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?
Reconnect to your body. Reclaim your resilience.
If you've ever felt stuck in patterns of anxiety, shutdown, people-pleasing, or emotional overwhelm—you're not alone. These aren't personal failings; they’re signs your nervous system may be operating in survival mode.
Somatic therapy offers a way to gently shift out of these patterns by working with the body, not against it. While traditional talk therapy can help us understand our experience — understanding alone doesn't always reach the place where the body is still braced, still waiting for the danger to pass.
In our sessions together, I’ll draw from my years of training in Somatic Experiencing®, Yoga Therapy, and embodied recovery to help you unwind these patterns. Sessions are unhurried and often surprisingly subtle — yet the shifts can be profound. Over time, clients report feeling more present, more grounded, and more at home in themselves than they have in years.
Beyond Healing: Coming Alive
There is a version of you that is creative, easeful, and fully alive in your body. Somatic Experiencing (SE) is the path back. By working directly with the nervous system -- through gentle awareness of sensation, breath, and impulse -- SE softens the grip of chronic stress and trauma, opening the door to more than healing. To pleasure, flow, and a felt sense of being truly at home in yourself.
In our sessions, we’ll be using just enough talking to track your physiology for the places where old survival patterns, limiting beliefs, and unresolved stress may blocking your fullest expression. Equally, I’ll be listening for the moments when you're in genuine balance and flow so we can strengthen the conditions where you feel most like your authentic self.
This work is not about pushing or fixing—it’s about creating the conditions for your system to soften, unwind, and come into alignment with its natural intelligence.
GET STARTED
Have some questions before jumping in? Schedule a free Discovery Chat to ensure this is a good fit! We'll talk about the challenges you're facing, your goals and how we can help you move forward.
Ready to begin? If you feel clear and ready to break free from chronic and traumatic stress and start living with more ease and agency in your body, you can skip the Discovery Chat and book an appointment below.
Individual sessions offered online, as well as in-person in the San Francisco Bay Area. If you're ready to begin — or even just curious what beginning might feel like — I'd be honored to be in that conversation with you.
OUR BODIES ARE NOT A PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED, BUT AN EXPERIENCE TO BE ACCOMPANIED.
A Somatic practice begins when we start examining the current state of our relationship to our bodies….
Do we feel frightened by the feelings in our body? Or out of sync with our natural rhythms and needs? Do we hurt or shame our body to cope (or allow others to do so)? Do we abandon it? Ignore It? Force it into Submission? 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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Beginning in March 2026, each virtual session is $150. 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. In-person sessions are $200.
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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 a Somatic Experiencing ™ Practitioner (SEP), and a Certified Yoga Therapist. 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, freeze, [or appease], 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)
5 Warning Signs your body may be holding onto unresolved trauma*
Hyperarousal: Racing, repetitive thoughts, constant worry or anxiety, panic, sleep problems, trouble concentrating, angry outbursts or feeling on edge — like you can't relax. Over-functioning and over-doing is the flavor.
Constriction: Tension or pain in the body (that seems to return no matter what), digestive troubles, high blood pressure, migraines, menstrual pain, 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. Shame.
Boundary Issues: Inability to say "no," taking on too much to avoid disappointing others. People pleasing. Conflict avoidance (“go along to get along”). Self-abandonment. Over-apologizing. Feeling responsible for other people’s emotions. Ignoring personal limits. Changing yourself to fit in or be accepted.
* Adapted from Peter Levine’s Healing Trauma