Somatic Therapy in Winter Park, Orlando & Online Across Florida
Your body is trying to tell you something. Maybe it's time to listen.
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Your jaw is clenched right now.
(Go ahead and check. I'll wait.)
Maybe your shoulders are up around your ears somewhere, or your stomach has been in a low-grade knot since roughly 2019. You're exhausted but wired, tired but unable to sleep, "fine" while your body runs a background program of brace-for-impact around the clock.
None of that is a personality trait. It's your nervous system doing exactly what it learned to do to keep you safe, without ever getting the memo that it's allowed to stop.
You've probably tried thinking your way out of it. Understanding your anxiety, journaling about your stress, reminding yourself that you're objectively safe now. And still your body keeps the alarm switched on, because the inconvenient truth about the mind-body relationship is that the thinking brain doesn't get a vote when the nervous system decides you're in danger. You can't logic a clenched jaw into relaxing, and you can't affirmation your way out of survival mode.
The problem was never you. The problem is that we keep trying to fix body-level patterns with head-level tools.
Your body has been keeping score.
Somatic therapy works from the bottom up, starting with the body and nervous system instead of only thoughts and stories. (Soma is simply the Greek word for body. No crystals required.)
In practice, that means we pay attention to what your body is doing while we talk. Where you brace when a certain topic comes up. What happens in your chest when you imagine saying no. The way your breath goes shallow as we get close to the real thing. None of those responses are random. They're information, because your body has been keeping a meticulous record of everything you were too busy surviving to process.
And then, instead of just noticing, we work with it. I'll teach you gentle, practical tools that help your nervous system complete the stress responses it's been stuck in, release what it's been holding, and slowly relearn something it stopped believing a long time ago: that you're safe now.
This isn't lying on a couch analyzing your dreams, and it isn't a yoga class. It's structured, evidence-informed therapy that treats your body as half of the conversation, because it is.
Knowing isn't the same as healing.
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If you've done therapy before and walked away with great insights and the same tight chest, you already understand the limitation. Talking happens in the cortex. Trauma, anxiety, and chronic stress live lower, in the survival brain and the body, and those places don't speak fluent logic.
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That's why you can understand your patterns perfectly and still flinch at a certain tone of voice. Still people-please on autopilot. Still feel your stomach drop when someone says "can we talk?" The pattern was never a thought. It was a body memory wearing a thought as a costume.
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Somatic work goes to where the pattern actually lives instead of asking your thinking brain to referee. We give your nervous system a new experience of safety, not just a new explanation of why you should feel it. That difference is the whole reason this works.
And because I pair somatic work with parts work (IFS) and hypnotherapy, we can reach the stuck places from more than one direction: through the body, the inner system, and the subconscious.
Somatic therapy can help with…
Anxiety that lives in your body: tight chest, racing heart, stomach issues, tension no stretch can reach
Trauma and PTSD, including complex and childhood trauma
Burnout and the "wired but tired" nervous system
People-pleasing and fawning (which is a nervous system response, not a character flaw)
Chronic stress, hypervigilance, and never being able to fully relax
Feeling disconnected from your body, numb, or like you're watching your life from the outside
Grief that feels frozen in your body and won't move
This is what happens in the room and your body
We talk. This is still therapy, and your story matters. But we also slow down and get curious about what's happening below the neck: sensations, impulses, the places where you brace. I'll guide you through practical nervous system tools like grounding, orienting, and titration (a fancy word for going slow on purpose so nothing floods you), and over time your body learns what safety actually feels like instead of just hearing about it.
You stay in control the entire time, and we move at whatever pace your nervous system can genuinely handle.
My training & expertise
Body-based work isn't a technique I sprinkle in. It's the foundation of how I practice, and I've trained specifically to do it ethically and safely. My somatic training includes Trauma-Informed Somatic Practices (The Namaste Project) and Foundations of Somatic-Based Practice & Embodiment (The Mindful Prof), both experiential trainings grounded in neuroscience, polyvagal theory, and frameworks including Somatic Experiencing®, Hakomi, and Sensorimotor Psychotherapy, with a strong emphasis on scope-aware, trauma-informed practice.
I integrate somatic therapy with IFS (Level 1 Trained through the IFS Institute) and certified trauma-focused hypnotherapy, so we're always working with your whole system: body, parts, and subconscious.
Your body isn't broken. It's ready to be heard.
Frequently asked questions about somatic therapy
FAQs
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No. My somatic work is talk-based and awareness-based, meaning I guide you to notice and work with your own body's sensations. Nothing physical is required, and nothing ever happens without your consent.
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Incredibly common, especially for trauma survivors and lifelong overthinkers. Numbness and disconnection are protective strategies rather than failures, and gently rebuilding that connection is part of the work itself. We start exactly where you are, even if where you are is "I have no idea what you mean by notice your chest."
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Body-based approaches are increasingly supported by research, particularly for trauma and anxiety. The growing science on the nervous system's role in mental health, much of it popularized by The Body Keeps the Score, is the foundation this work stands on, and I pair somatic tools with established therapeutic frameworks so you get both.
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Yes, and it translates surprisingly well, since your nervous system comes with you wherever you go. I see clients in person in Winter Park and online anywhere in Florida.
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Generic techniques ignore what your specific nervous system needs, and for anxious people they can genuinely backfire. I wrote a whole blog post about why. Somatic therapy isn't a list of tricks. It's learning your body's actual language, with a guide, at a pace that won't flood you.
More questions? Check out my FAQs page.