Somatic Experiencing® Therapy

A Gentle, Body-Based Approach to Healing

Sometimes we understand why we feel the way we do, yet our bodies continue to respond as though something isn't safe.

As a Certified Somatic Experiencing® Practitioner (SEP), I help clients explore how stress and trauma may continue to affect the nervous system—through anxiety, tension, hypervigilance, shutdown, people-pleasing, disconnection, or overwhelm.

Somatic Experiencing® gently brings awareness to the body, heart, and mind, helping create greater regulation, resilience, connection, and choice.

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How Somatic Experiencing® Can Help

SE may support people navigating:

  • Trauma and complex trauma

  • Birth and medical trauma

  • Anxiety, panic, and chronic stress

  • Hypervigilance or feeling “stuck in survival mode”

  • Dissociation, numbness, or shutdown

  • Attachment and relational wounds

  • People-pleasing and appeasement patterns

  • Boundary and conflict difficulties

  • Perinatal and postpartum challenges

For Mothers

Somatic therapy can be particularly supportive during pregnancy, birth, postpartum, and motherhood—especially when trauma, caregiving stress, identity changes, or attachment wounds feel overwhelming.

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Motherhood, Generational Healing + Attachment Wounds

Motherhood can bring love and connection while also bringing unresolved experiences to the surface.

Somatic therapy can create space to explore:

  • Difficult pregnancy or birth experiences

  • Medical interventions or NICU experiences

  • Identity shifts and boundary challenges

  • Reclaiming your voice, needs, and sense of self

  • Fear of repeating painful family patterns

  • Building secure connection with your children

Healing what has been carried does not require rejecting where we came from. Sometimes it means creating space for something new to be carried forward.

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What Does a Somatic Experiencing® Session Look Like?

  • Slowing down and noticing what feels steady, safe, neutral, or supportive in the present moment.

  • Identifying internal and external sources of support that help create greater stability and capacity.

  • Noticing subtle changes in sensations, breath, temperature, tension, movement, emotions, images, and posture.

  • When appropriate, noticing protective responses such as fight, flight, freeze, or appeasement.

  • Approaching difficult sensations or memories gradually while moving between activation and greater ease.

  • Slowing down to notice what has changed and allow new experiences of safety, strength, agency, and connection to settle.

Is Somatic Experiencing® Right for Me?

You may benefit from SE if you:

  • Feel chronically anxious, overwhelmed, or on edge

  • Know intellectually that you're safe but don't feel safe

  • Shut down or disconnect when overwhelmed

  • Automatically people-please or appease others

  • Struggle with boundaries or conflict

  • Carry physical tension or stress

  • Feel affected by a difficult birth, medical event, accident, or relationship

  • Understand your patterns but still feel something is “stuck”

How SE Fits With Other Approaches

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SE can help build nervous-system capacity before trauma processing, support regulation during EMDR, and help integrate changes afterward.

EMDR + SE

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IFS-Informed Parts Work + SE

We can explore protective and wounded parts while also noticing how they show up in the body.

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Attachment-Focused + SE

Healing happens within relationship. We prioritize safety, consent, collaboration, and trust.

My Somatic Experiencing® Training

I am a Somatic Experiencing® Practitioner (SEP) and completed the three-year professional training program, including approximately 220 contact hours of training and more than 30 hours of consultation and personal sessions.

Advanced & Specialized Training:

  • Somatic Experiencing® Eye of the Needle Masterclass

    — Dave Berger MFT, PT, MA, SEP, BASE-P

  • Concussions and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

    -Daver Berger MFT, PT, MA, SEP, BASE-P

  • Advanced Somatic Resolution Skills for Perinatal Trauma

    — Abi Blakeslee SEP, CMT, MFT, Ph.D., & Kate White MA, BCBMT, RCST©,SEP, CEIM, PPNE, PLC

  • Foundations in Prenatal and Perinatal Dynamics

    — Kate White MA, BCBMT, RCST©,SEP, CEIM, PPNE, PLC

  • Unfreezing the Fawn — Somatic Experiencing International

    - Shideh Lennon Ph.D., SEP

  • We talk, but we also slow down and notice what is happening in your body. SE brings the body's experience into therapy so we can work with the body, heart, and mind together.

  • No. SE does not require you to recount every detail of a traumatic experience. We can work with what your nervous system is experiencing in the present moment.

  • Every nervous system and healing process is different. Some people notice subtle shifts early, while deeper patterns may take more time.

  • I offer secure virtual therapy throughout California and in-person therapy in Rancho Cucamonga, California.

  • For virtual sessions, a private and comfortable space with enough room to notice your body and surroundings can be helpful.

Common Questions

Getting Started

If you're interested in a therapeutic approach that includes your body, heart, and mind, I would be honored to support you.

You don't have to think your way through everything your body has been carrying.

Book a Free 15-Minute Consultation