Somatic therapy
Your body tells the truth every time - even when it's inconvenient. It’s time to listen.
Somatic therapy is like a glitter decorated invite addressed directly to your body - warmly welcoming it to the party with VIP access. It’s for the part of you exhausted from trying to think your way through pain that lives somewhere deeper than thoughts can reach. You've done the work. You've read the books, journaled your heart out, analyzed your childhood six ways to Sunday. A part of you logically knows you are OK and yet your body holds tension that won't release. Your heart races any time there is conflict. Your voice disappears in the exact moment you need it. Still, no matter how much you know, you feel like you're going through the motions of a life that should feel more alive. Let me tell you upfront: that's not a failure. That's information. Your body is speaking, it’s asking to be heard..
Somatic therapy works with what your body already knows. Your nervous system has been faithfully recording every moment you swallowed your truth to keep the peace, every time you shapeshifted to be whoever would be loved, every instance you abandoned yourself to maintain connection. That stuff doesn't just disappear. It lives in your shoulders, your gut, your breath, your jaw. Deep inside your bones. It becomes the exhaustion that sleep can't touch and the disconnect that makes you feel like you're watching your own life from behind glass.
Your Body Has Been Trying to Talk to You
Here's the thing about being a deep thinker and a hard worker (and I'm guessing you're both): you can get really good at understanding your patterns without actually changing them. You know why you feel the way you do. You can trace it all back. This thinking and analyzing? It is actually a survival strategy; a familiar well worn path that pulled you up and out of your body when it wasn’t actually safe to listen to it. You needed this. . . and now your body can’t keep quiet any longer. knot in your stomach before family gatherings is still there. The resentment still catches you off guard. You're still dying a little inside while everyone around you thinks you're fine.
This isn't because you haven't tried hard enough. It's because the healing you need isn't isolated in your head. Your body has been sending you messages for years through tension, through fatigue, through that vague sense of wrongness you can't quite name. Somatic therapy is how we learn to listen to what your body has been holding all along.
Nothing About You Is Broken
I want to say this clearly: I believe in your inherent health. Every symptom, every frustrating pattern, each stuck place, every reaction that feels "too much" ... all of it makes beautiful, heartbreaking sense when we understand what you've survived.
You learned to abandon yourself because that's what kept you connected. You became a master at reading rooms, anticipating needs, becoming whoever would be acceptable. That wasn't weakness. That was genius. Your system did exactly what it needed to do. And each time you did this, your brilliant body marked the spot with a tension, a held breath, a movement pattern; it left us the bread crumb trail we need to follow to find our way back into our bones, our breath, and our lovely lively life.
But here's the bittersweet truth: those brilliant adaptations have an expiration date. The hypervigilance that kept you safe now keeps you from rest. The shapeshifting that maintained connection now leaves you feeling invisible, even to yourself. What once saved you is now slowly suffocating you.
Now - I’m not going to tell you what to do. Or give you a script. Or rush you towards an outcome. Body time is different from cognitive time. This might be irritating for those parts of you who want to figure out, fix, and jump out of pain. I get it (they are welcome here too!). Rest assured, I'm also not going to sit back and watch you figure yourself out alone. That's not my style. I get in there with you, endlessly curious, engaged, attuned to what's happening in your body, in my body, and in the space between us. We co-create this healing adventure together because you are the only one who knows what it is like to live inside your unique body. I use what shows up in the present moment as information, as a doorway, as medicine.
I’m like your own personal psychological scuba diver — a mermaid travel guide with a well-stocked toolbox. I accompany you into the depths of your inner world at a pace your nervous system can tolerate, helping you rediscover and reclaim parts of yourself that were set aside to survive. And I stay with you as we spiral back toward the surface, integrating what’s been found so it can be lived, not just understood. We do it together.
