Somatic Therapy (Body Centered)

Utilizing tools found within sensorimotor psychotherapy, somatic experiencing, pain reprocessing therapy, as well as mindfulness and guided visualization, much of my work is grounded in the mind-body relationship and providing tools to support a client in enhancing awareness of this connection as well as regulating the nervous system.

Somatic and mindfulness-based approaches help people build a more fine-tuned and conscious relationship with their mind-body connection. These methods can help with: 1) Staying more grounded and embodied in the present moment, 2) Building a toolbox for being with difficult inner experiences in the present moment, 3) Listening and responding to internal cues / information from the mind-body connection, 4) Moving and digesting remnants of trauma and stress lodged in the mind-body connection.

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.

Body-centered therapies use touch, movement, and posture to explore and release stored emotional pain. By addressing the physical imprint of stress and trauma, these approaches promote healing and emotional balance. They encourage clients to connect with their bodies as allies in therapy, using somatic awareness to support resilience and holistic growth.

Somatic techniques can help you to detach from unwanted energy, emotions and negative core beliefs that may have attached to you during a traumatic event, inner child wounding or period of chronic stress. Learn to use the body as a tool for self-regulation. Learn to use somatic techniques to enhance healing. Learn to rewire and re-stabilize your nervous system.

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 CranioSacral and working with newborns and their parents. 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.

I have trained in multiple somatic therapeutic modalities including Hakomi, Integral Somatic Psychology (an offshoot of Somatic Experiencing), Ray Castellino's Prenatal and Birth Trauma work, and Resmaa Menakem's Somatic Abolitionism work.

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.

The Somatic Experiencing® method is a body-oriented approach to the healing of trauma and other stress disorders. Somatic Experiencing® explores where an individual may be “stuck” in a fight, flight, or freeze response and works with an individual’s natural resilience to move through these “stuck” self-protective responses. I am a Somatic Experiencing® Practitioner and I have assisted with Somatic Experiencing® trainings around the country.

SE is body-oriented approach to the healing of trauma and other stress disorders developed by Dr. Peter Levine. It offers a framework to assess where you are “stuck” in the fight, flight or freeze responses and provides clinical tools to resolve these fixated physiological states by focusing on body sensations and releasing stuck energy while building upon and strengthening your resiliency.

Somatic therapy, sometimes known as body psychotherapy, is a therapeutic approach that places importance on what we experience in the mind and the body as well as the connection between the two. “Somatic” itself means “of or relating to the body.” I work with clients to hone their skills of listening to their body, their gut, and intuitive guidance to improve their self knowledge. If we are talking about the body and sexuality or the body as guidance to making decisions, the body is your friend!

Somatic therapy is about reconnecting ones body and mind so one can heal more fully. Often, our experiences are stored in the body. While typical therapy can release these experiences from the mind, they may not be as effective at releasing experiences from the body. By deepening the mind-body connection and turning attention inwards clients can better understand their emotional experience and free themselves from their past.

As a music therapist, the focus of my approach is the body, conscious movement and somatic listening. In addition, I work with the Naturaleza Corporal method, a journey through the 7 main chakras through conscious movement, dance, yoga and bioenergetics.

The work we do together includes awareness of the body: breath, movement & posture. Cognitive knowledge & learning are amazing, but including the body in psychotherapy ensures that ALL parts of you feel safe in the therapy room. The body knows exactly what pace to move for there to be room for change. Many of us have moved away from the body & are over-riding our instincts. This work is about listening & reconnecting to how & what the body knows.

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.

as a client in therapy myself, i have experienced profoundly transformative shifts through somatic therapies. our bodies are inherently designed to process through trauma; unfortunately, many minds have been taught to override this organic process. slow, somatic practice creates opportunities to reconnect with our felt-sense, strengthen body-mind communication, and allow our bodies to tap into their natural healing capacities.

I have training in Somatic counseling from the SEI