As a clinical psychologist and Somatic Experiencing Practitioner, I practice somatic psychotherapy.  Somatic psychotherapy is experiential, based in mindfulness with an eye to bodily experience, and rooted in a belief that we all have the capacity to heal.  

Experiential: Regardless of how you have arrived at your current situation, change happens in the present. Because of this, I focus on the here and now in session.  Whether we are talking about something that happened years ago or just earlier this week we are situating this exploration in your moment-to-moment experience.

Mindfulness-Based: Mindfulness is a powerful tool that works through paradox – being with uncomfortable experiences and feelings actually shifts them far more than any efforts to actively change. In part, this is because confronting fears drains them of much of their power; in part, because accurately perceiving experience prepares us to take effective action. I use mindfulness to deepen connection with emotions, as well as provide a solid container for tolerating these intense feelings.

Body-Focused: My work is body-focused so we are often using mindful observation of sensation and bodily experience to guide our process. By using bodily experience we can bypass the intellectualization that often gets therapy stuck and access knowledge that may lie outside our awareness. Grounding our work in the body helps to contain emotions that may otherwise feel overwhelming.

Capacity for Healing: I strongly believe in our innate ability to heal. Once we are in contact with experiences of deep pain and able to tolerate – rather than avoid – them, we often discover stymied fight or flight responses that we are able to activate, kick-starting our natural self-protective response. My role as your therapist is to manage the amount of this distress: too much and the healing response is overwhelmed, too little and it is not activated.  Together we build this capacity that allows you to be more present and engaged in your daily life. 

Change is possible, and it is embodied.