Doors closed. Hearts Open. In community.
Out of concern for the well-being of the CIIS and broader communities, the Center for Somatic Psychotherapy is closed for face-to-face appointments, but available for tele-health appointments. The clinic is
accepting new teletherapy clients on a case by case basis.
For more information, contact (415) 217-8895.
Conveniently located in downtown San Francisco, the Center for Somatic Psychotherapy provides affordable, sliding scale therapy services that respect the growth and healing process of each individual.
Our Center is the only mental health clinic in the San Francisco Bay Area that specializes in body-oriented/somatic psychotherapy. Our therapists use breath work, movement exercises, and explorations of feeling, sensation, and expression to help you find the change you want in your life.
We offer effective psychotherapy to individuals, couples, and families. Serving the Bay Area for more than 25 years, our Center provides a safe and supportive setting for the exploration of a wide range of life’s issues and challenges—emotional, interpersonal, and developmental.
Whatever brings you here, either as an individual or couple, we will explore together, at your own pace, and with your unique needs in mind.
I am a practitioner of the Hakomi method and Sensorimotor Psychotherapy for the treatment of trauma. My client-centered, collaborative approach is informed by somatic (body-oriented), relational, attachment, psychodynamic and social-justice oriented theories, Buddhist psychology, my personal insight meditation (Vipassana) practice and a deep connection with nature.
I am a PACT trained therapist and I welcome couples of all orientations. I am kink and poly-friendly, and hold a sex-positive approach. I work with partners on many different aspects of their relationships including pre-marital counseling, communication, sexuality, infidelity, building trust and intimacy, parenting, navigating differences and the impact of past trauma(s) on the relationship.
I invite you to contact me to schedule an appointment or to talk more about therapy and the way I work. I look forward to connecting with you.
Somatic Psychotherapy
“Long-lasting responses to trauma result not simply from the experience of fear and helplessness but from how our bodies interpret those experiences.”
Talking about trauma doesn’t make it go away.
If you have been told that, you were sold a bill of goods.
Focusing solely on the story of how the trauma happened can actually be dangerous. You can re-trigger the trauma, flooding yourself with intense, overwhelming emotions. Even your biology can change – if you keep re-living the story, you will strengthen the neural circuits for the trauma, cementing the trauma experience in yourself. That is the opposite of what you want.
Research shows that strong emotions, old patterns, and trauma are held in the body. That means that to heal these old wounds you need to access body memories. Somatic therapy (soma means “of the body”) uses talk therapy, body awareness, and mindfulness to access deep emotional pain to provide lasting relief from the pain.
Somatic psychotherapy is grounded in neuroscience, how the body stores memories, and how to release the pain of those memories.
Experiencing emotions in the body is a universal experience. A study done in 2013 shows that no matter where you come from geographically, the felt sense of emotions is the same. “More than 700 participants in Finland, Sweden and Taiwan participated in experiments aimed at mapping their bodily sensations in connection with specific emotions.”
Emotions can trigger body sensations, and body sensations can also trigger emotions, creating a feedback loop. With somatic psychotherapy, we can access painful emotions through body sensation and interrupt that feedback loop, creating lasting change.
SE INTERNATIONAL PRACTITIONER DIRECTORY
Trauma impacts physical health, mental health, learning, education, and multiple aspects of an individual’s life. Trauma is a fact of life; however, it does not have to be a life sentence. There is hope.
Somatic Experiencing (SE™) is a potent method for resolving trauma symptoms and relieving chronic stress. It is the life’s work of Dr. Peter A. Levine, resulting from his multidisciplinary study of stress physiology, psychology, ethology, biology, neuroscience, indigenous healing practices, and medical biophysics, together with over 45 years of successful clinical application. The SE approach releases traumatic shock, which is key to transforming PTSD and other emotional or early developmental trauma-inducing wounds. Learn more about SE.
Read more about our SE training that leads to becoming a Somatic Experiencing Practitioner (SEP).
If you have any questions, please reach out to [email protected].
The professionals listed in this directory come from a variety of backgrounds and are either graduates of, or current students in, our 3-year SE Professional Training. Make an informed decision. The contact information for individuals listed in this directory is to be used solely for professional referrals and is not to be used for marketing, solicitation, or other commercial purposes.
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Trauma is the result of an extraordinarily stressful event that shatters your sense of security, making you feel helpless and vulnerable.
Scary or overwhelming events trigger the nervous system to create enormous amounts of survival energy, preparing us for self-defense – this is our “fight, flight, or freeze” response. When we process such events fully, our nervous system can reset to a healthy state; however, if we do not have the opportunity to fully recover from such events, the survival energy can get stuck in our system, impeding our ability to self-regulate. As a result, symptoms such as increased irritability and anger, confusion or difficulty concentrating, withdrawing from others, and feelings of sadness or hopelessness may appear. Physical symptoms such as fatigue, aches, pains, digestion issues, insomnia, and muscle tension might also be present.
