About Somatic Therapy:

The process of Somatic therapy involves untangling of your current physiology and past events and experiences.  The past and present are connected, and the body has a somatic record of all that has happened to it.  What is buried, unseen, or unspoken can emerge with support. In my role as a counsellor and somatic therapist, I gently help you unravel those threads that may be holding you back.

You may be able to point to a specific event, or you may have diffuse anxiety that has been with you for many years.   In our sessions together, we explore how the body responds to real-time events, memories, themes, or even a particular event. Together we create new possibilities for healing, wholeness, and resilience.  Knowing your body has answers and with support, it will move organically towards healing and greater resilience.

Somatic Relational Therapy is a collaborative process with a premise of relational repair. In this collaboration, we hold the knowledge that the nervous system has capacity to heal and create new neural pathways. Somatic Experiencing and Somatic Practice therapies have at their core a lens of our nervous system state in the present time.   How our system “responds” or reacts to given events may get hardwired in a way that does not serve us best.   Through corrective experiences, relationship, and touch modalities, new options are available for healing, renewal, and recovery.

What does a typical session look like?  

Your current situation is the starting place for the journey.  Often we begin with an exploration of what is working and not working in your day to day life and what you are noticing in your body, thoughts, and feelings.

The events in the past may have a bearing on your current expression of who you are.  Your life history and attachment patterns are relevant.  Even if those historical patterns have been there for years or decades they can be unraveled.  The good news is that our brains can shift from those old patterns to greater ease, flexibility, and connection.

You may have come to experience your body as something “not to be trusted”  or even ignored.  As your body has deep wisdom, it can be strange and unfamiliar to begin the process of noticing and listening to it in a new way.  As a Somatic Relational Counsellor, I will guide you on the path and invite you to notice patterns in your words, actions, and thoughts with curiosity.

Pain or Chronic Illness:  If there is constriction or pain in your body, we will begin the process of finding a way to help that flow and unwind.  With support, you will learn about these unconscious holding patterns and ways to explore them.  Through the lens of attachment theory, the nervous system, and your history we bring awareness and attention to what your body moves toward and away from.  As you move through the process your capacity grows and we can begin the process of creating a more sustainable way of being in the world.

Somatic Counseling & Therapy

In each session, we explore ways that you can best support yourself between sessions.  You learn ways to become your own medicine as we embark on the Somatic Therapy journey.

  • Somatic Experiencing – (Somatic Experiencing Practitioner) – Peter Levine
  • Somatic Practice or Table work   – Kathy Kain and Steve Terrell
  • Somatic Relational Therapy – Mariah Moser
  • The Safe and Sound Protocol – Integrated Listening Systems
  • The Resilience Toolkit
  • Tension Release Exercises ( TRE)

If you would like to learn more about the specific therapy approaches that I utilize, please contact me to set up a consult to see if we might be a good fit on the journey toward healing.

Somatic Experiencing (SE):

The Somatic Experiencing® method is a body-oriented approach to the healing of trauma and other stress disorders. It is the life’s work of Dr. Peter A. Levine, resulting from his multidisciplinary study of stress physiology, psychology, ethology, biology, neuroscience, indigenous healing practices, and medical biophysics, together with over 45 years of successful clinical application. The SE approach is a gentle and supportive method that supports the trauma resolution and the wounds of emotional and early developmental attachment trauma.

Safe and Sound Protocol (SSP):

I am certified to support you with the The Safe and Sound Protocol.

The Safe and Sound Protocol (SSP) is an evidence-based listening therapy designed to reduce sound sensitivities and improve auditory processing, behavioral state regulation, and social engagement behaviors through filtered music.  As a practical application of Polyvagal Theory, the SSP acts as a non-invasive, acoustic vagal nerve stimulator, helping to retune the nervous system to better support connection, collaboration and resilience.

Session with the SSP involves listening to specially filtered music through headphones alongside a provider in person or remotely. Suitable for children and adults, the SSP has demonstrated benefits for individuals with trauma, anxiety, sensory processing differences and more.

The Resilience Toolkit:

The Resilience Toolkit – consists of a suite of movement and mindfulness tools that help you develop an embodied understanding of your stress and relaxation cycle. With this knowledge, you can effectively choose selected practices that support settling of the nervous system. These simple and quick practices build internal awareness and capacity.

The Resilience Toolkit supports your new knowledge and skills by applying scientifically supported methods to help you develop a robust and sustainable practice to effect real positive change over time.