Somatic therapy recognizes a fundamental truth: we feel before we think. Nearly 80% of the information flowing through your nervous system travels from body to brain, not the other way around. This means your body is constantly responding, protecting, and communicating wisdom that your thinking mind might miss entirely.

Somatic therapy isn't about forcing change through willpower or understanding. It's about creating conditions where your body's natural capacity for healing can emerge. Through breathwork, gentle movement, mindfulness practices, and attuning to sensations, we help your nervous system complete what it needs to process and release what it's been holding.

This approach is particularly powerful for:

• Trauma that lives in your body as tension, hypervigilance, or shutdown

• Eating disorders and body image struggles rooted in disconnection from your body's signals

• Anxiety and panic that manifest as physical symptoms

• Patterns you "know" you want to change but can't seem to shift

• The feeling of being stuck despite years of traditional therapy

We Start With Safety

Before diving into healing work, we establish nervous system regulation. When your body feels safe, everything else becomes possible. This might look like:

• Learning to track sensations in your body without judgment

• Developing breathwork practices that signal safety to your nervous system

• Exploring gentle movement that helps you reconnect with your body's wisdom

• Identifying your unique regulation needs and building your personalized toolkit

We Honor Your Body's Intelligence

Your body has been trying to protect you, even when those protective patterns no longer serve. Using approaches like Internal Family Systems (IFS), polyvagal mapping, and somatic interventions, we explore these patterns with curiosity and compassion rather than trying to force them away.

We Move at Your Pace

You deserve time to feel. Nervous-system safety can't be rushed. We'll work at a pace that feels sustainable to your nervous system, honoring what wants to emerge naturally rather than pushing through and creating further shutdown loops. Some sessions might include movement; others might be about simply slowing down enough to notice what's present.

Grounded in Experience

After two decades as a competitive athlete - including representing a US Olympic team - I learned that discipline could control my body, but it couldn't help me truly listen to it. Yoga taught me to be a compassionate witness to myself, to understand how energy flows within my being, and to recognize that our reactions and pain are tender spots waiting for care.

My own healing journey showed me that insight alone wasn't enough. I needed my body to be part of the process. This lived experience, combined with my Master's in Marriage and Family Therapy from Lewis & Clark College and specialized training in somatic interventions, allows me to offer something truly integrated: therapy that honors both body and mind.

Evidence-Based & Holistic

I integrate multiple somatic approaches:

• Somatic EMDR - Currently completing certification through the Embody Lab, this powerful modality helps your nervous system complete interrupted survival responses

• Internal Family Systems (IFS) - Extensive training through the IFS Institute in working with the body's wisdom

• Polyvagal Theory - Understanding how your nervous system responds to safety and threat

• Mindfulness & Breathwork - Drawing from 20+ years of yoga teaching experience and E-RYT 500 certification

• Nature-Based Therapy - Walk-and-talk sessions that use bilateral stimulation and outdoor regulation

Neurodiversity-Affirming

As a highly sensitive person myself and the mother of two neurodivergent children, I understand that nervous systems operate differently. Your sensory needs, regulation patterns, and processing style aren't deficits - they're part of your unique design. We'll work to understand and honor how your particular nervous system functions.

Initial Sessions

We begin with a compassionate intake that explores your life journey, nervous system patterns, and what's bringing you to somatic work. Together, we'll identify your unique regulation needs and develop a treatment plan that honors your pace and goals.

Ongoing Work

Sessions might include:

• Body awareness practices - Learning to notice and track sensations without judgment

• Breathwork and grounding techniques - Tools you can use daily to support regulation

• Gentle movement - When appropriate, exploring how movement supports processing

• Walk-and-talk sessions - Outdoor appointments where bilateral stimulation supports healing

• Creative expression - Using art, sound, or other modalities to access body wisdom

• Somatic EMDR - Processing trauma through body-based interventions

Everything is offered as invitation, never force. You remain in the driver's seat, and we move only as fast as your nervous system can integrate.

Between Sessions

You'll receive visit summaries with themes to notice, practices to ground into, and reflections to support your continued healing. Some weeks you'll feel called to engage deeply with these; other weeks life happens. Either way, I'll be holding the threads when we meet again.

Working within The Buddha's Medicine allows for truly comprehensive care. Mental and emotional symptoms often have physiological components, and our collaborative model means we can address both.

If beneficial, you can work simultaneously with Dr. Matt Van Auken, MD, who can explore how factors like nervous system dysregulation, hormonal imbalances, nutritional deficiencies, or chronic health conditions might be impacting your well-being. Rather than treating symptoms in isolation, we address root causes from multiple angles.