Difficult experiences are stored in our body along with associated memories and thoughts.
Cultivate a sense of ease & well-being with powerful deep teachings. Renegotiate, rather than relive trauma experiences and sensations.
Everyone is healing from a past hurt or loss, but it doesn’t mean they are broken. Past struggles, traumas or health issues don’t have to be a life sentence. No matter what you may have learned, your past experiences are not your fault. Your strategies for surviving it are also not your fault.
Children turn against themselves. Believing it is our fault is less scary than acknowledging we can’t control our parents and keep ourselves safe.
We spend much of our time trying to control our external circumstances – hoping to control our feelings and prevent ourselves from feeling shut down or overwhelmed. We spend time moving between feelings of numbness and overwhelm – resisting, reacting and defending – all of which is very stressful for our bodies, minds and nervous systems. These feelings are an outcome of various types of trauma – including relational and family trauma – as well as past experiences such as accidents, surgeries, illness and prolonged feelings of stress or overwhelm.
Somatic Experiencing, referred to as SE™, is a short-term naturalistic approach to the resolution and healing of trauma developed by Dr. Peter Levine and is supported by research. It is based upon the observation that wild prey animals, though threatened routinely, are rarely traumatized.
- SE employs awareness of body sensation to help people “renegotiate” and heal rather than re-live or re-enact trauma. You do not need to re-tell the story to engage in Somatic Experiencing.
- SE’s guidance of the bodily “felt sense,” allows the highly aroused survival energies to be safely experienced and gradually discharged.
- SE may employ touch, with the permission of the client, in support of the renegotiation process.
- SE breaks down the experience into small, incremental steps, rather than evoking catharsis – which can overwhelm the regulatory mechanisms of the organism.
A mindful approach helps us dispel the illusion that we can control ourselves and our environment. In time, we may free ourselves from the illusion that we are or have a static, unchanging self. We arrive at the freedom and beauty of understanding that we are always in process with life.
As a beginning point, the Buddha recommended focusing within the body. Focusing on the breath, in particular, is a direct way to experience our bodies from within. Yet we can still attend to our relationship with the external world.
Any felt sense – such as hearing, touch, sight, scent or taste – can be a starting point, a way into other aspects of our mind-body-spirit experience of the present moment.
In one-on-one sessions with clients, mindfulness, Body-Mind Centering and Continuum Movement, are integrated within the Somatic Experiencing approach.
With sensitive and individual attention, I can assist you to find a greater sense of wellbeing through these powerfully effective teachings.
Somatic Experiencing one-on-one sessions involve sitting in chairs as if having a conversation. You will be guided and invited to connect with sensations in your body. You will learn how to use mindfulness to track and fully connect with sensations both pleasant and painful in an easeful way.
You will learn how your nervous system regulates itself and comes to balance. Images, feelings and/or spontaneous movements or gestures are welcomed and explored. Clients often report feeling more relaxed or more energized after a session. Over time, as the work integrates, clients notice significant positive changes in how they relate to stresses in their lives and in their relationship with others.
I want to help you understand your nervous system and how it effects your emotions, moods and physical health. I am passionate about introducing people to the concept of stress physiology and helping them practice nervous system regulation. With deeply intuitive skills and her ability to understand the body both anatomically and energetically, provide a powerful foundation for guiding others into a profound experience of body awareness and neural regulation.
Working together is best facilitated by creating a safe environment where each person can be witnessed and held respectfully in his/her authentic experience. My work and teaching is infused with a genuine sense of empathy, compassion and integrity. And I feel honored to support others on their unique paths of personal growth and empowerment.
I continue to feel excited, humbled and moved by the experience of working with my clients – people like you who are longing for greater ease and resilience in their lives. It is so powerful to see how shifting our framework to include greater awareness of the autonomic responses of our nervous systems and support those autonomic shifts, can make a profound difference for people in so many areas of their lives, not only in how they feel in their bodies, but in how they show up in their relationships and their lives, at work, in play, and everywhere in between.
Here’s some of what you can expect when we work together:
- How to cultivate greater resiliency and adaptability in response to life stressors
- How to negotiate anxiety, depression, chronic stress and overwhelm in new ways
- How to use simple somatic practices to gradually quiet and settle the nervous system and down-regulate arousal levels over time
- How to develop increased body awareness by tracking body sensations with curiosity and openness without bracing against them, pushing them away or being overwhelmed by them
- How to recognize the tendency or pattern of overriding body signals and how to trust body signals and work with them in new ways
- How to build effective self-care and containment strategies
I have been dedicated to a spiritual and healing path integrating mind, body and spirit for over 15 years. As a student of Buddhist mindfulness and meditation practices, Continuum Movement and Body-Mind Centering (BMC), and I have engaged in numerous residential retreats, over many years, often several times a year. I bring mindfulness and meditation practices together with the scientific, research-based approach of regulating the nervous system using the body’s own signals – Somatic Experiencing (SE).
What is at the edge is always the beginning of new directions.
Remember to go slowly and be kind and gentle with yourself.
I would be delighted for us to evolve together on a path of awakening and joy – everything is waiting for you.
Somatic Body Learning & Practice and Somatic Experiencing Trauma & The Body sessions are available for you now. Waking you up to the innate wisdom of your body, healing inherited trauma patterns, feeling yourself below the level of thought, and accessing your full beingness in flowing, fluid motion.
When we can feel ourselves, we are able to detect and understand the sensations and emotions our bodies signal to us – and we can connect with ourselves and others from a place of felt honesty and sensitivity, set better boundaries, and make clearer decisions about our interactions.
Monday, April 1st – 7pm to 9pm – $25 per person – register here – [email protected]
The Anxiety, Stress & Trauma Restorative Clinic:
Creating Well-Being Through Nervous System Regulation.
Heal Relational Trauma – Break the Cycle of Inherited Family Trauma.
Nurturing Connection, Restoration & Building Resilience.
Easing the Body ~ Calming the Mind ~ Opening the Heart.
Somatic Experiencing ~ Somatic Practices ~ Touch ~ Movement.
Virtual, online sessions are available for those who travel regularly, have a busy schedule, live far away from the office, or prefer to work from your own home – [email protected]
