Queer Affirming Psychotherapy

Somatic psychotherapy, or somatic therapy, is an approach to mental health therapy that incorporates your bodily experience of emotions. Have you tried therapy and felt that focusing on thoughts alone was not enough or not a good match for your needs? Somatic psychotherapy shifts curiosity toward sensations, embodied emotions, psychological trauma in the body, and our psychological experience of nervous system regulation beyond thoughts in the brain.

You suppress your emotions and want to learn how to accept and cope without avoidance

You want to heal from psychological trauma and invite ways of healing your body’s experience of the trauma

You feel your experience of depression, anxiety, stress, etc. in your body is part of your difficulty and you want to shift that

You want a therapist who talks about mind-body connections

You want your body’s experience of emotions to feel more manageable, empowering, and guiding than overwhelming, scary, and inconvenient.

Trauma, post-traumatic stress, complex trauma

Stress

Anxiety

Depression

Grief and loss

Anger

Identity difficulties

Low self-esteem

PMDD

Somatic psychotherapy emphasizes aiding clients in developing resources within themselves to support self-regulation and build trust in one’s own ability to adjust to life events and stressors.

Awareness of the body is integral to the process. It’s ok if someone starts with low awareness of the body; actually, this is a good fit! This offers an opportunity for someone to learn new ways of self-awareness and new ways of coping.

Grounding techniques and centering oneself in their own experience is a foundational practice to build a sense of a safe “home” in the body.