Whatever you are experiencing, this is a compassionate and caring space to notice, explore and heal.
Somatic Therapy
OUR SOMATIC APPROACH
Somatic work invites us to listen to the body. To name what happened as well as learning to notice what our body is holding—through tension, freezing, shutdown, or fight-or-flight energy. By gradually slowing down and gently bringing awareness to the body's sensations (interoception), the nervous system is supported to begin to safely release and complete protective responses that were once interrupted. This supports bringing the body into regulation, allowing healing from the effects of trauma, PTSD, chronic pain, anxiety, depression and burnout through resolving long-held somatic patterns.
Because trauma is remembered emotionally and somatically more than it is remembered in a narrative form that can be expressed verbally, survivors often feel confused, overwhelmed, or crazy. Without a memory in words or pictures, they do not recognize what they are feeling as memory.
~Janina Fisher
Our bodies carry our wounds—the pain of losses, the fear of being hurt, and the protective responses that helped us survive difficult, or even unbearable, situations. Healing is interwoven with our ability to sense and feel what is happening inside, including the physical responses linked to experiences that were never fully processed.
We gradually build the capacity to stay present with difficult internal experiences, noticing a greater sense of spaciousness within. Emotions such as anger, confusion, isolation, panic, or grief may arise as brief sensations or powerful waves. We learn to recognize what is happening inside, allowing our bodies to gently "thaw" with safety, and compassion.
We gain capacity in noticing and responding in new ways to patterns of panic, reactivity and hypervigilance as well as numbness, shutdown or hopelessness. With support and the body's innate capacity for healing, the nervous system learns how to move out of these states and into a greater groundedness and presence.
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As we bring the system to a sense of inner calm, we can approach the dysregulated states that we have instinctively avoided with care and compassion. Drawing on imagination and neuroplasticity—the brain’s natural ability to form new connections—we cultivate new, felt experiences of safety, regulation, and hope.