My Approach Includes:
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Traditional talk therapy
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Present-moment experience
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Mindfulness guidance
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Experiential and body-oriented approaches
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Studying thoughts and impulses
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Exploring dreams, spirituality and existential experience
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Examining health and lifestyle concerns
‘The body always leads us home... if we can simply learn to trust sensation and stay with it long enough for it to reveal appropriate action, movement, insight, or feeling.’ Pat Ogden
I am well-trained in body-centered counseling approaches, called somatic psychotherapy. This entails checking in with your body through connecting to body sensations, emotions, impulses, movement and any form of expression. We often hold experiences in our body, and some of this is unconscious. When we talk about something upsetting, we may also feel discomfort in our bodies.
Often times, bringing curiosity towards our body leads to deeper insight into our behaviors, impulses and struggles in life. This may also support connecting with our own innate wisdom, through body sensations, as well as what lights us up and brings us in contact with our life force energy and self-expression.
One way this is done is in applied mindfulness, with your eyes closed so you can connect with your inner experiences without external stimuli and input. Eyes closed is not necessary, and we can still do somatic therapy without eyes closed.
Somatic Psychotherapy can include touch, and if it is used in a counseling session, its purpose is to support self-study, rather than provide relief of physical tension or distress. Touch is always nonsexual, done mindfully, with your permission, and in service of the therapeutic process.
When exploring somatic work, I will always discuss it with you; you will remain in charge and are always free to decline anything that feels uncomfortable for any reason.