Somatic Therapy in Brea & Online Across CA + AZ
Helping release CHRONIc stress and trauma Stored in the body
You’ve spent a lot of time trying to feel better.
Maybe you’ve tried talk therapy, self-care, positive affirmations, or managing everything through logic and productivity. Maybe some of it helped… but your body still feels off.
Deep down, you know there’s more going on than your mind alone can reason through, and insight alone can only take you so far.
That’s where somatic therapy comes in.
Somatic therapy supports the parts of you that intellect doesn’t reach, helping you cultivate deep self-awareness, presence, and clarity.
So you don’t just understand yourself better — you finally start to feel better.
More regulated.
More grounded.
More connected to your body.
What Is Somatic Therapy?
Somatic therapy is a body-based approach to healing that works with the nervous system and the mind-body connection. It recognizes that stress and trauma don’t only live in your mind, they also show up in the body as sensations like tension, overwhelm, numbness, or feeling disconnected from yourself.
Rather than relying on insight alone, somatic therapy helps you tune into your internal experience of sensations, your breath, posture, impulses, and the way your body responds to life, allowing stuck or thwarted energies to begin to shift.
Somatic therapy can help you:
• Increase access to rest, pleasure, and internal safety
• Build a more trusting and attuned relationship with your body
• Develop a deeper sense of connection and presence in your daily life
• Expand your stress resilience so you feel less overwhelmed
Somatic therapy doesn’t force change, it supports the internal conditions where change can happen naturally, when the body finally feels safe enough to soften and exhale.
Body-Based Therapy That Actually Yields Relief
When trauma happens, the body’s natural survival responses—like fight or flight —don’t always get to complete themselves, leaving the nervous system stuck in a heightened or frozen state. Over time, these unresolved responses may show up as hypervigilance, difficulty relaxing, dissassociation, or even persistent physical symptoms. In the case of developmental and complex trauma, these patterns can also shape how we see ourselves and others, sometimes leading to identity distortions, self‑blame, or a feeling of being “stuck” in survival mode.
By addressing the impact of stress and trauma in the body, somatic therapy works with the deepest levels of our experience, helping your nervous system reestablish regulation, self‑trust, and relief that goes beyond insight alone.
Somatic therapy can be especially helpful when you’ve tried cognitive therapies but still feel “off,” dysregulated, or disconnected altogether.
Along your somatic healing journey, you won’t have to relive painful memories or push yourself past your limits. In that sense, somatic therapy is gentler on the nervous system than verbally processing traumatic experiences with a therapist; it focuses on the here and now, meeting you where you are and helping your system gradually restore balance without overwhelming or retraumatizing your system.
Who Can Benefit From Somatic Therapy?
generally, Anyone can benefit from somatic Therapy. I work with People who are chronically stressed, shut down, or high-functioning & ARE ready for a different way of relating to their body and life.
If you recognize yourself in any of these experiences, somatic therapy might be a good fit:
Wired, Tense & Always “On”
Your body runs faster than your mind can settle, and rest doesn’t come easily even when you’re exhausted. You may feel braced, tense, busy in your head, and unable to turn “off,” no matter how much you try. Somatic therapy helps your nervous system slow down, unwind, and finally soften.
Shutdown, Numb, or Disconnected
You might feel “out-of-body,” flat inside, or like you’re moving through life on autopilot. When the body holds what the mind can’t, shutdown becomes protection. Somatic therapy gently reconnects you to sensation, emotion, and presence, so you can feel more alive, safe, and embodied.
High-Functioning, Struggling Internally
You appear put-together from the outside, but inside, you’re tired, stretched thin, and holding more than anyone sees. You may over-function, people-please, push through, or keep it together because you’ve had to. Somatic therapy offers a place to exhale, feel supported, and move from survival into something more sustainable and self-honoring.
My philosophy on somatic healing:
Healing begins when we listen to our bodies — gently, slowly, and with support — allowing a return to safety and self.
In my practice, I primarily use two somatic modalities:
Somatic Experiencing® (SE)
SE helps your body complete stress responses that were interrupted or never fully resolved, allowing your nervous system to shift out of fight, flight, freeze, or fawn and into a more steady, regulated state.
