MY Somatic EXPERIENCING WORK
My Somatic Experiencing™ (SE) is a talk and safe touch based therapy that focuses on our physiology as it relates to our mental health.
My practice incorporates SE with Safe Touch to help create a sense of Safety and Attunement to help heal your Nervous System. The work will develop Somatic Literacy™ as you develop and balance your Somatic Intelligence with both Cognitive and Emotional Intelligences.
NOT MASSAGE
My work is not massage, though I utilize my 2 decades long background in Somatic Experiencing and SE Bodywork, my career in Child Development, my Birth Doula work, and 15 years as a therapeutic masseuse to inform where the body is holding a pattern, and together we work to help your Autonomic Nervous System feel safe enough to resolve the patterns which no longer serve you.
Unlike massage, SE Bodywork Sessions are clothed, and the work involves active participation in your process. Once the underlying patterns resolve, the effects are often long lasting, even permanent. Massage can support this process and I highly recommend finding a good masseuse.
WHAT CAN SOMATIC EXPERIENCING DO FOR YOU?
Somatic Experiencing (SE) helps you become Somatically Literate™ by developing and balancing your Somatic Intelligence with your Cognitive and Emotional Intelligences, and teaching you about your own Autonomic Nervous System.
Being Somatically Literate means that you will accurately understand what the signals in your body actually mean. You will be able to work with your body, rather than against it. This understanding lends itself to you finally being able to enjoy a fuller life with increased resilience and a new capacity to fully be present.
The practice of SE helps you restore your body’s natural resiliency and inherent self-correcting, self-regulating mechanisms. It guides you to be able to unwind chronic patterns of tension, pain, anxiety, shame, and fears through your newfound confidence in your body’s inherent Somatic Intelligence.
WHO IS RIGHT FOR SE WORK?
SE is appropriate for anyone experiencing overwhelm, chronic symptoms of pain, immobilizing sadness, anxiety, fear, and/or panic attacks, numbness (physical and/or emotional), and any number of symptoms, anywhere on the spectrum from mild to life inhibiting.
Whether you have work or relational stress, anxiety, repeated use injuries, chronic pain, lasting problems related to surgery, or other injuries, SE Bodywork can help.
MY CLIENTELE
My clientele is widely varied and includes professionals (attorneys, CPAs, MDs, psychotherapists, teachers, etc.), celebrities, athletes, yoga instructors, creative artists, children, teenagers and young adults.
All ages benefit greatly from Somatic Bodywork, even if the event that triggered the problem occurred more than 20 years ago. As Dr. Peter Levine, the founder of Somatic Experiencing, states, “Trauma is in our nervous systems, not in the event.”
I have also worked with an Oncology population and am well trained in the benefits and contraindications for people with compromised lymph nodes and immune systems, and who have become fighters and survivors of this life changing experience. Because my work is non-invasive and emotionally supportive with a focus on Autonomic Nervous System Regulation, SE Safe Touch Bodywork is an appropriate approach for this population.
SE could be a good match for you if you are experiencing any of the following:
Chronic Pain
Chronic Anxiety/Depression
Excessive Anger or Frustration
Easily Flooded Emotionally or an Absence of Emotions
Panic Attacks
Syndromes
Post Traumatic Stress Response and/or Complex Post Traumatic Stress Response
WHAT DOES A SESSION LOOK LIKE?
A session is fully clothed and is not massage. Many sessions are seated, talk based sessions.
Table work sessions generally involve using blankets and pillows to provide comfort, warm pillows and safe touch to attune and attend to Autonomic Regulation, gentle informed safe touch contact, and some movement. All with a strong focus on Sensations to build Somatic Literacy(TM).
While a session may involve contact/touch, it is not always appropriate. Unlike a massage, you are fully dressed with the focus on restoring your resiliency.
It is a careful step-by-step process, peaceful and typically non-triggering, which may or may not include much talking.
In some cases, specific points of contact and holding are necessary to help facilitate a Shift towards feeling better.
Disclaimer: I am a Practitioner of SE work and carry a License in the state of California for Massage and Bodywork. I do not carry a Clinical Psychology License and am unable to accept or bill any Insurance Co. My Title is “Non-Clinical SEP”. I carry professional insurance with ABMP for Bodywork, SE Bodywork, SE, and Doula services.
INTERESTED?
CALL ME AT 818-445-9908 OR USE MY EMAIL FORM TO SEE IF SE IS A GOOD MATCH FOR YOU
Education and Experience
Somatic Resilience and Regulation (SRR)
Neuro-Affective Touch (NAT)
BA in Psychology, concentration in Neurophysiology, Human and Child Development
Prenatal massage and preparation, psychological and physical
Pre and post surgery preparation and recovery
Tai Chi
Acupressure
Oncology bodywork
Myofascial reorganization
Anatomy/Physiology
Deep Tissue and Structural Integration along with multiple bodywork disciplines
Contact me to schedule an appointment.