Somatic Therapy and Integrative Counseling Services
Internal Family Systems
Somatic Experiencing-Informed Therapy
Polyvagal Theory
“There’s a part of me that feels one way… and another part that feels completely different.”
If you've ever found yourself saying something like this, you've already experienced the beginning of what IFS understands so beautifully: we are not one single, fixed self. We are made up of many parts, each carrying its own feelings, beliefs, fears, and protective intentions.
Internal Family Systems, developed by Dr. Richard Schwartz, offers a compassionate way of understanding this inner complexity. Instead of judging the anxious part, silencing the angry part, or trying to get rid of the part that keeps you stuck, we become curious about what that part has been trying to do for you and what it might need now.
My work with IFS goes beyond simply talking about your parts. As an advanced clinical supervisor, Level 3 trained through IFSI, and graduate of the very first IFS training in 2015, I have spent years learning to recognize these dynamics not only intellectually, but through the body and the therapeutic relationship.
I bring IFS together with somatic and attachment-based work, helping you slow down enough to notice what is happening beneath the story—to feel the protective patterns in your body, understand where they came from, and develop a different relationship with the parts of you that have been working so hard to keep you safe.
The goal isn't to get rid of your parts or become someone you're not.
It's to help you feel more at home within yourself.
As your parts feel seen, understood, and less alone, there can be more room for the qualities IFS calls Self, calm, curiosity, compassion, clarity, courage, and connection, to emerge.
This is the work of coming home to all of you.
Sometimes the body remembers what the mind has learned to move past.
Trauma isn't held only in our stories or memories. It can live in the nervous system—in the tension we carry, the ways we brace, the urge to escape, the shutdown that comes when something feels like too much, or the sense that we're always waiting for the next thing to happen.
Somatic Experiencing® (SE) is a gentle, body-based approach that helps us slow down and become curious about these physiological patterns rather than trying to think our way out of them.
In my work, we don't force the body to relax or push toward a cathartic breakthrough. We listen. We notice subtle sensations, impulses, shifts, and signals, working within your window of tolerance so your nervous system can begin to experience greater choice and flexibility.
I weave SE into my IFS and attachment-based work, because I believe lasting change happens when we understand not only what happened to us, but how our whole system learned to respond.
Together, we create enough safety to gently explore what your body has been carrying, without overwhelming it. Over time, this can create more capacity to stay present, move through difficult emotions, trust yourself, and feel more grounded in your life.
The body isn't the problem to be fixed. It's part of the wisdom that guides us home.
Your nervous system is always asking one question: Am I safe here?
Long before we can put words to an experience, our nervous system is taking in information—through our bodies, our relationships, and our environment and responding accordingly. Sometimes those responses make perfect sense in the context of what we've lived through. Other times, the nervous system can continue responding to the present as though the past is still happening.
Polyvagal Theory, developed by Dr. Stephen Porges, offers a framework for understanding these patterns. It helps us make sense of why you might feel on edge when everything seems “fine,” shut down when you desperately want to connect, or become overwhelmed by emotions that seem to come out of nowhere.
In my work, I don't see these responses as something wrong with you. They are your nervous system trying to protect you.
I weave Polyvagal-informed work with IFS, Somatic Experiencing, and attachment-based therapy to help you become more curious about these protective responses rather than fighting against them. We learn to notice the subtle cues your body is giving you, understand what your system is communicating, and gently build more capacity for regulation, connection, and choice.
Because regulation isn't about being calm all the time. It's about having more room to feel, more flexibility in how you respond, and more access to yourself, even when life gets hard.
When we learn to listen to the nervous system instead of overriding it, the body can become less of something we have to manage and more of a guide we can trust.
Somatic IFS
What if your body isn't getting in the way of healing, but showing you the way?
Somatic IFS, developed by Susan McConnell, brings the wisdom of Internal Family Systems into the body, inviting us to listen not only to the stories your parts carry, but to how they live and communicate through sensation, breath, movement, posture, and gesture.
This is a particularly meaningful part of my work because I don't believe healing happens through insight alone. Your body is part of the conversation.
Together, we slow down enough to notice what happens inside when a part feels afraid, protective, overwhelmed, or unseen. We might follow a subtle sensation, notice a shift in your breath, explore an impulse to move or pull away, or become curious about how your body holds a particular experience. Nothing needs to be forced or figured out. We listen with curiosity and compassion.
Drawing from my work in IFS, Somatic Experiencing, Polyvagal Theory, and attachment, I help you develop a relationship with your body that is less about controlling or overriding it and more about understanding its language.
Over time, this can create something profound: a felt experience of Self that isn't just something you can think about, but something you can feel, embody, and trust.
Your body carries the story. Together, we learn to listen to what it's been trying to tell you and find your way home from there.
OCD & IFS
Behind the intrusive thought is often a system working overtime to prevent something terrible from happening.
OCD can be exhausting. Intrusive thoughts can feel frightening or urgent, while compulsions may offer a momentary sense of relief, only to pull you back into the cycle again.
Through an IFS approach to OCD, we don't treat these thoughts, rituals, or protective responses as the enemy.
We become curious about the system underneath them.
Drawing on my specialized training with Melissa Mose, I work with the Managers who try to prevent uncertainty, anticipate danger, and think their way out of every possible catastrophe. We also make room for the Firefighters who rush in when anxiety becomes overwhelming, using compulsions and other strategies to bring the distress down as quickly as possible.
Neither is “bad.” They are parts doing what they believe they need to do to protect you.
Together, we slow the cycle down enough to approach these parts with curiosity rather than fear or shame. We explore what they're protecting, what they are afraid might happen if they stopped, and what becomes possible when they no longer have to carry the entire burden of keeping you safe.
This work isn't about giving OCD more reassurance or trying to make intrusive thoughts disappear. It's about developing a different relationship with the thoughts, sensations, fears, and protective parts that keep the cycle going, while building greater capacity to tolerate uncertainty and remain connected to Self.
Your OCD is not who you are. And your protective parts are not the enemy. They are parts of your system that learned to work incredibly hard to keep you safe. Together, we help them discover they don't have to work quite so hard anymore.
Relational Life Therapy
Relationships have a way of bringing our deepest patterns right to the surface.
The places where we feel most loved can also be the places where we feel most triggered, unseen, or misunderstood. We may find ourselves shutting down, becoming defensive, criticizing, over-functioning, withdrawing, or reaching for control, often before we even realize what's happening.
Relational Life Therapy (RLT), developed by Terry Real, offers a direct, compassionate way to understand these patterns and begin changing them. Having trained directly with Terry, I bring RLT into my work with a particular focus on what happens between people, not who is right or wrong, but the relational dance both people have become caught inside.
Together, we look beneath the conflict to understand the adaptive strategies that shaped how you learned to connect, protect yourself, and get your needs met. We name the patterns honestly, while holding them with compassion rather than blame.
My approach also weaves RLT with IFS, attachment, and somatic work, allowing us to notice not only what you're doing in the relationship, but what is happening inside you as you do it. We slow down enough to recognize the protective parts that take over, understand what they're trying to protect, and create the space to respond from a more grounded and connected place.
Because healthier relationships aren't created by becoming perfect partners. They're created when we become more able to stay present, take responsibility, repair, speak truthfully, listen deeply, and remain connected even when things get hard.
The goal isn't to win the argument. It's to change the dance.