Somatic Therapy (Body Centered)

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

I use somatic awareness and yoga therapy.

We inhabit the world in bodies. Emotions are also called "feelings" because before we have language, we feel our feelings in our bodies as sensation. Tuning into our bodies can give us so much wisdom and insight.

Somatic Modalities work with bodily sensations and emotions and incorporating them in to our work through awareness and through movement. My approach to healing reflects my view of the body and mind as a dynamic integrated organic system in constant relationship with its environment. Working with the body in psychotherapy opens up a wealth of options for understanding, experiencing and healing. I have a masters in Somatic Counseling Psychology from the California Institute of Integral Studies.

Emotion and pain often finds manifestation in physical experience. Much of my work is in managing this, as well as working to develop a stronger, healthier relationship with the body in general.

I found somatic therapy when I began noticing that my clients who had survived so much were experiencing a plateau in talk therapy. As a student of Somatic Experiencing and I continue to be amazed by the healing that can come from slow and gentle body-based therapy. Our bodies hold memories that our minds may not recall. Somatic therapy allows the Nervous System to complete the survival responses that were thwarted in the natural "freeze" that occurs during trauma.

Sometimes, we have to de-escalate intense emotions and body sensations before or throughout processing. I often guide clients through practicing physiological relaxation, grounding, breathing, and mindfulness skills. This is also referred to as a "bottom-up" therapy approach. We can apply these strategies as-needed.

Through my Focusing & Indigenous Focusing Oriented Therapy methods, we can use the "felt sense" to get in touch w/ what our body is telling us - how it has a sense of "knowing" where we are stuck, or where we might like to go, that often doesn't even need words. Talk therapy can do a lot, but in many cases, we can feel like we hit a wall. Somatic approaches including cultivating the felt sense, engaging the right brain & limbic system, & working with body-based approaches can be transformative.

Body-centered therapy is of great use when issues are pre-verbal or non-verbal. It also gives a place to work when clients have a general feeling of being "stuck" but not knowing why. Sometimes the issue isn't non-verbal, it's just unconscious for a variety of reasons. Body-centered therapy is a great jumping off point and it leads easily into Mindfulness Integrated CBT.

Most recent research in neuroscience shows that in order to heal, we have to start with a bottom-up approach which means healing the nervous system before we focus on cognitive restructuring.

Trauma disrupts healthy adaptive functioning and causes dysfunction in many areas of life. Somatic therapy focuses on releasing stress from the nervous system, regulating your nervous system to safety, ease and well-being. Benefits include reduced physical and emotional discomfort and distress, strengthened connection between the mind and body and nervous system regulation, improved relationships and health, and joy.

Somatic therapy explores how the body expresses deeply painful experiences, applying mind-body healing to aid with trauma recovery.

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

Another model I frequently incorporate in session is Somatic Experiencing, a body-oriented modality aimed at addressing the physical as well as cognitive aspects of trauma. I have completed the Level 2/Intermediate training through the Somatic Experiencing International Institute.

Oftentimes, unconscious psychological material gets reflected in our posture, breath patterns, tension and constriction in our muscles, habits, movement impulses, quality of voice, eye movements, and much more. When we more fully understand the subtle and complex interactions and communications throughout mind-body unity, we are more equipped to recognize what might be interfering with that natural healing force (or organicity) within us. We are then more equipped to cultivate and promote it.

My approach is informed by Somatic Experiencing.

I am trained to stay in the body through Somatic IFS, polyvagal theories, regulation techniques that create safety in the body and help heal trauma, and mindfulness based body techniques.

Somatic therapy facilitates the exploration and processing of emotional sensations within the nervous system, particularly during exposure therapy for anxiety disorders like OCD. By tuning into bodily sensations before, during, and after exposures, somatic therapy helps individuals develop greater awareness and regulation of their emotional experiences. This process enhances the effectiveness of exposure therapy by providing a deeper understanding of the mind-body connection.

I found my way to Pyschotherapy as a result of many clients emotional experiences as a massage/ CranioSacral therapist. So many clients were having emotional releases and needed help to process them, so I became a therapist. What does somatic therapy mean and look like? Implicit memories (the ones without a movie in our head) that ares stored in the body keep people stuck. These memories can be released and accessed with or without the story being shared to heal the body and the mind.