Somatic Therapy is a holistic approach to healing that honors the deep connection between your mind, body, and spirit. Rooted in the understanding that our bodies hold wisdom, Somatic Therapy invites you to slow down, feel, and listen to the sensations within.

Often, past traumas, stress, and emotional pain live in our bodies, creating patterns of tension, discomfort, or disconnection. When you learn to listen to the language of your nervous system, and pay attention to the changes that happen within your body, you're able to recognize when you're in your patterning and conditioning around surviving, or when you're showing up in alignment with your truth.

With this awareness you'll discover space around all the fascinating ways you navigate life. Your trauma, and the burdens you carry, can be addressed with more ease. You'll awaken to having choice. And you'll find yourself more present and in flow!

At its core, Somatic Therapy is about cultivating an embodied presence—a way of being in your body that feels safe, grounded, curious, and connected. By bringing compassionate awareness to your patterned experience, we can begin to uncover the stories your body holds and invite a sense of ease, release, and deep healing.

From this place of intimacy and holding, you’ll naturally find yourself living your life with more trust and grace. Your relationship to yourself, others and to the planet will deepen and become more intimate. Your impulses, instinct, intuition, and deep knowing will become clearer and will become what guides you through life. The more you explore, the more you’ll find yourself standing in your power and knowing what’s true for YOU. 

Hakomi is a unique form of psychotherapy that combines mindfulness, somatic awareness, and compassionate exploration resulting in profound healing and self-discovery. Hakomi offers a safe nurturing space to explore your inner world, tune into the wisdom of your body, and embrace transformative self-awareness. 

What is Somatic Experiencing?

Somatic Experiencing (SE™) is a body-based approach to healing trauma, stress, and shock stored in the nervous system. Trauma isn't just about the event, but how it affects the body, often keeping us stuck in fight, flight, or freeze responses. SE helps release these stuck patterns, allowing the body to recover and build resilience.

Developed by Dr. Peter A. Levine, SE has been used for over 40 years to support healing from trauma and stress disorders. It’s applied in a range of fields including therapy, coaching, and healthcare, and works by gently guiding the body to release trapped survival energy, bringing the nervous system back into balance.

By addressing the root cause of trauma symptoms, SE helps people find greater ease, resilience, and well-being in their daily lives.

What is Polyvagal Theory?

Polyvagal Theory, developed by Dr. Stephen Porges, helps us understand how our nervous system responds to safety and threat. It explains that our body has three main states:

1. Safe and Social (Ventral Vagal): When we feel safe, connected, and calm, our body enters this state. We can relax, connect with others, and feel a sense of well-being.

2. Fight or Flight (Sympathetic): When we sense danger, our body activates this system to help us either defend ourselves or escape the threat. It can feel like anxiety, fear, or anger.

3. Shutdown or Collapse (Dorsal Vagal): If the danger feels too overwhelming, our body might go into shutdown or collapse. We feel numb, disconnected, or immobilized.

Polyvagal Theory shows us that these responses are natural and automatic. They aren't something we choose, but our body’s way of trying to protect us. Understanding this can bring compassion to our experience and help us recognize that our nervous system is always working to keep us safe.

In my work, I use Polyvagal Theory to help clients understand their nervous system responses, and together, we work on ways to gently bring the body back into a state of safety and connection. This approach helps restore balance, calm, and resilience.

What is the Safe and Sound Protocol (SSP)?

The Safe and Sound Protocol (SSP) is a gentle, listening-based therapy designed to help calm the nervous system and improve feelings of safety and connection. Developed by Dr. Stephen Porges, SSP is based on Polyvagal Theory and helps reset the nervous system to better respond to stress and trauma.

The protocol involves listening to specially filtered music that directly influences the part of the nervous system responsible for feeling safe. By calming this system, SSP helps reduce anxiety, improve emotional regulation, and enhance social engagement. It’s especially helpful for those who have experienced trauma, stress, or struggle with feeling safe and connected in their daily lives.

SSP can support healing in both children and adults, and it is often used alongside other therapies to strengthen the mind-body connection and promote deeper, lasting healing.

Your body knows how to heal. It’s always speaking to you—through tightness in your chest, that knot in your stomach, or the urge to cry when you don’t know why. Somatic Therapy gives you the tools and the compassionate space to listen to those signals, understand what they’re telling you, and support your body in returning to a state of regulation.

When we listen to the body, we open a path to healing that doesn’t just involve thinking or analyzing, but feeling and experiencing. In this space, you can learn to trust your body again, feel more alive, and experience greater ease, clarity, and connection with yourself and the world around you.

My approach to Somatic Therapy is trauma-informed and grounded in compassion. I believe that healing happens when we feel seen, safe, and supported, which is why every session is tailored to meet you exactly where you are. Together, we will create a space that honors your pace, your boundaries, and your unique needs, so you can gently explore your inner landscape without pressure or expectation.

You don’t need to do this alone. Whether you are struggling with anxiety, burnout, trauma, or simply feeling disconnected from yourself, Somatic Therapy can offer you a pathway to come back home to your body—whole, grounded, and truly alive.

Trauma and stress are not just mental or emotional—they are physiological. Our bodies are designed to protect us by activating survival responses, such as fight, flight, or freeze, in moments of overwhelm. But when these responses are left unresolved, our nervous system can stay stuck in defense mode, leading to anxiety, burnout, chronic tension, or feeling disconnected from ourselves.

Somatic Therapy works with these deeply ingrained patterns in the nervous system, offering a safe space for the body to process and release what it’s holding onto. Through gentle, attuned guidance, we explore what’s happening in your body and help you reconnect with your natural rhythms of calm and safety. This approach moves beyond talk therapy, offering an experiential process that leads to profound shifts and lasting healing.

A typical somatic therapy session with me is designed to create a holding environment of compassion, co-regulation, curiosity and mindfulness where you can connect to the depths of your human experience and gently explore the unconscious patterns held in your body, emotions and beliefs.

We’ll often start each session by discussing your current goals and challenges. We will then go into a state of mindfulness and somatic self inquiry. I will be coaching you on how to do this :)

Overall I will be using a mix of approaches such as Somatic Experiencing, Hakomi, and Mindfulness. Our sessions will often involve both verbal dialogue and body-focused inquiry and practices. I might guide you through mindfulness exercises to help you tune into your bodily sensations and emotions, enabling you to become more aware of your internal landscape.

We may also explore your experiences through the lens of Polyvagal Theory, assisting you in understanding how your nervous system responds to different stimuli and how this impacts your emotional regulation and relationships.

Incorporating elements of Somatic Attachment Theory and Somatic Parts Work, we can address any fragmented parts of your experience while fostering a deeper connection to yourself. The Safe and Sound Protocol may be utilized to enhance feelings of safety and support.

Throughout the session, my focus will be on your comfort and readiness, adjusting our approach based on your responses and feedback to ensure it resonates with you. The ultimate goal is to empower you in your healing journey by cultivating greater awareness, safety, and integration within yourself.