Somatic Psychotherapy
Somatic Psychotherapy is the primary service that I offer, and the foundation of the work.
At Beyond the Mind, we believe it’s time to change our conceptualization of the term ‘trauma’. From a clinical perspective, it seems that very few people go through life without some kind of nervous system disruption that plays out over time in a disruptive way. A somatic therapeutic foundation allows us to work with a range of experiences from complex, attachment, & severe relational trauma and various types of neglect, to ‘event’ traumas, all the way to life experiences and disruptions that wouldn’t traditionally hit the radar as trauma. Additionally, we interweave different strategies of working with parts of ourselves, and believe that the multiplicity of the mind is a standard human experience, not an outlying condition.
Online or in person available
What to Expect
How is somatic psychotherapy different from regular therapy?
Working somatically to address trauma and resolve nervous system disruptions is a very different strategy from traditional talk therapy. Clinically, and for our own healing, we want to carefully choose the right tool for the job. For a long time, people with trauma and nervous system disruptions have looked to traditional therapy strategies as the primary healing modality. However, healing trauma requires a different set of tools, skills, strategies and philosophies in order to actually resolve the trauma rather than working hard to out think it or covering it up with coping skills and insights.
At Beyond the Mind, we may utilize diagnostic terminology and available diagnostic conceptualizations, but only as they are useful therapeutically. However, we largely support and prefer the movement away from pathologizing mental health. We believe in healing the whole person, take a holistic and person-centered approach, and know that healing is a complex and multidimensional puzzle. Learning to track ourselves and our bodies, both from a somatic and a parts work perspective, is the foundation of the work and is deeply powerful on its own. We also believe that this foundational approach greatly enhances psychedelic assisted psychotherapy experiences as well.
When you join me in therapy, we work collaboratively to figure out your life puzzle and the ways in which your experiences from the past may be adversely impacting your experiences in the present. We will explore the effect and influence of relationships, your nervous system, your emotional being, and all of the parts of you that may have conflicting messages and needs. Somatic and parts work will likely be our primary foundational approach in therapy.