Somatic Therapy (Body Centered)

“This is your body, your greatest gift, pregnant with wisdom you do not hear, grief you thought was forgotten, and joy you have never known.” -Marion Woodman. Neuroscientific research shows there is no separation between body and mind. We feel symptoms of anxiety, depression, or trauma in the body: racing heart, churning stomach, fatigue, aches and pains. I use gentle, safe, somatic methods to help clients process experiences and learn simple, effective somatic skills to reduce symptoms.

Somatic perspectives are vital in helping clients get out of intellectualizing patterns and into their felt experiences. Narrowing the divide between sensations and thoughts, or bringing what clients feel into their conscious space can help people recognize what their body is communicating to their mind. Somatic approaches help me guide clients to a clearer vision of what they need and want in a given situation, from a more holistic perspective.

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".

I am trained in Reichian Somatic Therapy, a body-centered approach that helps release stored trauma by working with physical tension, breath, and movement. This method, rooted in the work of Wilhelm Reich, recognizes that emotional pain is held in the body. Through breathwork and body awareness techniques, I help clients access and release deep-seated trauma, allowing for greater emotional regulation, self-connection, and healing from long-standing patterns of distress.

Somatic therapy is a form of body-centered therapy that looks at the connection of mind and body and uses both traditional talk therapy and physical therapies for holistic healing. In addition to talk therapy, I use mind-body exercises and other physical techniques to help release the pent-up tension and trauma that negatively affects a person’s physical and emotional wellbeing.

My 2nd masters is in Somatic Counseling as well as my post-degree training in Hakomi Somatic Therapy and Relational Somatic Healing. Prior to this I co-founded an organization to explore healing through movement. I also have a podcast called Therapy and The Body. All this to say that including the body in therapy is a primary aspect of my clinical approach. We have bodies and our bodies have experienced our pain, trauma, joy and delight. Life and healing happens in the body.

Somatic Experiencing helps clients process trauma by addressing how it’s stored in the body and nervous system. As an intermediate-level Somatic Experiencing Practitioner (SEP) qualifier in the second year of a rigorous three-year training program, I bring extensive expertise to this approach. This training includes multi-day intensives, case consultations, and personal sessions. I use SE to help clients release stress, regulate their nervous systems, and foster resilience and healing

Informed by in-depth studies of Bioenergetics and Alexander Lowen’s work, my approach to Somatic Therapy emphasizes the integration of body awareness to promote deep, holistic healing. This focus enables clients to connect their physical experiences with emotional insights, facilitating a comprehensive path to wellness.

I believe that the deep wisdom of our body can support us through many of our challenges. By harnessing our movement, sensations, and breath, we can access the parts of ourselves that exist beneath our consciousness. In doing so, we can re-experience ourselves in ways beyond our old stories—and, help us learn, grow, and heal.

Somatic experiencing therapy is a body-oriented therapeutic model that aims to settle issues of stress, shock, and trauma that build up in our bodies over time. Together we will assess where you’re feeling stuck in the fight, flight, or freeze state based on lived and felt experiences and then provide tools to resolve those fixated physiological states.

I operate under the idea that what happens to you in your life is also stored within the body. I incorporate breath work and embodiment practices to help you return to a state of stability within your nervous system.

Somatic Experiencing techniques are some of my favorite to use in session. Our bodies keep the score of every event we have endured, and connecting the emotional to the physical can be a powerful, moving experience. Expanding this connection can transform the way you show up in relationships and the way you view the world. Every nervous system is capable of finding and keeping regulation- let's discover the pathway that works for you :)

Somatic therapy, or body-oriented therapy, taps into the wisdom of the body as a gateway for healing. By focusing on physical sensations, posture, breath, and movement, somatic therapy helps clients connect with and release stored emotions and trauma that are often held in the body. This approach empowers clients to build a deeper awareness of the mind-body connection, fostering a sense of presence and grounding that supports emotional resilience.

I have completed training for Somatic Experiencing and am a Somatic Experiencing Practitioner.

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 felt senses 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

I incorporate body-focused techniques to help clients to be present with their experiences, clarify their emotional experience, and process through emotions that have been "trapped" in their bodies.

My entire graduate studies were focused on Somatic Psychology at the California Institute for Integral Studies. This orientation provides an added dimension by taking the therapy out of the arena of second-hand reports (from your verbal mind) and into first-hand, felt experience. Our bodies often reveal first what our verbal, self conscious mind attempts to disguise and hide. I utilize Somatic interventions to potentially open you up to information that can be overlooked in most analytic psychotherapy. Traditional therapy practices pay attention almost exclusively to thoughts, emotions, and behaviors. In Somatics, the added awareness of sensations and felt experiences within the body are used to deepen the work. This can provide a channel of cooperation between the unconscious and conscious. In turn, Somatics helps to facilitate communication among parts of yourself that may be lost, hidden, or isolated.

Trauma and stress are stored in the body. Effective healing will include exercises and routines that address areas of tension and support our bodies' natural ability to release and reset to a state of calm and safety.