Somatic THERAPy Sessions
“All bodies respond to love and care by opening up, and they respond to hatred and violence by shutting down.”
— Spring Washam, A Fierce Heart
What does a Somatic Therapy Session look like?
My sessions blend my years of training and practice supporting myself, my students, and my clients in finding safety WITHIN and through our bodies. While it is true that our bodies hold the wounds of the past, they also hold our capacity to heal and grow. This can be difficult to access with talk-therapy alone. Somatic therapy is here to help!
Sessions typically begin with a grounding practice to nurture present-moment awareness and an embodied sense of safety. From there, I will listen compassionately to your concerns and needs. We will then set a goal for the session, and transition into somatic exercises (such as mindful-awareness practices, exploratory movement, and sensory techniques). Together, we will help your nervous system regulate tension and stress, and weave a new story of loving-kindness, authenticity, and freedom that supports lasting change.
We work gently and over time as to not re-enforce familiar patterns of urgency and overwhelm. Our time together invites a soothing and spacious awareness, enabling your body/mind to release stuck patterns of living in “survival mode” — through the fight, flight, freeze and fawn responses — and restore your genuine, intuitive instincts in the present moment.
Most sessions are conducted via Zoom so you can be in the comfort of your own space. Phone sessions are also available upon request. For clients local to the San Francisco Bay Area, meeting in-person can sometimes be arranged at an additional cost.
The first step is to schedule a free Discovery Call to explore together if this is a good fit. If it feels right, we can book a session that works for your schedule. Questions? Please send an email and I’ll get right back to you.
A Somatic practice begins when we start examining the current state of our relationship to our bodies….
Do we hurt or abuse our body (or allow others to do so)? Do we abandon it? Ignore It? Force it into Submission? Shame it? Compare it to other bodies? Allow old survival patterns (the fight, flight, freeze or fawn response) to lead our lives?
Does this way of relating to your body feel familiar? Does it remind you of any other relationship in your life?
Imagine if you could truly shower your body with Kindness, Care, Consideration, Patience, Acceptance, Rest, Play, Connection. How would that change your life?
Frequently asked questions
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Each virtual session is $125. I do my best to keep my rates affordable to keep somatic therapy accessible to most. If you are experiencing extreme financial hardship, we can work with a sliding scale if space is available. Payment is due the day-of each session via credit card or Venmo.
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My recommendation is that we begin our work together by meeting 3-4 times per month for 3 months. This allows us time to build a foundation of safety, as well as teach you the fundamental somatic skillset that will support you in self-regulating. After 3 months, we can create a plan moving forward that works best for you. Bi-weekly, monhtly, or as-needed sessions will be discussed. Some folks work with me for a season until a healing goal is reached. Others stay on indefinitely for ongoing support and somatic maintenance.
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No. I am not a licensed psychotherapist, nor a trained medical professional. I am trained as a Yoga Therapist, and in Somatic Experiencing (tm). Psychotherapists treat mental health conditions and make diagnoses, I do not. Instead, I utilize naturalistic, body-based protocols to explore and unravel where in your body you may be blocked or stuck, and nurture the places of creativity, peace, and inner-strength. Many people find this work to be transformative, as it provides experiential practices, rather than simply telling your story over and over again. That being said, this work is NOT a replacement for medical care or psychotherapy. If you are working with a psychotherapist or medical-care provider, we can discuss collaboration to assure congruence of care.
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When a session is booked, that is your exclusive time, and no one else can book that slot. I therefore have a 48-hour cancellation policy, without exception. If we are able to reschedule your session within the same week, you will not be charged. If we are not able to find a time that works, you will be responsible for the full rate. If I need to cancel or reschedule a session, I will extend to you the same courtesy.
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This work is for anyone who feels like cognitively, they have done all they can to understand WHY they do what they do -- perhaps through talk-therapy, counseling, Step-Work, etc. -- but who cannot seem to truly change behaviorally. They feel overwhelmed by or shut down to their own emotional and physiological responses, and want access to more agency and freedom in their lives. This work supports caretakers, healers, and other sensitive souls who are ready step into a gentler, more compassionate relationship with their past and live more empowered, creative lives in the present.
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"Somatic Experiencing (SE™) aims to resolve symptoms of stress, shock, and trauma that accumulate in our bodies and nervous systems. Trauma, from an SE lens, is focused on how it shows up in the nervous system and how that dysregulation impacts life. When we are stuck in patterns of fight, flight, or freeze, SE helps us release, recover, and become more resilient. It is a body-oriented therapeutic model...based on a multidisciplinary intersection of physiology, psychology, ethology, biology, neuroscience, indigenous healing practices, and medical biophysics and has been clinically applied for more than four decades. It is the life’s work of Dr. Peter A. Levine." (from Somatic Experiencing International; read more at www.traumahealing.org/se-101)
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"Yoga therapy is a holistic healing art. Rather than prescribe treatments, it invites presence and awareness. Using age-old yogic approaches to deeper presence and awareness, we are able to know ourselves more fully. Out of that knowing, we are more easily moved to embrace the opportunity for change, growth, and enhanced well-being in body, feelings, thought, and spirit." (excerpt from Georg Feuerstein, Ph.D. Read more at the International Association of Yoga Therapists website)
4 Warning Signs your body may be holding onto unresolved trauma*
Hyperarousal: Racing, repetitive thoughts, constant worry or anxiety, sleep problems, trouble concentrating, angry outbursts, or feeling on edge, like you can't relax.
Constriction: Tension or pain in the body, digestive troubles, high blood pressure, rapid, shallow breath, narrow-minded (“all or nothing”) thinking.
Dissociation or Denial: Feeling numb or disconnected, "out of body" experiences, or feeling not like yourself. Brain fog or lack of clarity, procrastination, not wanting to talk about feelings, or saying, "I'm OK" when you're not.
Feeling helpless, frozen, or stuck: The very real feeling that change is impossible -- as if you and your world are collapsed. The sense that you are beyond help.
* Adapted from Peter Levine’s Healing Trauma
If you are experiencing one or more of the above symptoms, somatic therapeutics may be right for you.
Traumatic & Chronic Stress and the Nervous System
Somatic Therapeutics helps you to understand how past trauma and chronic stress have caused your nervous system (and physiology) to become dysregulated. A dysregulated nervous system means you may struggle to know which situations, people, places, or things are safe, and which are a threat — even if “intellectually,” you know better. You may find that you often feel like you’re in survival mode (fight, flight or freeze, or fawn) for no reason, making intimacy, pleasure, play, and connection with yourself and others very difficult. Somatic or body-based work can help you understand how your nervous system states are driving your behavior, as well as how to settle unresolved traumatic or chronic stress so you can feel more resilient and empowered.