Somatic Therapy
Feeling safe in your body
You feel disconnected from yourself and others. You find yourself walking on eggshells, anticipating rejection. Connection feels dangerous, but you long to be in a healthy relationship. You want to feel at home in your friendships. You feel alone in the world.
There is nothing wrong with you. Your body learned to protect you after the first, second, third time you learned that relationships aren’t safe. Your experiences and beliefs shape your nervous system and it is natural to feel social anxiety after being hurt this way.
Through nervous system regulation tools, we can help you move out of isolation into co-regulation, from fear into trust. We take it slow and listen. You can learn to feel safe again.
Somatic therapy helps you find calm where you only knew fear.
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Polyvagal Theory
Talk therapy isn’t enough when you have trauma stored in your body. We invite in somatic awareness through mindfulness. We track your nervous system states to help you learn your patterns of fight, flight, freeze and fawn. Trauma will keep you cycling between states of hypervigilance and exhaustion. We help your body come back into balance: riding the waves of emotion, releasing trauma that has you feeling on guard, so that you become more flexible and resilient in response to stress.
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Somatic IFS
I integrate somatic awareness with IFS parts work. We connect to your inner teenage and child parts that contain memories that prevent you from feeling grounded in the present. Through locating the sensations and emotions associated with traumatic events, and reprocessing these memories, you can shift stuck patterns of relating and feeling. This allows for the expansion of Self energy in IFS - known as the 8 C’s: Confidence, Courage, Calm, Compassion, Connection, Curiosity, Creativity, Clarity.
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Brainspotting
Brainspotting is a cutting edge trauma therapy that evolved from EMDR. Through accessing the subcortical brain, you can reach where trauma lives in your body. We locate spots in your vision that correspond with states of nervous system activation. In a process called focused mindfulness, you will select a certain eye position that connects to your body and emotions, and gaze for several minutes. As your feelings move and resolve, you will access calm, deeper insights and new perspectives.