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Therapy for healing toxic relationships

Somatic Experiencing

Healing Childhood Trauma Through Somatic Experiencing

Somatic Experiencing (SE) is a body-based therapeutic approach that supports healing from trauma by working with the nervous system—beyond what traditional talk therapy can reach. Trauma is not only mental; it can also become stored physically in the body.

When your natural fight, flight, or freeze response was interrupted during childhood trauma, the energy that should have been released became trapped in your nervous system. As an adult, this can show up as ongoing anxiety, or feeling disconnected.

As a certified Somatic Experiencing Practitioner (SEP), I will gently guide you to notice physical sensations—such as tension, numbness, or restlessness—that signal unresolved trauma. Through simple, supportive movements and imagery, we will create corrective experiences that allow your body to complete its natural fight, flight, or freeze responses and release stored energy.

This process restores balance and helps you feel more grounded in your daily life.

Confident person trusting their own choices

Restoring Nervous System Balance

The goal of SE is to help you shed the automatic, unconscious stress responses that once protected you but now cause you distress. Whether your body defaulted to fight, flight, or freeze during childhood trauma, we will work gradually and safely to release those patterns. In time, this process can help you feel more present, self-regulated, and empowered to respond to life with greater ease.

Through our work, you will learn to expand your window of tolerance—the optimal zone where you can think clearly and feel your emotions without becoming overwhelmed. When you are within this window, stress becomes manageable, and your body remains calm but alert. As your resilience grows, you will better handle life’s challenges while staying grounded and self-connected.

If trauma in your past left you feeling helpless or stuck, your body may have defaulted to a freeze response—shutting down emotionally or physically to survive. While this once served a purpose, it can now leave you feeling numb, disconnected, or anxious without you knowing why. SE will help you reconnect with your natural ability to regulate, gently thawing the freeze response and bringing back your sense of vitality and self-trust.

Healing

People-Pleasing, Codependency, and Anxiety

People-pleasing and codependency are trauma responses rooted in unmet emotional needs from childhood. People-pleasers avoid conflict and prioritize others’ needs to maintain connection, while codependents may base their identity on being needed and feel responsible for others’ emotions. Both patterns can lead to emotional burnout, anxiety, and a disconnection from your authentic self.

In our work, we will use SE to bring awareness to how these patterns show up in your body. You will learn to recognize the physical signs of anxiety tied to over-accommodation, such as tightness in the chest, shallow breathing, or tension in your gut—and gently release the impulse to abandon yourself for others.

As you build body awareness and emotional resilience, it becomes easier to set boundaries, speak your truth, and live in alignment with your true needs.

Moving from Freeze to Fight:

Reclaiming Your Power

In Somatic Experiencing (SE), we gently work with the body to complete defensive responses that were interrupted at the time of trauma. For instance, I may guide you to imagine pushing away the person who hurt you—activating the muscles in your arms that may have frozen during the original event.

This simple but powerful action allows your nervous system to complete the “fight” response and release energy that remained stuck. As this happens, many clients report a sense of relief and lightness—as if a burden they had been carrying for years has finally lifted. Through this process, you begin to reclaim the strength and power that were once suppressed, helping you feel more confident and emotionally grounded.

This healing is not about reliving the trauma—it is about restoring your natural capacity for protection, boundaries, and choice. As your body learns that it is safe now, your emotional responses begin to shift. You become more capable of responding to stress from a place of clarity rather than overwhelm.

Moving from Freeze to Fight:

Releasing Stored Energy

If you froze rather than fleeing during an early traumatic event, your flight response may feel blocked or disorganized. This often results in a buildup of nervous system energy that never had the chance to discharge.

To address this, I will guide you through a visualization technique in which you imagine a screen in front of you showing feet running—not toward or away from anything, simply in motion. This imagery allows your nervous system to access and release the energy of the thwarted flight response without needing to physically act it out.

Clients often feel a deep sense of freedom and relief from this gentle process. Your body understands and responds to these symbolic movements, even if your mind does not recall the original trauma. The brilliance of SE is that healing does not require remembering or retelling painful stories—it only asks that we pay attention to what your body is ready to release.

Building Self-Reliance

Through Co-Regulation

If you froze rather than fleeing during an early traumatic event, your flight response may feel blocked or disorganized. This often results in a buildup of nervous system energy that never had the chance to discharge.

To address this, I will guide you through a visualization technique in which you imagine a screen in front of you showing feet running—not toward or away from anything, simply in motion. This imagery allows your nervous system to access and release the energy of the thwarted flight response without needing to physically act it out.

Clients often feel a deep sense of freedom and relief from this gentle process. Your body understands and responds to these symbolic movements, even if your mind does not recall the original trauma. The brilliance of SE is that healing does not require remembering or retelling painful stories—it only asks that we pay attention to what your body is ready to release.

Cultivating

Enduring Resilience

Trauma can leave you feeling hyper-alert or disconnected, uncertain of your ability to handle stress. Through Somatic Experiencing, you learn to respond to life’s challenges without becoming unbalanced. This is what resilience feels like—not just bouncing back, but moving forward with strength, adaptability, and hope.

Together, we build the foundation for lasting emotional health. You will gain tools that help you feel both grounded and flexible in the face of stress, equipped to meet life on your own terms.

A Path to Wholeness

Through Somatic Experiencing and Psychotherapy

This work is about more than symptom relief—it is about coming home to yourself. With my support, you will move from survival mode into a life guided by choice, confidence, and authenticity. Through this process, you will reconnect with parts of yourself that were once silenced or hidden.

As you release trauma stored in the body, you will begin to break free from old cycles of fear and self-doubt. Your body knows how to heal. I will support you in tuning into that inner wisdom, your roadmap to feeling whole, strong, and connected to your life.

Case Study:

Reclaiming Power After Years of Bullying

My client, a transgender man in his late 20s, came to therapy struggling with anxiety, low self-esteem, and difficulty asserting himself in family dynamics. Throughout his life, he had been bullied by an older cousin during family gatherings—a pattern that began in childhood and continued into adulthood. These encounters left him feeling small, ashamed, and powerless.

Most recently, a disagreement at a family event escalated into a conflict that divided relatives. Although he deeply wanted to speak up in defense of his immediate family, he found himself frozen, unable to respond.

In our sessions, we explored this freeze response and its roots in earlier experiences of helplessness. Using talk therapy, we unpacked the emotional layers of his silence, recognizing it as a survival response learned early in life. Then, we brought in Somatic Experiencing (SE) techniques to begin shifting this stuck pattern.

I invited him to visualize returning to that family event, but this time surrounded by powerful, protective figures of his choosing—beings who embodied strength and safety.  We recreated the moment in which he had wanted to act but could not, and I guided him to physically push against the wall with intention. This simple movement activated his arm muscles—the same muscles that had remained frozen during past confrontations.

We repeated the pushing exercise several times, each time adding a phrase like “Stop” or “You can’t hurt me anymore.” After each round, we paused to check in with his body—tracking sensations, noticing shifts. By the end of the session, he reported feeling lighter, stronger, and more present. A long-held sense of powerlessness began to lift.

This marked a turning point. He left the session feeling not only heard, but physically empowered—connected to a strength he had not known was available to him.