Do you offer Somatic Experiencing therapy sessions in person or online?

For your convenience, I offer sessions online. I also offer both online and in person sessions in downtown Ithaca, NY on Thursdays.


What is the cost for a Somatic Experiencing therapy session?

A 50 minute Somatic Experiencing therapy session is provided on a sliding scale from $100 to $120. Scholarships are available for those in need. I do not take insurance.

Do you have experience working with Complex Trauma (CPTSD)?

Yes, I have worked with a number of clients with complex trauma symptoms and have taken additional training in somatic therapy for developmental trauma with Kathy Kain (coauthor of Nurturing Resilience). I have also been a teaching assistant for 2 cohorts of her year-long trainings.

C-PTSD is most often seen in clients who have experienced abusive, perfectionistic, neglectful and/or invalidating childhoods. However, it can also arise from high stress situations over extended periods of time – incarceration, war, extended political violence and oppression, membership in high demand groups and cults and even burnout and compassion fatigue among front line care providers and activists can create the symptoms of complex trauma. Journalist Eve Ettinger has suggested that burnout and C-PTSD share very similar symptoms.

Somatic therapy for C-PTSD requires a slower and more patient pace of work. At first, clients may find it difficult to feel their bodies or may notice primarily unpleasant sensations. Healing from C-PTSD means building trust, navigating shame, and moving at the pace that one’s nervous system sets for the work. Everything we do together is geared towards recovering an embodied sense of choice and dignity.

Complex trauma symptoms can leave clients feeling as if they are going around in circles relying on talk therapy by itself. Working somatically - with the nervous system and the body directly - can be a helpful addition to other approaches. Through my experience providing SE therapy in residential recovery centers, I am used to working with psychotherapists and other providers as a team. Learn more about C-PTSD.


Is Somatic Experiencing Therapy Helpful for Anxiety?

Somatic Experiencing techniques tend to focus as much on the sensations or “felt sense” of anxiety as the associated story line. Often, anxiety can be an expression of the Flight reaction in the nervous system – an overwhelming response to threat or perceived threat that may be more related to conditions in the past than to a client’s present circumstance. It can feel like a powerful impulse to flee, escape or be reassured.

With somatics for anxiety, we work with the sensations in the body that arise when we discuss the anxiety and its triggers. Clients learn to safely release the pent up urgency of the past events that get in the way of feeling present, safe, and resourced in the here and now.

There are, of course, real dangers and threats in the world to feel anxious about. We are not trying to extinguish our ability to notice danger so much as to soothe the nervous system enough to become resourceful in the face of those dangers and to distinguish between real dangers and imagined ones by turning down the volume knob enough to recover our sense of perspective. This lets us find options and strategies for action that previously may have seemed impossible to find or act on.

Can Somatic Experiencing therapy help with panic attacks and anxiety attacks?

Yes, Somatic Experiencing therapy can assist with reducing anxiety and help to limit and even stop panic attacks. Anxiety and panic attacks are often related to past traumatic experiences, chronic stress or attachment disruptions. Somatic Experiencing therapists can address anxiety through body exercises and other techniques that help release the feelings of urgency and loss of control. Learn more about how Somatic Experiencing can help with panic and anxiety attacks.

How can Somatic Experiencing therapy address chronic feelings of shame?

Chronic shame is often associated with feelings of inadequacy, worthlessness, and self-judgment. In many cases chronic shame is linked to past traumatic experiences including adult and childhood PTSD or from disruptions in attachment. Shame can result from any experience that damages a person’s sense of belonging. Somatic Experiencing techniques can help address and release these feelings from the body, making room for deeper self-acceptance. Learn more about how Somatic Experiencing can help with chronic feelings of shame.

Can Somatic Experiencing help address job burnout for those in the helping professions?

People who work in the helping professions, such as therapists, doctors, nurses, teachers, caregivers and social workers often experience burnout due to the nature of their jobs. This job burnout can deeply affect the body and mind. Somatic Experiencing therapy techniques address this by strengthening and developing places of resilience within the body to manage the stress and opening space in worn out hearts and minds to reassess and set boundaries where necessary. Learn more about how Somatic Experiencing can help those with job burnout.