Somatic
Therapy
Working with the adaptations that once protected you. Less talking about the problem, more feeling and experiencing.
You have understood things
for a long time.
You can name every pattern and still find yourself repeating it. That gap is not a failure of effort. Insight lives in one part of the brain and the pattern runs in another.
Nothing you did to survive was wrong. It was for a different life than the one you have now.
- You can explain your patterns better than most people can explain theirs.
- You have done therapy before, maybe more than once.
- You notice a feeling and immediately explain it away.
- Rest feels unsafe, or only allowed once everything is done.
- You are tired of talking about it and nothing shifting.
Somatic Therapy
You do not have to arrive with it figured out.
Arriving
A conversation about where you are now and what you are carrying. No exhaustive history required in the first session.
Tracking
We follow where the old strategies live in your body. Posture, breath, the reflex to brace.
Working
Slow, relational, paced by you. Nothing gets pushed open before there is enough safety to hold it.
Integrating
What changes gets practiced in real decisions and real relationships, not only in the room.
Relational Therapy
Many people move between the two. Individual work builds the ground, relational work is where it gets tested.
Somatic therapy in Ohio, Arizona and Colorado
What somatic therapy actually is
Somatic therapy treats the body as a source of information rather than a problem to manage. Talk therapy works on the story you tell about your life. Somatic work goes underneath it, to the physical patterns that formed before you had words, and that keep running whether or not you understand them.
In practice that means slowing down. Noticing where a sentence lands in your chest. Staying with a sensation long enough for it to change on its own instead of being explained away. It is less dramatic than people expect and more effective than most of them are prepared for.
Who this tends to help
- People who have been in therapy before and left with excellent insight and unchanged behavior.
- People carrying developmental or relational trauma that predates language.
- Chronic anxiety, freeze, shutdown, or a nervous system stuck on high alert.
- Anyone who intellectualizes as a first defence, and knows they are doing it.
- LGBTQIA+, neurodivergent, kinky, and ethically non monogamous clients who want a therapist who does not need the basics explained.
What a session looks like
We talk, but not the whole time. I will ask what you notice in your body, and if the answer is nothing, that is useful information rather than a wrong answer. We work at the pace your nervous system can tolerate, which is a real limit and not a matter of willingness. Some sessions are conversational. Some are quiet.
Licensing and logistics
Somatic therapy is psychotherapy, provided under my Licensed Professional Counselor credentials. I can work with residents of Ohio, Arizona and Colorado. Sessions are $150. I am in network through Headway and Rula for several plans, and the full list is on the FAQ page. You do not need a diagnosis or a referral to start.
Start where you are.
If you are not sure whether this is the right fit, start with a conversation. No cost, no commitment.
Somatic and relational therapy are psychotherapy, provided under Annie's counseling licenses to residents of Ohio, Arizona and Colorado.