Somatic Therapy (Body Centered)

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.

You might've heard that "the body keeps the score", but what does that even mean? You can use the body's own mechanics and systems to repair past trauma, understand the weight you've been carrying, and finally start to FEEL better. Talk therapy is great, but when you feel like you've hit a wall, somatic therapy can help you get to the next level.

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.

I am a BIG believer that trauma and emotions get stored in the body! I have a strong background in physiology, but what informs me the most is my prior career as a full-time Massage Therapist, my own extensive experience with body-focused forms of meditation and my enrollment in Peter Levine's 3+ year Somatic Experiencing® Professional Training Program. This particular sect of my work is such an incredIble passion of mine because it weaves together everything that I love and I see that it WORKS.

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.

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

If you're prone to over-thinking, somatic therapy can help you get off of the "hampster wheel", get clear, and move through what is keeping you stuck so you can feel better. By learning how to process your emotions and settle over-thinking, you can create a greater sense of peace.

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

My undergraduate studies were in pre-medical biological sciences, so my attention to and care for our bodily systems is always present in the room. I truly believe our bodies have wisdom to share with us, and I am passionate about providing care in the spaces where your mind and body seem to be at war. I also believe that we are meant to move through our emotions--physically move! I incorporate gentle exercises in therapy when helpful.

Noticing feelings, sensations, discomforts in your body is part of somatic therapy. With mindfulness practices or body awareness we identify how you are holding and reacting to stressors and other issues in your life. Your body naturally has wisdom that you can tap in to with awareness and we can delve into what it may mean for you and use your body's awareness as part of the work of changing your responses to challenges.

I use body-work to guide clients in releasing their trauma histories. When trauma occurs early in life before language skills are fully developed, the trauma automatically becomes stored in the body. Symptoms of pain, repeated injuries, and even susceptibility to illness can all be signs of unprocessed childhood trauma. When we work somatically, we release the emotions stored in the body to relieve the physical symptoms and postural habits.

So much of what we experience in life and the impact of those experiences are stored in our bodies. Sometimes we've lost connection to our body, sometimes we have access but are still feeling frozen or stuck in many ways. We have clinicians trained in attachment focused somatic experiencing that can help move you through the somatic healing process in a gentle and freeing way.

I completed the course Trauma and Overwhelm Lives in the Body, and learned a great deal about the effects of trauma on our bodies. I learned what happens with our brain chemistry, and how areas of the brain and body react in a trauma state. I learned techniques to teach my clients to bring an awareness to them about what is happening to them in that state. I have been treated using Somatic Experiencing and learned a lot in the process.

Somatic therapy is technique used to support with processing trauma that is held in the body.

Our bodies hold our traumas. Anxiety, tension, always being on edge, and feeling unsafe is part of trauma. Reclaim your body and your relationship with your body. Heal your trauma and learn tools to relax and ease your body.

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.

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.

I obtained a Master of Arts in Counseling Psychology from California Institute of Integral Studies, with a special focus in Somatic Psychotherapy. In 1999 I received a Bachelor of Arts in Performing Arts from Prescott College, which continued into 20+ years (and growing) of experience in dance and movement practice and performance. Prescott College was my introduction to dance, movement, and somatics, under the tutelage of Delisa Myles. Those years continue to greatly inform my somatic lens.

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.