A holistic body-based approach fuses techniques such as, but not limited to Sensorimotor Psychotherapy, EMDR, Dance Movement Therapy, Yoga, Energy Healing, Hakomi, Somatic Experiencing, Cultural Somatics and many more. Ultimately, it is process-oriented and committed to slowing down into the present felt experience. When it comes to healing from the root - breaking intergenerational patterning, healing attachment trauma and developing resilience it’s all about moving slow enough to notice, feel and transform. We practice this in sessions so you can live it in the “real world.”

If we go too fast you can get retraumatized or bypass important feelings that unlock your self-healing potential. With all my clients, I work to help them develop a strong authentic connection to their bodies so they can regulate and heal on their own down the road. One of the most powerful tools in your mental health toolkit that no one can take from you: Self-Regulation.

Healing ourselves from the inside out, from the Autonomic Nervous System up is a slow, gradual, non-linear process. This does not mean, however, you won’t experience immediate changes. While there are short-term therapies that are evidence based and effective (like CBT and DBT, both of which I use in tandem with Somatics), I have found both personally and professionally that long-term sustainable change takes time, intention and commitment. Re-membering the wisdom of our bodies is a process. Breaking the cycles and healing the unprocessed pains of generations is huge, sacred and worthwhile.

No. For me, therapy is a healing art and I am at my core a creative artist. I weave many kinds of techniques, concepts and practices together. My graduate training at the California Institute for Integral Studies provided me a strong practice not only in somatic psych, but also psychodynamic, humanistic and transpersonal therapists. From my personal eating disorder recovery and working in a treatment center as a provider, I am trained in CBT, DBT, Narrative therapy and group process. From my work in short-term therapy agencies, like schools, I am trained in solutions-focused therapy and motivational interviewing. I am a lifelong student and practitioner of expressive arts, movement and dance, and spirituality. I deeply enjoy working with clients who are students or practitioners of tarot, astrology and other esoteric healing modalities, and love even more integrating them into my work with folks who are curious about them. I am a certified yoga teacher (500 hour YTT) and Reiki II. While these forms hold great power and do inform my energetic work, they are not my ancestral lineage so I do not practice them explicitly. I am intuitive energy healer, tarot reader, and in deep relationship with reconnecting to my European lineages to heal, repair and rewild my magic.

In short, I have many colors to use when working with clients which allows me to really cater to their needs in any given session and moment.

Life is inherently traumatizing. Another word for trauma is overwhelm, the type that activates our survival parts (fight, flight, freeze, submit and attach). People are operating from their survival parts almost all the time if they have never done any self reflection work. It’s one of the harsh realities of our human neurobiology.

Systems are traumatizing. Living on an earth that is dying with massive suffering is traumatizing. Experiencing a pandemic, political upheaval, daily violence in life and on the news is traumatizing. Being told by family, religion or society that your gender, your sexuality, your body is sinful and wrong is traumatizing. Not being able to access healthcare, sit comfortably on an airplane, do the things you love is traumatizing.

Mental health experiences are traumatizing. Having an eating disorder is traumatizing. Struggling with addiction is traumatizing. Growing up with parents with undiagnosed personality disorders or other mental health conditions is traumatizing. Being berated by suicidal thoughts or self criticisms is traumatizing.

Many people have experienced trauma over and over again. Since the pandemic began in 2020, we have all been experiencing a chronic persistent trauma. When this occurs, our survival conditionings and the beliefs that protect them become stronger and more difficult to change.

The good news, however, is we can always change. Somatics helps us with this transformation from surviving to thriving even with life’s inevitable curveballs.

I call myself a Sacred Trinity Queer: my sexuality, gender and brain style are all non-normative. I am a Nonbinary trans person with the experience of being assigned female at birth. I am fluid with my sexuality labels, but always Queer. I am a proud Autistic / ADHD combo rainbow brain which gives me my super powers of empathy, connecting many dots and feeling deeply into what may not be said. I absolutely adore working with clients who shares these identities, who are questioning their sexuality, brain style or gender or who value the beautiful infinite diversity of how humans exist in the world.

I have been racialized White and come from lineages that traded in their poor immigrant card for The White Card in order to accumulate wealth and status. I am in deep relationship and process with other White European descent folks who are learning the truth of where they come from, who their people are, what their true magic is and what that means today for race, class, privilege and positionality.

I have experience working with all racial identities including biracial and mixed race. I do not claim expertise on anyones experience and am fully available for in the room processing related to the power differential.

I am in awareness of the irony and problematic nature of being in a healing profession that is intertwined with institutions, such as doctors and cops, that cause disproportionate harm to black and brown bodies. I am in learning with other clinicians on how to abolish the fields relationship with carceral systems like 5150s.

Sessions are confidential, virtual and weekly typically for a year or more, but in some circumstances can be as short at three months if the goal is narrow and the approach is solutions-focused. Integrating somatics is much harder in this timeline due to psychological safety concerns, however, not impossible.

Biweekly is possible after a client has achieved their goals for therapy and can begin weaning off sessions. Should financial hardship occur during the course of therapy, biweekly may become an option, however, is not recommended and will shift the goals and approach significantly.

For clients doing deep holistic trauma healing (my specialty), it is imperative to meet weekly at the same time because consistency provides safety for the BodyMind, especially folks with insecure attachment styles. To integrate new patterning after decades of survival based thoughts, beliefs and behaviors having a reliable container for healing is imperative for integration.

