Somatic & mindfulness based therapy approaches
My approach weaves counseling with a decade of trauma informed yoga and mindfulness teaching. Here is what that actually means for you.
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How does somatic therapy work?
Somatic therapy works from the bottom up: instead of only analyzing your story, we work with how it lives in your body now, so your nervous system can learn through experience that the danger has passed.
When something overwhelms us, the nervous system does what it must to get us through: fight, flee, freeze, or fawn. That response is intelligent. The trouble is that long after the threat has passed, the body can keep responding as if it is still happening. This is why you can understand your past completely and still feel hijacked by it.
We listen to how the story lives in you now: the held breath, the braced shoulders, the urge to disappear in conflict. As your body learns, through experience, that it is safe to soften, the old patterns loosen. Not because you argued yourself out of them, but because your nervous system finally got the update.
The therapy modalities I draw from
Somatic and body based therapy
The heart of my work. We track sensations, impulses, and emotions as they arise in the body, building your capacity to stay present with what once felt unbearable. Over time this rewires your baseline from surviving to living.
Mindfulness based trauma therapy
Mindfulness is the skill of noticing without drowning. I teach it gently and practically, so you can meet anxiety, grief, and old memories without feeling overwhelmed.
Trauma informed yoga and breathwork
As a 500 hour trauma informed yoga educator, I sometimes bring simple breath and movement practices into sessions, always invitational, never required. No flexibility or experience needed.
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)
ACT helps you stop wrestling with thoughts and feelings and start moving toward what you value. It pairs beautifully with somatic work: the body settles, and then we ask, what do you want your life to be about?
Emotionally focused and person centered therapy
Underneath every technique, you can expect warmth, collaboration, and deep respect for your pace. You are the expert on you. I bring the map. You choose the road.
What happens in a somatic therapy session?
A session starts wherever you are, blends conversation with moments of body awareness, and ends with something small enough to actually practice during your week.
We start wherever you are. Maybe it is the week's overwhelm, maybe an old memory that surfaced, maybe a numbness you cannot explain. As we talk, I might invite you to pause and notice what is happening in your body. A tightness. A heat. An urge to look away.
We stay with it, gently and briefly, with tools to keep you grounded. Often something shifts: tears that finally come, a breath that drops deeper, a knowing that surfaces. Then we make sense of it together and connect it to your life outside our sessions.
That is the rhythm. Nothing dramatic, nothing forced. Micro movements, repeated, until one day you notice you feel different in your own skin.
Safety before depth. Slower is faster. Your body sets the pace, always.
The rule I never break
Is somatic therapy safe for trauma survivors?
Yes, when it is paced with care. We will never push into material your system is not ready for, and you never have to share details before you want to.
Trauma healing has a rule I never break: safety before depth. Your body will tell us when it is ready, and we will listen.
Curious whether this approach fits you?
The best way to know is to feel it. Book a free 15 minute consultation and bring every question you have.
See what we can work on together: my services