Somatic Experiencing
A body-oriented approach to working with trauma and stress by feeling into and noticing the sensations of the body.
Navigating the Webs
By expanding on interoception, proprioception, and body movement we can unlock the activation patterns and rewire the nervous system to be more aligned with your present day
In all its wisdom, sometimes the body can get stuck in survival responses and it becomes easier to feel bad than to access joy. Long-term stress patterns can show up as pain, sensitivity, chronic illness, and emotional destabilization. With this kind of signaling in the body it is necessary to treat the root cause rather than the symptoms. It becomes natural for the relationship to the body to become ruptured as the sensations signal a constant threat.
The mind can be an overachiever trying to figure out what is wrong. It desperately wants to figure everything out on its own but without the body being involved in the conversation the mind can get stuck on an endless loop of negative thought cycles.
Somatic Therapy can help bring the attention and awareness back into the body giving the mind a back seat and much needed break. If we can grow our capacity to tap into what we are feeling and noticing in our body sensations we can grow a relationship with our activation to one of trust in knowing that it can change we can titrate the sensations to slowly grow our capacity to integrate our experiences.
This is different from traditional talk therapy in that we are not telling the story of the trauma for the sake of being cured or fixed, but we can use the stories to get closer to how we feel and find inherent wisdom in noticing the sensations and titrating the responses of the system to become in more alignment with the present rather than the past. It is an approach that facilitates integration and sees you as already whole rather than broken.
This is a bottom up model that works with body sensation rather than processing your experiences mentally. To engage your somatic senses we might explore experential somatic practices. Modalities utilized and inspiration include Somatic Experiencing, Internal Family Systems, Jungian Somatics, Politicized Somatics, Somatic Abolitionism, Relational-based Therapy, & A Radical Political Framework. Biodynamic CranioSacral can be integrated into any in-person session to deepen into the work. Somatic Therapy sessions can be In-Person in Asheville, NC or Virtually Worldwide.
You get to choose your level of engagement
How to work with me
Some folks find this work because they are looking for a regular somatic therapy practice to go deep on their personal experience. Other folks are curious about what Somatics is and just want to explore in an experiential way. It’s not necessary to go into details of the past in order to work somatically. But if you do want to be guided in unwinding the depths of your psyche it’s important to create a different container for that work to unfold. These are the two models for showing up to this practice.
Somatic Therapy
Somatic Therapy is for folks who are on a healing path and want to create a container to unwind trauma experiences and gain a new relationship to the felt sense which is how we experience our sensations and sense the world.
These sessions hold a tighter container that will allow you to go deeper with your personal work. In these sessions we might explore personal content and we might explore our relationship to sensation. By titrating the sensations and rebuilding an accurate reflection to the parts we can nourish and reset the nervous system. This work can help integrate and repattern trauma.
To experience the full benefit, weekly sessions are preferred. Switching to biweekly frequency after a few months might be an option. A long-term commmitment of 4-6 months is advised to allowtime for the work to unfold.
Somatic Coaching
Somatic Coaching is for folks who are interested in somatic practice and want to learn skills and have an experiential practice space.
We can process personal experiences and content somatically, but this is more of a learning space rather than therapy. You are invited to bring one curiosity or issue to explore somatically, and will leave with guidance on a way to practice at home. This is the entryway into feeling supported in engaging with somatic practice as it evolves for you.
Monthly or As-needed frequency. Schedule a series of sessions to go deeper on one subject, or less frequent consistency for maintenance. With each session you will leave with somatic practice and mind/body to explore.