Vision

To stop the impacts of trauma from being passed on to future generations.

Mission Statement:

Somatic Therapy Partners exists to help our clients to heal their nervous system, free their mind and elevate their Spirit.

First and foremost, STP supports individuals in healing from trauma through both body-centered (somatic) approaches that include innovative and leading-edge modalities.  Because we believe in treating the WHOLE person, not only are we interested in addressing symptoms but we also explore the impacts of a client’s social system that includes, race,  culture, socio-economic status, ability, religion, gender dynamics, sexuality and family history.

WE are deeply committed to a holistic approach to helping clients heal from the inside out and the bottom up; not just coping better with symptoms or changing thought patterns.  As such, we support our clients in exploring and including adjunctive services that support increased mental and emotional wellness.  We aim to partner with our clients on their healing journey and see our role on their path as not just their psychotherapist, but also their mentor, guide, confidante and safe refuge.

At Somatic Therapy Partners, we focus on healing the nervous system, nurturing resilience and increasing a client’s healthy connection with their body.  We believe that the mind and body are one and that when mind and body are integrated and regulated, capacity for service and spiritual growth expands. 

Ultimately, we want our clients to heal from trauma so that they can go into their families and their communities and be positive forces for change and growth.

Values:

1. Empowerment– When recovering from trauma, feeling empowered is a vital experience.  Through partnership and collaboration with your therapist, we want you to feel empowered in your choices and in treatment planning. We know that every client that walks through our doors has something to teach us and we support our clients in having a voice throughout their healing journey.
2. Dignity:  Dignity is the belief that all humans have equal worth and value. Everyone has dignity. Everyone has the same amount. It cannot be earned or lost.  Dignity is a given. It is an absolute. It is a non-negotiable right. Consequently, we honor every body and every client that walks through our doors regardless of race, color, religion, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, genetics, disability, age, or veteran status.  We are committed to ending racism and oppression in the work we do with clients and beyond.
3. Joy: is our birthright, an experience that every human is born with- the ability to feel pleasure.  Reclaiming joy from the jaws of trauma and experiencing it to the fullest capacity we have are some of the main goals of post-traumatic growth.  Feeling joy is an embodied experience and the more embodied one is, the greater the capacity for joy
4. Regulation– healing the nervous system to live more and more in the middle range of the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system where you get to feel relaxed yet alert is our number one priority here at Somatic Therapy Partners.  When we are regulated, more of our wisdom, experience and creativity is available so that we have more capacity to create the life we want and have fulfilling relationships.
5. Attunement: is the practice of being in relationship with yourself and with others in such a way that you are intentionally aware and curious as well as compassionately receptive. When we feel attuned to and cared about in meaningful ways, this fosters an experience of feeling heard, feeling understood and feeling important.  It is foundational to strong, healthy relationships and foundational for healing from trauma.   

Research shows that including the body in the therapeutic process leads to more beneficial outcomes. These benefits include:

• it resolves symptoms of trauma thus restoring access to ease and joy.  
• it reduces discomfort, strain, and stress in the body.  
• it creates a stronger sense of Self.  
• it builds resilience.  
• it increases a more positive relationship with one’s body. 

The field of mental health is changing dramatically and Somatic Therapy Partners (STP) plans to stay at the leading edge of innovative approaches to healing. Our mental health therapists are trained both as traditional talk therapists (top-down, cognitive approaches) as well as somatic (bottom up, body-based) approaches.  All therapists at STP are trained in various forms of somatic approaches to healing in addition to their core specialties 

Our work with you aims to heal and resolve the underlying traumatic stress that gets stored in the body during challenging experiences. We want to help your nervous system return to a more balanced state, also known as resilience or healthy nervous system regulation. 

Sign up for the Free Somatic Healing Foundations Course to learn more.

The Goal?

Harnessing the Power of Your Body’s Wisdom for Increased Resilience 

At STP, the number one belief that we rest our practice on is the belief that your body possesses powerful and innate intelligence to heal.   

While traditional talk therapy engages the mind looking for insights through talking and telling the story, it is not the whole picture. Our goal is to awaken people to the wisdom inherent in the body and how to access it. Trauma, depression, anxiety, and relationship struggles are problems that exist both in the body and the mind – so the cure must involve both as well. 

When we experience challenging or life-threatening events, our body’s survival intelligence of fight, flight, freeze, fold and/or fawn turns on.  During times of danger, our bodies are meant to react but then we are meant to come back into flow. However, if our systems are not given time and care to return to flow, people get stuck in a state of nervous system imbalance, also known as dysregulation/dysregulated states which can cause a variety of physical, emotional, psychological, and mental conditions. 

Resilience is defined as the capacity to recover quickly and effectively from difficulties. The way back to resilience from nervous system dysregulation happens through harnessing the power of your body’s wisdom.  Ultimately, somatic approaches restore joy, pleasure and ease, three experiences that cannot happen without a body!  So, you need your body in the healing journey. 

What happens in a somatic therapy session? 

To live fully we must be fully embodied, which means inhabiting our bodies with care, connection, listening and responsivity. 

With a somatic approach, clients become more aware of the body’s language and wisdom. We are here to guide you in the ways of listening and connecting to your body.  When you learn how to do this you start to feel more comfortable in your skin and you understand your body’s attempts to heal so that you can make new choices and create the change you seek. 

This means that therapy isn’t about reclaiming memories or changing your thoughts and beliefs.  It’s more about helping you become more fully embodied. 

Somatic therapy supports healing and embodiment through helping you: 

• experience safety at a body level through finding body anchors to keep you grounded 
• feel your emotions and the sensations and impulses that come with your emotions 
• slow down, get out of your head and back into your body 
• uncover habitual patterns in mind and body that keep you stuck 
• track the rhythms of your nervous system, 
• implement somatic and cognitive skills to increase your capacity for regulated or balanced states, 
• and eventually, trust your body to guide you through your daily life such that you feel more states of flow and ease. 

It is a collaborative process that fosters and forges a healing dialogue in which the client fully participates. Together we discover and listen to the story of the body, to the interior landscape of the person.

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