Somatic Psychotherapy
Healing doesn’t just happen through insight—it happens through the body
I offer somatic psychotherapy in Santa Barbara and Ventura for adults and adolescents who want to move beyond talking about their experiences and begin to gently heal them at a nervous-system level. Somatic therapy is a trauma-informed, mindfulness-based approach that helps you reconnect with your body’s natural capacity for regulation, resilience, and healing.
Many of the people I work with are insightful, self-aware, and emotionally intelligent—yet still feel stuck in anxiety, overwhelm, shutdown, or recurring relational patterns. Somatic psychotherapy helps address what words alone often can’t.
What is Somatic Psychotherapy?
Somatic psychotherapy is a body-based approach to therapy that recognizes how life experiences—especially trauma, chronic stress, and attachment wounds—are held in the nervous system.
Rather than reliving or retelling painful events, we work slowly and safely with present-moment sensations, emotions, impulses, and patterns of activation or collapse in the body. This allows the nervous system to complete responses that were once interrupted and to return to a greater sense of balance.
In my work, Somatic therapy is:
Trauma-informed and nervous-system aware
Grounded in mindfulness and self-compassion
Integrated with Internal Family Systems (IFS)
Affirming of LGBTQIA+ identities, gender diversity, and lived experience
Working with the Nervous System
When trauma or chronic stress shapes the nervous system’s survival responses, it can later appear as anxiety, hypervigilance, emotional numbness, people-pleasing, shutdown, or difficulty feeling safe in relationships. This work is collaborative and gently paced, honoring your nervous system and ensuring you remain in control as we move at a speed that feels safe and respectful.
In Somatic Psychotherapy, we focus on:
Increasing nervous system regulation
Increasing nervous system regulation
Learning how your body signals safety, threat, and connection
Developing tools for grounding, resourcing, and self-soothing
Natural Processing & Somatic Healing
I incorporate Natural Processing, a gentle somatic method that supports the body’s innate ability to metabolize and release unresolved experiences. This approach is especially helpful for complex trauma, developmental trauma, and experiences that feel hard to put into words.
Natural Processing allows emotions, sensations, and survival responses to unfold organically—without forcing overwhelm. This can lead to:
Reduced intensity of trauma responses
Increased clarity and emotional spaciousness
A felt sense of relief, completion, or integration
Greater trust in your body’s wisdom
Somatic Therapy as part of Internal Family Systems (IFS)
Somatic psychotherapy is a key part of how I practice Internal Family Systems therapy. IFS recognizes that we all have different “parts” shaped by experience, many of which communicate through the body—where sensations, impulses, and emotions often arise before thoughts.
By integrating somatic awareness with IFS, we can:
Listen to parts through bodily cues
Help protective parts soften without force
Support wounded parts (often younger parts) in a way that feels safe
Access Self-energy—calm, clarity, compassion—through embodied presence
I provide affirming somatic psychotherapy for people from diverse backgrounds, identities, and lived experiences. My practice is inclusive of LGBTQIA+ individuals, transgender and gender-expansive clients, and those navigating the effects of systemic stress, oppression, or marginalization, with care that honors each person’s identity, safety, and agency.
Trauma-Informed, Affirming Somatic Therapy
Trauma-informed care means:
You are never pushed beyond your capacity
Consent and choice are central to the work
We honor how your identity and context shape your nervous system
Safety, collaboration, and empowerment guide every session
FAQ’s
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Somatic psychotherapy can be helpful for trauma, anxiety, chronic stress, depression, attachment wounds, relationship challenges, dissociation, and feeling disconnected from your body or emotions.
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No. Somatic therapy focuses on present-moment experience rather than retelling traumatic events. We follow your comfort level and only explore what feels safe and supportive.
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Sessions may include mindfulness, noticing body sensations, gentle movement, breath awareness, tracking emotions, or working with parts through an IFS lens. You are always in control, and nothing is forced.
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Yes. Somatic approaches are supported by neuroscience and trauma research showing that trauma lives in the nervous system, not just in memory or cognition.
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Yes. I provide somatic psychotherapy for clients in Santa Barbara, Ventura, and throughout California.
Find Deeper Healing Through Somatic Psychotherapy
I provide somatic psychotherapy to clients across Santa Barbara, Ventura, and nearby California communities. Each session is thoughtfully tailored to your nervous system, personal history, and goals—whether you’re new to therapy or seeking a deeper, body-based approach after years of talk therapy.