Body psychotherapy with a trauma focus

We are thinking beings, and yet we experience the world first through the body. Body psychotherapy works directly with breath, grounding, posture and sensation to reconnect body and mind. Change comes not only through understanding, but through new experience.

• Working with what is felt in the moment – not only with what is thought.
• Posture, breath and movement as doorways to feelings words alone can’t reach.
• Taking the body seriously as a source of wisdom and resource.

Trauma affects not only our thoughts and feelings, but the body and the nervous system. Somatic Experiencing®, developed by Dr. Peter Levine, helps gently release survival energy bound up in the body and guide the nervous system back toward balance – at your own pace, without having to relive the trauma.

“SE emphasizes the body’s innate healing abilities, encouraging individuals to listen to and process their somatic sensations.”

• Felt sense – the inner awareness of bodily sensation.
• Titration – in small, manageable doses, never overwhelming.
• Pendulation – the gentle swing between activation and calm.

Sometimes we feel stuck because one part of us wants something while another holds it back. Through the language of parts we can meet that inner counterpart with curiosity, understand its story, and slowly befriend it again – often a moving and healing moment.

“Meeting this new person can help us transition to a state of curiosity and compassion.”

• From conflict to curiosity: meeting a part as its own counterpart.
• Easing shame through compassion for our younger self.
• Grounding ourselves in the adult experience.