Somatic Therapy
Supporting you on your path to vibrant wellbeing
Life is so beautiful when you're connected to a sense of self, purpose, and meaning.
​
But sometimes it can feel like the joyful and intentional life you want to live is buried beneath layers of busyness, routines, exhaustion, and irritation.
​
Do you ever have a gut feeling that things just seem a little off?​
​
Maybe you don't quite feel like yourself lately and you long to be at home in your own body.
If you're anxious and overwhelmed trying to juggle everything, or exhausted from caring for others, it can seem like there's no time left to take care of yourself.
Your sleep and self-care routines suffer, which just makes everything worse.
​
​​You'd like to be less reactive in your relationships with friends, co-workers, your partner, and/or kids so you don't lose your temper and regret your words or actions after the fact.
​​
The change you're seeking is possible!​​
​​
Somatic therapy offers you a refuge from the busyness, a space in which life's demands take a back seat for a little while. In that supportive space you can take steps towards creating the life you want to live.
​
​I specialize in supporting clients who are facing:
​
-
anxiety, stress, and depression
-
relationship challenges
-
lingering issues related to difficult family of origin dynamics
-
career changes or dissatisfaction
-
the pain of grief and finality of loss
-
self-confidence issues that are getting in your way
-
stress from sandwich generation responsibilities
-
the complex emotions of the emptying nest transition
​​
I can help you reclaim joy and a sense of vibrance.
​
While challenges and transitions are an expected part of life, the experience of managing them on top of everything else you're juggling often triggers stress, anxiety, depression, and/or grief.
​
When you find yourself venting to everyone - friends, your partner, work colleagues, the grocery check-out clerk - you might have discovered talking only takes you so far.
Somatic therapy blends traditional talk therapy with simple embodiment techniques like breath, mindfulness, and movement.
When you combine talking with body-based techniques, you'll discover powerful tools for transformation that you can bring into your real life right away. Thinking and talking alone can't do that.​​​​​
​
Whether you're new to therapy or haven't found the right fit yet, now is a great time to start.
​​​
I offer a complimentary 20-minute consultation so you can learn more and see if it's a fit.
Call me at (720) 251-2887 or click the button below.
​
​​​
​
Thinking and talking aren't enough on their own​
Your body is designed to react more quickly than your mind.
This is essential to your safety and survival, but it means your nervous system (responsible for the body's fight, flight, freeze, or fawn response as well as the rest and digest response) can easily be hijacked.
Imagine: if you were to begin crossing the street only to discover a car coming at you, your body would take over and react quickly enough to keep you safe. You would not have to consciously decide to move, but before you know it your body would mobilize to get out of harm's way.
If instead you had to consciously decide to increase your heart rate, tune out other stimuli, shut down nonessential body processes like digestion, and shunt blood to your arms and legs so you could sprint fast enough to get out of the way, you'd never have enough time.
​
Your body works the same way in that scenario as it does in other less-threatening situations.
​
So, before you consciously recognize how you feel in times of threat, danger, or even everyday stress, your body and nervous system may already have begun to shift into what's called sympathetic nervous system activation (the fight, flight, freeze, or fawn responses).
​
Your body doesn't differentiate between stress and danger
​
Everyday stresses can trigger the same reactions in your body as life-threatening dangers like the car scenario.
​
Imagine a time when you've recently felt upset, angry, nervous, or anxious.
Were there telltale signs of the emotion you experienced on a bodily level?
You may have felt your temperature rising, observed tension in your jaw or neck, started sweating, or noticed your pounding heatbeat.
These somatic reactions are a lot different from how your body reacts when you are feeling a sense of joy, ease, or wellbeing.
If you're facing chronic exposure to stress, your body can't function optimally. On a physical, mental, and emotional level, your resources are being overly taxed. Without a reduction in stress (or tools for managing it), you never have a chance to properly recover.
​
Here's where somatic therapy and tools such as gentle yoga, simple breath practices, and mindfulness techniques truly shine.
In our sessions, I'll guide you in noticing your body's signals as you process.​​ With practice, this skill will become available to you in everyday life.
That will be the beginning of the shift in your relationship with stress and anxiety!
Working with the body in therapy creates real change.
Find relief from anxiety with somatic therapy​​
Anxiety and panic attacks, which are unfortunately increasingly common today in the US, typically cause distinct and dramatic responses in the body.
However for some people, any hint of an elevated heartbeat, increase in body temperature, or difficulty breathing deeply may be enough to trigger a panic attack or bout of anxiety.​
The power of working with the body in therapy cannot be overstated.
Somatic therapy can teach you to manage the negative symptoms you're experiencing while also getting at the root of what's causing them.
With support you can find a way to understand and even make friends with anxiety so you can live a life of greater satisfaction and meaning.​
Read more about my approach to somatic therapy and anxiety on the FAQs page.
EMDR Therapy for trauma, anxiety, and painful memories
​
I am trained in EMDR Therapy (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) and can incorporate this popular and extensively-researched modality in our work together.
Research has found EMDR to be effective in working with a number of issues, including developmental trauma (often stemming from childhood relationships), single-incident traumas such as a car crash or other accident, as well as anxiety. It can also support you in exploring the root of particular behavioral patterns you want to break, such as procrastination, emotional eating, and others.
​
EMDR is a powerful tool that can support you in making real changes. This approach is very accessible, and it's particularly effective for clients who are more oriented to internal processing. With guidance in EMDR, you can process a lot with fewer words.
​
Read more about how EMDR works on the FAQs page.
The most powerful indicator of change in therapy is your commitment to the process. Take the first step today.
​​​
Call me at (720) 251-2887 or click below to schedule your complimentary 20-minute phone consultation. I look forward to connecting with you.
​​​​​​​​​​​​
Somatic therapy often looks like traditional talk therapy...
but you'll feel the difference.
Most of the time, thoughts and words aren't enough to create lasting change. Emotions arise in the body (ever felt hot when you're mad?). ​Somatic therapy engages traditional talk therapy approaches while also fostering awareness of your body in the moment, providing you multiple tools for transformation.