This body-oriented approach to healing trauma is based on the work of Alaine Duncan, LAc, SEP, and Peter Levine, PhD, by using gentle touch work.

I was taught a traumatic experience is anything that is too much, too fast, or too soon without adequate support. This can be in the form of a traumatic accident, relational experiences of abuse and neglect, and more sutble forms such as micro-aggressions and harm caused by systemic racism, white supremacy, and other systemic forms of oppression.

If a traumatic experience does not receive adequate support then our innate self-protective mechanism becomes thwarted thereby creating signs and symptoms such as: anxiety, depression, PTSD/CPTSD, disassociation, despair, digestive irregularities, chronic pain, sleep disturbances, headaches, menstrual irregularities and pain, etc.

The goal in my somatic treatments is to support the nervous system to complete the self-protective response, restore regulation, and regain coherence within the body.

What to expect in a somatics session:

Each session is catered to you and meets you where you are.

We’ll start with an intake so I can better assess where your nervous system is at and how that is manifesting for you. From there, we’ll use light touch along specific parts of the body (like the lower back, arm, or ankles) and guide you through different internal sensations— like warmth or cold, contraction or expansion, etc.

The intention is to allow the body to source a felt sense of regulation (settlement, ease, comfort, etc.) and provide an opportunity for held, stuck, or thwarted dysregulatd energy to move through the tissues. The pace of a session is intended to be slow and led by your body.

This guided experience helps you to create a greater capacity to handle stress and to stay within what is called the “window of tolerance,” which is the zone that lies between the fight, flight, fawn, and freeze responses.