Somatic Therapy

When your body knows something your mind cannot explain.

You may understand the pattern. You may know where it comes from. And still, in certain moments, your body reacts before your insight can catch up.

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mall pond in Fez, Morocco, reflecting historic buildings and palm trees under a clear blue sky.
What This Work Is

The work beneath the reaction.

Somatic therapy is a body-centered approach to healing that recognizes our experiences are carried not only in thoughts and memories, but also in the nervous system. Many of the patterns people struggle with are not simply habits or ways of thinking. They are responses that developed over time and often operate outside conscious awareness.

Rather than focusing only on what happened, somatic therapy pays attention to what happens as an experience unfolds. The tightening in the chest. The urge to withdraw. The moment anxiety arrives. The moment a familiar reaction appears before conscious thought can catch up.

By bringing awareness to these patterns as they emerge, new experiences become possible. The goal is not to eliminate emotions or control the body. The goal is to build a different relationship with your internal experience.

Who This Is For

Somatic therapy is often helpful when insight alone has not been enough.

When you understand the pattern, yet something still happens in the moment. When anxiety seems to live more in your body than in your thoughts. When relationships feel exhausting in ways that are difficult to explain. When part of you knows you are safe, yet another part continues to respond as though danger is still present.

People feeling stuck after therapy

You have done the work. You have insight. Yet the same patterns continue to appear under stress or in relationships.

Those carrying anxiety in the body

Chronic tension, overwhelm, or physical symptoms that don't have a clear medical explanation.

People navigating relational wounds

Patterns in closeness, trust, or connection that feel automatic and difficult to shift through awareness alone.

Those healing from trauma

Experiences that continue to shape how the body responds, even when the mind understands what happened.

Atlantic waves breaking against a rocky shoreline in Essaouira, Morocco
A Clarification

What somatic therapy is not

Many people come to somatic therapy expecting bodywork, massage, breathing exercises, or yoga. Those are valuable practices. But somatic therapy is something different.

Somatic therapy is still therapy. Sometimes those shifts happen through present-moment awareness. Sometimes they happen through processing experiences that remain unresolved. (Learn more about Attachment Therapy.

It is not about forcing relaxation or eliminating difficult emotions. It is about learning to notice and work with what is already happening. Sometimes that looks like tracking sensation. Sometimes it looks like slowing down. Often it means discovering more choice in moments that once felt automatic.

Clarity

Somatic therapy and Talk therapy.

Somatic therapy may be a fit when
  • Insight alone has not created lasting change
  • Stress or trauma lives primarily in the body
  • You feel disconnected from your emotions
  • Patterns feel automatic rather than chosen
  • You want to work with mind, body, and story together
Talk therapy may be more appropriate when
  • The focus is primarily on thoughts and beliefs
  • You are seeking structured skills-based support
  • A specific diagnosis requires a clinical protocol
  • Body-based work does not feel right at this time

Sometimes there is overlap. We can explore together what approach makes the most sense for you.

My Approach

Mind. Body. Story.

I integrate somatic therapy with EMDR, nervous system regulation, narrative exploration, and relational work through the Maduro Method.

The work is not about forcing change or fixing symptoms. It is about slowing down enough to notice what is happening beneath the surface and creating conditions where something new can emerge.

Together, we attend to mind, body, and story. We explore not only what happened, but how those experiences continue to shape your relationships, identity, and sense of self today.

Lone tree standing in a mountain landscape in California's Eastern Sierra
What Changes

What healing can look like.

Healing often begins with small shifts. You notice tension before it becomes overwhelm. You find more choice in situations that once felt automatic.

Relationships feel less exhausting. The body spends less time preparing for danger that is no longer present.

Over time, what once felt rigid can begin to feel flexible. What once felt overwhelming can begin to feel manageable. What once felt defining can begin to feel like simply part of the story.

For some, those shifts come through present-moment awareness. For others, healing means processing experiences that remain unresolved. (Learn more about EMDR Therapy.)

Your body doesn't have to carry it alone.

You do not need to know exactly where to begin.

If you are curious whether somatic therapy may be helpful for you, I offer a free 15-minute consultation where we can discuss your goals and explore whether working together feels like a good fit.

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Free 15-minute consultation · California & Utah · Virtual & in-person