How Does Somatic Psychotherapy Work?
What would it feel like if you allowed yourself to express your authentic truth, your deepest desires and dreams? Notice your physical and emotional reaction to this question. Does it excite or scare you?
Perhaps it does both, brings up judgment, or simply sounds impossible to access or answer right now. Whatever your response, this can be a generative entry point for exploring your relationship with yourself and your impulses, feelings, and dreams. If you tend towards perfectionism, people-pleasing, or taking care of others before yourself, this question might be particularly anxiety-provoking or difficult to answer.
The above may have just given you a small taste of what somatic, or body-oriented, psychotherapy with me can feel like. One of my intentions in my work - along with supporting you in clarifying and meeting your goals for therapy and your life - is to provide you with a safe space to explore your truth as it shows up in your body, heart, and mind in the present moment, and to help you deepen your relationship with yourself and between different parts of yourself.
Getting to this point can take time, so I strive to provide warm, open-ended, and compassionate guidance in helping you deepen into your inner experience at a pace and in a way that feels right for you. I believe in your innate ability and desire to heal and grow, and I would be honored to support you in your journey towards wholeness and greater connection with yourself, others, and the world around you.
FAQs
What is the difference between somatic and talk therapy?
Somatic therapy with me includes various “talk therapy” approaches, such as discussing current challenges and how early childhood relationships and events may be impacting those, as well as looking at one’s “self talk” and internal parts. However, my somatic approach also incorporates body awareness or gentle movement into the conversation to help access preverbal implicit memories, trauma, and emotions that are held in the body.
What can I expect in a first session?
I treat the first session as a continuation of the conversation we begin in our initial consultation call, during which I’m getting to know what’s feeling challenging in your life at this moment, what you’ve already done or are doing in terms of therapy and self-care in general, and what your goals are for therapy and your life. I’ll also tell you a bit more about what you can expect from therapy going forward, and I try to reserve a few minutes at the end of our first session to check in about how it felt for you.
How long does therapy last?
Each therapy session with me is 50 minutes in length, and therapy usually takes place on a weekly basis to begin with. Depending on what you’re seeking support with and what your goals are, therapy can take months to years, with several years being a more typical timeline since patterns and habits that have developed over a lifetime take time to understand and change.