Somatic and Relational Psychology

We experience life through the container of our physical bodies.  We get butterflies in our stomach when exited or nervous, have gut feelings and instincts, feel love in our hearts, and breathe deeply when inspired. We also feel emotional pain and trauma in our bodies; the stab of heartache or betrayal, the collapse of our posture in grief or shame, and the pain in our hearts with grief and loss.

In working with the body as well as cognition, clients explore their experiences of sensation, movement, breath, images, and thoughts to address issues from a broad and holistic perspective. Our bodies act as the vessels for our experience and in therapy (and life) act as great resources in helping us move through life challenges. Our bodies are also naturally self-regulating and self-healing. This inner healing potential can be accessed not for healing physical wounds as well as our psychological and emotional struggles.

Somatic experiencing

Somatic Experiencing (SE) is the primary somatic modality I employ in my practice. SE is a body mindfulness-based trauma resolution technique developed by Peter Levine, author of Waking the Tiger: Healing Trauma, and several other books on overcoming trauma. SE helps people work through traumatic experiences by using our bodily experience to facilitate integration and renegotiation of overwhelming life events. The work applies to both physical trauma, such as falls, accidents, injuries, but also to the realm of emotional/interpersonal and other psychological trauma.      

Both SE-trained bodyworkers and psychotherapists are using the technique in their practices, with over 6,000 practitioners and students worldwide.  For more information on SE, please visit the website: www.traumahealing.com.

I’m a certified SE provider, having completed the 3-year training in Somatic Experiencing in 2009. I also assist SE professional trainings. For students in the SE training, I am approved session provider for all levels of the training, and a consult provider for beginning and intermediate and advanced students, and a group consult provider for beginning students.

Treatment Orientation

  • Attachment-based

  • Culturally sensitive

  • Emotionally-focused

  • Experiential therapy

  • Humanistic

  • Integrative

  • Internal Family Systems (IFS)

  • Mindfulness-based (MBCT)

  • Multicultural

  • Narrative

  • Person-centered

  • Positive psychology

  • Psychodynamic

  • Relational

  • Somatic

  • Somatic Experiencing

  • Somatic Psychology

  • Strength-based

  • Transpersonal

  • Trauma-focused

  • Psychedelic Assisted Therapy

  • Harm reduction/Integration for

    Psychedelics

Conditions I work with

  • Addiction

  • Anger management

  • Anxiety

  • Behavioral issues

  • Bipolar disorder

  • Chronic illness

  • Chronic impulsivity

  • Chronic pain

  • Coping skills

  • Depression

  • Developmental disorders

  • Family conflict

  • Grief

  • Infidelity

  • Internet addiction

  • Marital and premarital

  • Men's Issues

  • Obsessive-compulsive (OCD)

  • Parenting

  • Racial identity

  • Relationship issues

  • Self esteem

  • Self-harming

  • Sleep or insomnia

  • Spirituality

  • Substance abuse

  • Traumatic brain injury

  • Harm reduction and Integration

  • Eating disorders

  • Mental health

    • Dissociative Disorders

    • Impulse Control Disorders

    • Mood Disorders