How I Work
I trust pain and darkness to lead us where we need to go. I know that sounds strange, but I've learned (in my own life and in this work) that what we resist persists, and what we can finally feel fully will move - in its own time and way. The defenses, the walls, the resistance? They're welcome here. They've been working overtime to protect you, and they deserve our respect before they can even consider softening. No force is necessary - once your body feels heard, supported, deeply understood, and trusts us to speak its language. . . it knows exactly how to make the next move. Our well intentioned, super capable brain, can take a break. Our body knows the first next step, and the next, on the way towards vitality.
I also bring playfulness into this work, because diving into hard stuff without some lightness would be the absolute worst. I often incorporate movement, creativity, therapeutic writing, and parts work. Not because I follow a formula, but because healing isn't one-size-fits-all, and your body might need to move, to express, to play its way back to wholeness.
The Twist
You are likely very good at effort. Pushing through. Thinking your way around things as you hold everything together. In our work though, we are going to experiment with something radically different - trying less. I know. You're good at trying. Trying has been your superpower and your survival strategy. But that relentless effort is part of what's keeping your nervous system locked in overdrive.
And while we are at - you’ve been primed to say yes, even when your body is screaming “no.” So while we need and are banking on the parts of you willing to engage in this work and lean in - we are going to practice slowing down and getting that true NO back online. Gently challenging all those stories around what it means to be good, accomodating, and in relationship. We help your body begin to trust that saying NO now is protection. It’s safety.
This is how we build your capacity for rest, for pleasure, for receiving. Not as ideas you agree with, but as experiences your body can actually tolerate. This is harder than it sounds. And also more revolutionary than you might imagine.
Located at:
Layton, UT
Frequently Asked Questions About Somatic Therapy
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Somatic therapy recognizes that our experiences live in our bodies, not just our minds. While talk therapy works primarily through conversation and insight, somatic therapy pays attention to sensations, breath, tension, and movement, accessing what words alone often can't reach.
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If you've gained plenty of insight but still feel stuck in old patterns, if your body holds tension or exhaustion that won't quit, or if you feel disconnected from yourself despite "doing the work," this approach might be what's been missing.
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We talk, and we also pay attention to what's happening in your body as we talk. I might notice your breath shift or your shoulders tense and invite you to get curious about that. Sometimes we incorporate movement, nervous system exercises or creative expression. Always, we go at your pace.
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Absolutely not. Many people come to this work because they feel disconnected from their bodies. We meet you exactly where you are. No performance required.
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Some people feel shifts within a few sessions, like more capacity to breathe or moments of unexpected ease. Deeper transformation unfolds over time. I'm interested in lasting change, not quick fixes.
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Yes. Anxiety lives in your nervous system, not just your thoughts. Working directly with your body's stress responses often creates relief that thinking your way through it never could.
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It means helping your body learn that the danger has passed, that rest is safe, that you don't have to be hypervigilant anymore. We do this gently, through present-moment experiences that update old survival patterns. We also teach you the language of the nervous system, self-assessments, and movements to support this process.
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Deeply. Especially when grief is tangled with relief, guilt, and years of complex relationship history. This approach lets grief move through your body and honors all the contradictions.
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Movement is available, never required. It might be subtle, like noticing a micro-gesture, or more expressive. My training in dance/movement therapy, relational neuroscience, and nervous system work informs how I read and work with the body's language.
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We all have different parts with different needs, sometimes in conflict. Somatic awareness helps us notice how these parts show up physically, allowing for deeper understanding and gentler integration.
Let's Begin
If something in you feels a yes - quiet or loud -, I'd love to hear from you. I offer a free consultation where we can connect, you can ask questions, and we can both feel into whether this is a good fit.
If we move forward, I ask for an initial commitment of three sessions. That's enough time to get a real taste of the work and decide together if we want to continue.
I offer online sessions and in-person sessions for those near Layton, Utah. Reach out directly for scheduling. You can find my fees here. I provide superbills for out-of-network benefits.
The pain you carry is real. And it's not the end of your story. There's a version of you on the other side of this, more alive, more connected, more you than you've been allowed to be.Your body knows the way home. I'd love to walk beside you as you return to yourself.