With gentle, paced awareness, SE can help you:
• Tune into your body’s signals with more clarity + confidence
• Soften survival responses that developed during overwhelming or traumatic experiences
• Release emotional tension physically stored in the body
• Feel more alive and deepen your emotional expression
NeuroAffective Relational Model (NARM)
NARM is a present-focused approach for developmental and complex trauma that explores how early experiences shape your sense of self and connection to others, and tracks for where how those patterns show up now.
With compassionate awareness, NARM can help you:
• Soften long-held adaptive survival strategies that perpetuate helplessness and stuckness
• Deepen connection to yourself, others, and your internal experience
• Increase tolerance for discomfort + uncertainty
• Feel more emotionally available and attuned
What a Somatic Therapy Session Feels Like (and Looks Like)
Somatic therapy sessions are collaborative, paced, and grounded in what your nervous system can tolerate in the moment. While we may talk about your experiences, we’re also paying attention to how your body is responding as you speak — your breath, posture, muscle tension, impulses to move, or moments of shutdown or activation.
Using Somatic Experiencing (SE), we gently track sensations and patterns in your body to support regulation and restore a sense of internal safety. This might look like slowing things down, orienting to the room, noticing subtle shifts in your body, or allowing small movements that help your system release tension.
Through NARM (NeuroAffective Relational Model), we also explore how early relational patterns may still be shaping your present-day experiences — especially around connection, boundaries, self-worth, and agency. Rather than revisiting the past in detail, we focus on what’s happening right now in your thoughts, body and emotions as these patterns show up, helping you develop more choice and flexibility.
Sessions often include:
Checking in with how your body feels at the start of the session
Noticing moments of activation or settling as we talk
Gentle grounding or regulation practices
Curiosity about protective patterns without judgment
Supporting your system to complete stress responses at its own pace
There’s no pressure to relive traumatic memories or “do it right.” Everything is guided by your nervous system, with an emphasis on safety, choice, and respect for your internal rhythms. Over time, this work helps your body learn that it no longer has to stay on high alert or shutdown — making room for more ease, connection, and presence in daily life.
Why Somatic Therapy With Me?
I specialize in working with high-achieving adults, people-pleasers, perfectionists, and those who have spent years in survival mode. I understand the pressure you carry — the part of you that pushes through, performs, shows up, and holds it together even when you’re overwhelmed or exhausted. Therapy with me is designed for the nervous system that hasn’t learned how to slow down… yet.
My work integrates Somatic Experiencing (SE) and the NeuroAffective Relational Model (NARM) — two body-oriented approaches that complement each other in meaningful ways. SE supports the nervous system in releasing stored survival energy and restoring a sense of safety in the body. NARM helps you gently shift long-standing relational and identity patterns shaped by early experiences, so you can relate to yourself with more compassion, capacity, and choice.
This means we’re not only working with symptoms — we’re working with what lives beneath them.
Rather than focusing solely on regulation or insight, my approach brings together:
body-based attunement and nervous system repair
relational and identity-level healing that supports lasting change
a therapeutic space where you don’t have to perform, manage, or hold everything together
I don’t push, force, or rush your process. We move at a pace that honors your nervous system’s capacity — sensing, noticing, and allowing your body to lead. Your system already holds the intelligence for healing; my role is to help create the safety and support that allows it to unfold.
Over time, there’s more room to breathe.
More room to soften.
More room to simply be.
Ready to Feel More Connected and At Ease in Your Body?
Schedule a free consultation with me to find out more about how Somatic Experiencing® (SE) and NARM can help you restore a sense of safety, balance, and presence in your daily life.
SUPPORT AWAITS YOU
SUPPORT AWAITS YOU
Somatic Therapy in Brea, CA
I offer in-person somatic therapy in Brea, California, as well as online across California and Arizona. Telehealth allows you to engage in meaningful, effective therapy from the comfort of your own space while still receiving relational, depth-oriented care.
265 S Randolph Ave, Brea, CA 92821
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