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".

When we slow down and pay attention to our bodies, old or previously unattended to memories and patterns can clarify, and then we can actually work with them; we can see how prior experiences influenced or created patterns within us, and then we might renegotiate them: we can uncouple unhelpful beliefs from one another, create new belief systems that more accurately reflect our values or adult autonomy, or make new meaning out of an old experience, now with more perspective and compassion.

Emotions, experiences, and trauma are stored in our body. Our body gives us many signals, but we are so often living listening to the constant guidance of our brain that we sometimes miss these signals. Somatic based therapy aims to help you connect with your body to better process stuck emotions and experiences, and release them for more healing, ease, and peace in your life. Somatic tools utilize mindfulness based strategies and movement to engage in the healing process.

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.

Emotions are learned physiological reactions to memories from the past. Together, we’ll explore these reactions with curiosity, fully embody them, and integrate them to create new emotional experiences. This process reduces the body’s need to protect itself, which often causes tension and disconnect. As you trust your body more, you’ll develop emotional resilience and foster deeper connections with others. This allows for lasting change in how you relate to both yourself and those around you.

I lead clients through somatic experiencing to process the emotions that are effecting their nervous system.

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.

As Bessel van der Kolk said, "The Body Keeps the Score"

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.

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

I believe your body is innately intelligent. It knows what it needs and communicates constantly. You might not have ever learned (or been allowed to learn) how to listen. Becoming curious about and aware of what it’s communicating - how and where it holds emotions, tension, trauma, memories - is foundational to healing. Through awareness and curiosity you can tap into your body’s wisdom and move toward wholeness.

I offer somatic awareness and yoga therapy.

Somatic counseling invites the experience of the body into the therapeutic process including breath, internal sensations, postures, gestures, and expressive movements. ​Developing our ability to notice and listen to these embodied experiences is the most direct path to increasing self-awareness of our emotions, patterns, identities, values, needs, and desires.

Prior to my career as a counselor, I practiced as a Licensed Massage Therapist in the state of Florida for 7 years. With that background

Somatic therapy focuses on the connection between the body and mind to address emotional and psychological issues. It involves using body awareness, physical sensations, and movement to help individuals process and release stored trauma and stress. By tuning into bodily experiences, somatic therapy aims to promote healing and improve overall well-being, addressing both physical and emotional aspects of mental health.

My approaches based on my perspective that the deep wisdom of our body can support you through many of your challenges. By harnessing your movement, sensations, and breath, you can learn to access the 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.

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 therapy is the physical underlying prompting of all emotion and action. It is physically felt through the vagus nerve (12th cranial nerve in the brain) throughout our whole body. When you develop awareness of your sensations you can learn how to “feel” feelings in a completely new way. It is like having another sense. Once you have this sense, you can develop techniques that make moving through emotions, trauma, eating disorders and other “intense” states a breeze. It is fun and easy!