in the moment. I will support you to notice sensations, images, behaviors, affect or emotions, and thoughts or meaning that naturally arise during sessions. Through each response from your body, we will find areas that hold unprocessed energy and to release as needed, slowly and gently. Through the release of this energy, your body’s nervous system will return to its normal flow.

My approach is based on my perspective that the deep wisdom of your own body can help resolve many of your challenges. By harnessing your movement, sensations, and breath, you can learn to access parts of yourself that exist beneath your consciousness. In doing so, you will be able to re-experience yourself in ways beyond your old stories—and, help you learn, grow, and heal.

With specific training in Somatic Intervention (SI) I utilize the body to: * Heal trauma & other stress disorders * Move toward more safety & connection with yourself & others * Discharge tension in the body & associated memories that bring discomfort to distress * Sense & interrupt habitual patterns (ie anxiety, anger, stress or fear) & then to move forward in your life centered & more calm * Improve negative situations & change their course * Increase your sense of being understood * & More!

Rita draws from her yoga teaching experiences to help clients become more attuned to their bodies.