When working with deeply held beliefs around food + exercise + health + attractiveness + the body, chronic experiences of relational rupture, needs + boundaries + worth, suicidality, emotional neglect and narcissistic abuse, sexual abuse and CSA, and other complex experiences, healing takes time. There’s no way around it. Only through as the saying goes.

Working on the roots of our patterns and then RE-patterning them takes at least a year. Many clients who have CPTSD will need ongoing therapy on and off for the rest of life as some conditions are similar to a chronic illness.

However, regardless of pathologized diagnoses, our psyches and souls are infinite, and the conditions we face as humans are horrific. Thus there is usually always something to tend to, explore, and grow from, which is why some clients choose to stay in therapy ongoing without an end date if appropriate. There are always stated goals we are collaborating on regardless of timeline.

I am a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist #138467 registered in California.

I predominantly work with virtually with folks residing in California at this time.

I lived in The Bay for 10 years and relocated back to the East Coast for family and an ancestral call. My office is located in Southern Maine.

Beginning in 2024, I will offer in-person therapy for 1-2 months of the year for established clients who want to do hands-on and movement based somati work, such as Somatic Experiencing and Authentic Movement.

Individual sessions cost $225 for 45 minutes

Relational sessions (2 or more people) cost $252 for 45 minutes or $333 for 90 minutes

I do not take insurance, but if you meet the criteria for a diagnosis as determined by our intake and initial session, I am able to provide monthly superbills. Clients are charged by Ivy Pay at the start of session to the credit card/HSA on file on the date of service.

I recommend clients call their insurance carriers to ask if they provide reimbursement for out-of-network therapy. If yes, be sure to ask about your deductible, reimbursement rate and if there is a limit to sessions per year.

Not this type of therapy. It is not the same as getting a yearly check-up with your doctor, and although it has some overlap with the medical world, the way I practice and the way I’m trained as a Somatic Psychotherapist, is not a medical model. It is about whole-person-healing and post-traumatic-growth which, unfortunately, the medical establishment and insurance companies do not value and will not pay for (sort of). To them, it is seen as frivolous, rather than necessary and liberatory.

Therapy - like buying a house or getting a degree, is an investment that changes your life forever. It is a fully customizable all-about-you space that provides a laboratory for your growth and development in all areas of life, from the bottom of the iceberg to the top.

An ethical consideration one might reflect on is if you are a person with expendable income (income after shelter, food, healthcare and transit). If you are, you can help relieve the burden on the in-network mental healthcare system by paying out of pocket.

Due to the systemic reality that our mental healthcare system is overtaxed, broken and widely underfunded, I recommend clients to be in intimate relationship with their finances so they can feel grounded in their decision to pursue the investment in somatic psychotherapy - a highly specialized field of therapy that goes slow and deep to provide long-lasting health.

Like medical specialties, it requires more years of school, training, hard + soft skills, attunement and artistry. It is not here to just help you cope with life, though it does have that impact. It is here to help you heal from the root - a radical act of service for collective evolution.

If you are someone with development trauma, complex trauma or imagine you will need multiyear therapeutic work (as so many of us do), I recommend allocating 10% of your yearly income to Psychotherapy and exploring health insurance plans that provide an out-of-network reimbursement rate for psychotherapy. I offer sessions 44 weeks out of the 52 week year and allow clients one free missed session per quarter / 4 per year, so the maximum you will pay for a full year of Somatic Psychotherapy is $9,000 for Individuals and up to $13,320 for Couples, Throuples and more. Keep your receipts for tax season as they are out of pocket expenses you can deduct if you itemize your returns.

Money and access can really activate our survival parts, especially feelings of overwhelm and shame which freeze us from moving forward with the changes we know we need.

If you need help with becoming intimate and empowered with your finances in order to invest in Somatic Psychotherapy, I recommend the work of The MoneyWitch.

By booking a free 15-30 minute consult call with me. These are calls to determine if we are a good fit for working together. I will ask you a few questions like what brings you to therapy, your history with therapy, etc. You can ask any questions you might have and I will detail the logistics of my practice.

If we mutually decide to move forward, we will pick a time during my work schedule (Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays) to meet regularly for 45 minutes each week.

In our initial session together we will review consent forms, set up the Ivy Pay, get to know each other better and your goals better.

Over the course of the first three to five sessions, we will do a combination of:

1. Building our therapeutic relationship - the single most important factor for effective treatment

2. Me asking a lot of background questions to get a holistic understanding of your experience

3. Tending to any present moment needs such as stress

By the end of these phase 1 sessions we will move into the middle phase of therapy where we get to work on your goals. This is the bulk of our sessions together.

The third phase - termination, is about choosing a specific date to end our therapeutic relationship and process this ending leading up to it. It is one of the most potent forms of therapy - actually having a good relational ending. Often, sessions will wean off before this date such as moving to biweekly and in some cases one a month.

I reserve a few reduced fee slots in my practice for folks who do not have the means at this time to afford my full fee.

I encourage all prospective clients to be in active relationship with their finances to determine why they may or may not be able to afford my full fee so as to encourage self reflection, values based budgeting and a fair energetic exchange between client and clinician.

Affordability refers to ones expendable income after required life costs such as rent and utilities, transportation, and fixed bills like phone, internet and minimum credit card payments, and some food costs.

To learn more about how my reduced fee/sliding scale works, book a consult.