About Somatic Experiencing 

Trauma isn't just in your mind. It lives in your body via the nervous system, often beneath your conscious awareness and cognitive control, and it affects everything from how you think-- to your emotions-- to your behaviors-- to an overall sense of health and well-being. Just as the body stores trauma, it also holds the innate capacity to heal—restoring balance, resilience, and a sense of aliveness.

Somatic Experiencing® (SE), developed by Dr. Peter Levine, works with trauma and chronic stress on this foundational nervous system level. This gentle, body-centered therapeutic approach works by supporting the nervous system to complete thwarted survival responses, release physiological activation stored in the body, and build capacity. Rather than processing through difficult stories, SE helps you tune into the felt sense—the body’s present-moment experience—to safely renegotiate the effects of trauma. 

This process works gradually and respectfully, helping unwind patterns such as hypervigilance, anxiety, depression, emotional overwhelm, disconnection, immune dysregulation, or a general sense of being “stuck”. As the nervous system moves toward regulation, qualities like self-trust, vitality, congruence, creativity, and ease often re-emerge.

In addition, SE helps you learn to live from the inside out—guided not by “shoulds”, external expectations or ideas, but by a felt sense of what’s true for you. As you reconnect with your body’s signals, you begin to clearly sense your authentic yes and no, restore healthy boundaries, and rediscover your preferences, desires, and needs. For those who have learned to prioritize others, override their instincts, or stay in their heads to feel safe, this can be life-changing. What once felt flat or disconnected can begin to feel vibrant and meaningful.

What Happens in a Session

In a Somatic Experiencing® session, we slow things down and gently tune into the body’s “felt sense” — the present-moment sensations that offer valuable information about your experience. Rather than diving into the mental story of what happened, we listen to how your body remembers the experience. Together, we follow small shifts in sensation, emotion, and impulse, always working at the pace that feels safe and manageable for your nervous system. You might be invited to notice physical sensations like warmth, tension, tingling, or movement. By staying connected to these sensations in a supportive way, you can begin to release the stuck survival energy that may be showing up as stress, anxiety, shutdown, unexplained medical symptoms or overwhelm. Over time, sessions help you complete unfinished responses, restore regulation in your nervous system, and experience a deeper sense of ease, resilience, and presence. 

Read more about the Somatic Experiencing® approach here.

About Somatic Inner Relationship Focusing

Somatic Inner Relationship Focusing (S/IRF) is a body-centered parts work process that supports you in connecting with the different aspects of yourself—including those that feel stuck, conflicted, or in pain. Instead of analyzing or fixing, we listen inwardly with curiosity and care, making space for each part to be heard in its own time. Many of these inner parts carry stories, emotions, or survival strategies shaped by past experiences. With somatic presence and compassionate attention, we begin to relate to them rather than from them. This shift often brings surprising clarity, relief, capacity and a sense of inner coherence.

Through learning to listen to and be with your inner experiences with compassion and curiosity, S/IRF supports healing attachment and relationship patterns by helping you develop a healthier, more supportive relationship with yourself-- creating the foundation for deeper connection with others. Over time, it can help you move out of self-criticism and inner conflict, and into a deeper relationship with yourself—one that feels connected, grounded, and whole.

What Happens in a Session

In a Somatic Inner Relationship Focusing (S/IRF) session, we begin by tuning into the body's present-moment experience with warmth, curiosity, and compassion. Together, we create a safe space to sense and gently connect with the different parts of you that arise to be tended to. Instead of pushing for change, we listen carefully to what each part needs, allowing healing to unfold naturally. Sessions are client-led, body-centered, and paced by your own nervous system’s readiness for transformation.

I work with clients using one or both of these modalities as desired or needed. In addition to Somatic Experiencing and S/IRF I am a NARM-informed practitioner with a background in David Bedrick’s Unshaming Process-Oriented approach. 

Who can Benefit from Somatic Work:

• If you identify with having PTSD, C-PTSD or chronic stress

• If you’ve been through years of traditional talk therapy or spiritual seeking

• If you can explain everything about why you act or feel certain ways, but that doesn’t change your reality

• If you find yourself repeating patterns even when you “know better”

• If you struggle with any of the following symptoms:

  • Anxiety, chronic stress or overwhelm

  • Depression and low energy

  • Feeling disconnected or numb

  • Sleep issues

  • Chronic pain and health concerns

  • Perfectionism or workaholic tendencies

  • Relationship struggles

  • Addictive patterns

  • Shame and low self-esteem or self-trust