At Somatic Therapy Partners, we use body-based therapy to assist our clients with a wide range of issues — PTSD and trauma, anger and rage, mood disorders, sexual assault and abuse, eating disorders, and LGBTQ related issues.
Our body-based therapy aims to help our clients move from a place of surviving to a life of thriving. Through somatic therapy and the miracle of co-regulating touch, we help clients re-engage with their bodies in new ways, reacquainting them with the once lost feelings of resilience, confidence, hope, and joy.
Somatic Therapy Partners specializes in the following issues:
Anger and Rage
Do you experience uncontrollable anger and rage? Do you have difficulty identifying the source of your anger? Do these emotions impact your relationships with your loved ones?
Are you ready to start controlling your anger so it can stop controlling you?
Unmanageable anger and rage can lead to issues at home, work, and in your most important relationships. Anger may come out in unexpected ways, often as a result of past-suppressed traumatic experiences. At Somatic Therapy Partners, we use Somatic Therapy and Co-regulating Touch to help you understand and identify these complex emotions so you can manage your anger and rage long term.
Attachment Trauma
Attachment Trauma is a developmental trauma that develops when there is a significant disruption in the important process of bonding between a baby or child and their primary caregiver. That trauma may be overt abuse or neglect, or it may be less obvious, like a lack of affection or response from the caregiver.
Attachment trauma can occur from traumatic experiences in the home while a baby/child is forming the bond or from the absence of the primary caregiver through a divorce, serious illness, or death.
Our Somatic and Co-regulating Touch services aim to facilitate healthy attachment through mending broken bonds and reestablishing trust, empathy, safety, and boundaries.
Developmental Trauma
Development Trauma is defined as any adverse childhood experience that occurred between the ages of 0-18 that happened either one time or chronically, such as:
- Abuse of any kind
- Neglect
- Separations or abandonment
- Serious medical conditions and other issues
Children who experience Developmental Trauma are at risk of experiencing lifelong emotional, mental, and physical illnesses. At Somatic Therapy Partners, we use Somatic Therapy and Co-regulating Touch to assist individuals who have been impacted by Developmental Trauma — providing understanding and healing from the effects of these early traumatic events.
Are you curious if you are suffering from the impacts of early life challenges? Take this helpful quiz to find out:
The higher your score, the more likely that you have been impacted, psychologically or physiologically, by Developmental Trauma.
Eating Disorders
Do you struggle with an eating disorder such as anorexia, bulimia, binge eating, or body image distress? Are you interested in finding lasting freedom and healing?
Through Somatic Therapy and Co-regulating Touch, we assist clients as they heal from various eating disorders. By discovering the needed connection between mind and body, clients will uncover the core of their challenges and create a sustainable and healthy relationship between mind, body, and the food that nourishes us.
LGBTQ Issues
Are you facing issues related to gender identity? Have you recently come out? Do you identify with the LGBTQ community?
At Somatic Therapy Partners, we are here for those who are facing challenges related to gender, sexuality, and sexual orientation.
Our staff will meet you with openness, compassion, and kindness as we help you walk through the issues you’re facing related to your sexuality. Through Somatic Therapy, we will help you further explore your gender identity, how it impacts your life and your relationships, and the way forward to a life of healthy and happy relationships.
Mood Disorders
We provide services related to struggles with anxiety and depression.
Symptoms of anxiety include:
- Racing thoughts
- Excessive worry
- Panic attacks
- Feeling like you are on hyper alert
- Shallow breathing or holding your breath
- Tightness or pain in the body from habitual constriction
- Having difficulty getting grounded
Symptoms of depression include:
- Low motivation
- Difficulty concentrating
- Consistent feelings of tiredness and exhaustion
- Feeling lost in life
- Social isolation
- Chronic feelings of sadness and/or worthlessness.
Somatic Therapy Partners uses unique Somatic and Co-regulating Touch methods to help you re-balance and connect with your own body, facilitating self-regulation and healing from your chronic mood disorder.
PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder):
Nearly 50% of U.S. adults will experience a traumatic experience during their lifetime, with around 7.8% going on to develop a form of PTSD. Trauma can come in many forms. Some examples of traumatic experiences that can result in PTSD include:
- Assault
- Abuse as a child or adult
- Abandonment or neglect
- Violence
- Bullying or public humiliation
- Sudden accidents
- Serious illnesses or medical procedures
- Death of a loved one
- Natural disasters
- War
At Somatic Therapy Partners, you’ll encounter a unique approach to overcoming your trauma and PTSD. Through Somatic Therapy and Co-regulating Touch, we will help restore lost feelings of safety and stability and help you find hope, comfort, and freedom from your past trauma.
Sexual Abuse/Assault
Sexual assault or abuse is a nonconsensual sexual act in which an individual is forced to engage. According to statistics, 1 in 4 women and 1 in 6 men in the U.S. will be sexually assaulted during their lifetime.
Unfortunately, sexual assault can result in unhealthy coping such as uncontrollable anger, depression, anxiety, and feelings of overwhelming sadness. However, if this is you, you are more than a statistic. There is hope.
At Somatic Therapy Partners, we help victims of sexual assault and abuse find healing, restored feelings of confidence and joy, and find freedom from the trauma that is sexual abuse.
Safe and Sound Protocol
The Safe and Sound Protocol (SSP) was developed by Dr. Steven Porges who looked at the importance of one’s autonomic state when approaching any task or experience. This auditory intervention is designed to reduce stress and auditory sensitivities and further develop social engagement and increase resilience.
The nervous system is constantly evaluating situations and interactions with people in order to determine level of safety. When the nervous system is dysregulated, people have difficulty with not only listening to other people but also in comprehending the meaning in social interactions. Through the use of specially filtered music, SSP creates movement in the middle ear muscles training them to pick up on the frequencies found in human speech. This supports social engagement and regulation within the nervous system, and people are better able to interpret the meaning and intent when in conversation with others.
When we are able to listen to and comprehend human voices, then we are able to remain in a state of safety and experience a calm physiological state. When our physiological state is regulated, other forms of therapy are enhanced and people are better able to access parts of themselves which felt unsafe to access prior.
Research shows that SSP offers significant results in the following areas:
- Reduction of anxiety and trauma related issues
- Decrease in social and emotional challenges
- Increased social engagement
- Decrease in auditory sensitivities
- Increased attention
I offer this unique intervention through two options. Continue reading below to see which option most appeals to you!
SSP
SSP is designed to be a 5 day intervention to support you in reducing stress, decrease auditory sensitivity, and enhance the physiological state of safety through enhancing social engagement and resilience. These 5 days were originally designed to be consecutive, and depending on your needs, I will work with you to determine the best course for listening. During the 5 days, you will listen to the specially filtered music for an hour in the comfort of my office. I will provide quiet activities for you to engage with during the listening such as coloring, play dough, drawing, water colors, and the possibility of slow movements for example yoga. Some people choose to sit quietly and simply listen to the music. Regardless what how you choose to engage, I am there to check in and support you and your nervous system throughout the hour.
During the listening, shifts within your autonomic nervous system are occurring in both subtle and potentially big ways. Due to these shifts, my role in attuning to your nervous system and body is of utmost importance. I am there to provide you the support and guidance through these shifts while creating a safe place to listen.
Mosaic Journey
The Mosaic Journey was formed by Ana doValle who works closely with Dr. Porges. It combines SSP with art, yoga movements, personal narratives, and soul-exploration to bring transformation in a person’s narrative and a regulated nervous system. The Mosaic Journey is a 7-day intervention which includes the 5-day SSP listening. This intervention provides a portal for increased depth and richness in the therapeutic work between clients and myself. It enhances the SSP by bridging connection between body, mind, and soul. Through Mosaic Journey, increased flexibility within the nervous system, greater sense of embodiment, and increased resilience to stress is created.
Through the use of the Mosaic Journey, you may notice growth in the following ways: improved social engagement, decreased anxiety within social interaction, easier management of stressors, increased capacity to manage distress, decreased auditory sensitivities, and a more regulated nervous system.
I offer the Mosaic Journey and SSP at my office, and I will work with you to create a schedule for the 7 day or 5 day protocol. With any unfamiliar or new therapeutic intervention, I encourage you to contact me today with any questions you may have!
Individual Therapy Services Offered:
- Therapeutic Touch
- Somatic Therapy
- Somatic Supervision and Consultation
- Faith Counseling
- Self-Regulation Education
- Talk Therapy