I often explain to my clients that our nervous systems do not speak English (or any other language); therefore, we do not always have a verbal way of fully processing the symptoms that are showing up. Just talking about the trauma is not always enough. Trauma is stored in the body, and one of the most effective ways of processing and healing from trauma is to work with the body. I use a method called Somatic Experiencing and trauma-sensitive movement therapy to work with trauma at its root, without re-traumatizing the individual.
Somatic Experiencing is an effective psychobiological method for resolving trauma symptoms and relieving chronic stress. It is the life’s work of Dr. Peter A. Levine, resulting from his multidisciplinary study of stress physiology, psychology, ethology, biology, neuroscience, indigenous healing practices, and medical biophysics.
As a Somatic Experiencing Practitioner, I have completed hundreds of hours of training, on-going consultation, and participate in my own personal sessions to more fully understand the healing power of this work. I assist new students in their learning of Somatic Experiencing at professional trainings in California and Melbourne, Australia, and I am an approved personal session provider for beginning, intermediate, and advanced year students who are working towards completion of the 3-year training. You can read more about Somatic Experiencing by visiting the Somatic Experiencing Trauma Institute’s website.
When bad things happen, it can take time to get over the pain and feel safe again. Whether the event happened years ago, or yesterday, you can heal and move on with the right treatment and support.
Somatic Therapy examines your mind, body, spirit and emotions
Past traumas can become trapped in your body … especially those experienced during your earliest childhood. Somatic Therapy explores how those traumas manifest themselves in your facial expressions, posture, muscular pain, nervous tics and other forms of body language.
Also known as body psychotherapy, this holistic practice examines your whole being: body, mind, thinking, feeling and sensing. At times, the focus will be on your experience in the moment, rather than reflecting on past traumas or stressors.
Somatic Therapy integrates current research in neuroscience, body awareness practices from both Eastern and Western cultures and aspects of several other therapeutic practices.
Decolonized Somatic Therapy is Embodied, Cultural, and Relational
My practice is Decolonized Somatic Therapy for cultural healing and embodied decolonization. Therapy that invisibly centers dominant modes of oppression has resulted in much harm to many, but particularly to BIPOC, Immigrant, & 2SLGBTQIA+ folks. Decolonized Somatic Therapy aims instead to support you in connecting to YOUR truth in YOUR socio-cultural-historical context in a safe, culturally responsive, transparent, and supportive therapeutic relationship.
Decolonized Somatic Therapy means I as your therapist commit to my own cultural healing and education.
I am thus an active participant in multiple supportive BIPOC groups that center decolonization as a core value.
I regularly attend BIPOC group therapy, BIPOC culturally responsive clinical consultation, & BIPOC traditional healing groups. This grounds me in traditional and contemporary BIPOC models of health, relationship, wisdom, and wellness.
Our histories, stories, & ancestral lineages inform our ways of breathing, sensing, feeling, acting, moving, & connecting. Cultural, developmental, historical, & intergenerational legacies of trauma, colonization, & oppression shape our hearts, minds, bodies, & relationships.
In response we constrict our body, cut off our emotional aliveness, believe false stories of our lack of personal or cultural worth, & disconnect from our worth.
These patterns of feeling, sensing, acting, relating, thinking, & embodying help us survive trauma. But over time they become habits. As we mature, parts of ourselves adjust to the shifting demands of life. However, other “trauma-holding” parts of ourselves get left behind, frozen in time, stuck in habitual trauma patterns that continues to send us signals of danger and tell us stories of our lack of worth.
At one time, these patterns helped us survive unimaginable trauma that overwhelmed our capacity to cope. However, over time, they become highly limiting, and no longer fully serve us.
Therapy is an invitation to explore, unravel, and shift what no longer fully serves, and develop creative, flexible, culturally and personally affirming ways of being in the world that helps us more fully embodying ourselves, our values, histories, cultures, and legacies.
Through connecting with feeling, breath, movement, sensation, posture, gesture, connection, & expression within a culturally affirming therapeutic relationship, you can develop a deep well of internal and relational resource. Therapy is a re-envisioning of cultural forms of embodiment towards radical aliveness, rootedness, vitality, creativity, meaning, connection, solidarity, & liberation.
The wounds in our society are collective, systemic, cultural, social, and intergenerational. The traumas of systemic oppression are pervasive and ever-present. So too then must be our healing modalities. I strive to work collaboratively to help you connect with broader social supports, access traditional healing, build beloved community, find your people, and walk the path of trauma recovery and embodied decolonization.
