My approach

I invite you into a process that is accessible, experiential and empowering. Everything we do will have a foundation of consent, co-regulation and collaboration. I provide a sturdy yet spacious container for all that occurs within a session, taking care to ensure that the process is metabolized and integrated.

Together we identify your goals, strengths and challenges. We set intentions and explore your history and beliefs. I will gently guide you to slow down and learn to feel into the present-moment sensations of your body. My emphasis is on facilitating the development of somatic skills and connection to self, so that you will be an active participant in your own healing and growth.

I may ask questions, politely interrupt or slow you down. I will listen to your words, while being attentive to the story your body is telling—offering observations to enhance self-knowledge. I might also provide prompts to elicit shifts in your perceptual focus, or propose activities to support your process of insight. Imaginal practices, tactile engagement with objects, or movement exploration are all potential ways to expand the resources you hold and meet the difficulties you face.

We will organically co-create a session that supports emerging potentials. A session often includes education in somatic frameworks, assisting your understanding of what we’re doing and why. Your body may need to find rest through co-regulation; self defence responses may manifest and organize; neural states may need to be recognized and parts may need to be witnessed.

While there may be uncomfortable moments, we will always work in a way that feels manageable. If tuning into your body does not currently feel safe, I will help you access other ways of connecting with the here and now so that you may begin to experience a sense of relative safety.

If you find it difficult to settle, our focus may shift to the stabilization of your nervous system, developing your capacity for wider ranging experiences over time. I will check in with you to see what does and does not feel ok and if you find it hard to know or give voice to your preferences, limits and boundaries, that will become part of our work together.

Touch work

Unlike other forms of bodywork, Somatic Touch is provided with the recipient fully clothed, lying comfortably on a massage table. This work may also be done seated or on a yoga mat.

We will discuss the parameters of touch beforehand and I will check in with you regularly. All touch will be negotiated and your experience and authority will guide the process.

When I make contact with your body, it will be with listening hands—offering touch in order to provide support, direct your attention or assist in containing activation. Typically, my hands will be still, applying minimal pressure. We will engage in dialogue about what you are experiencing from the inside and I will tell you about what I am noticing through contact and observation.

At its heart, this work is about co-regulation: my presence lends your nervous system greater capacity so that you are able to venture deeper into your internal experience without fear. My background in bodywork has prepared me well for engaging in this practice with sensitivity, wisdom and skill. Touch work is an excellent way to connect with the supportive aspects of physical anatomy and the beneficial properties of physiological systems. It is also an invitation to come into relationship with bracing patterns and emotional responses that may need tending.