Somatic healing is a gentle, mind-body approach to trauma recovery and emotional well-being. It supports the release of stress, overwhelm, and unresolved experiences that have become stored in the body. Through somatic experiencing therapy, individuals can regulate their nervous system, strengthen resilience, and reconnect with their body’s natural capacity to heal.
If you are feeling stuck, disconnected from yourself, or weighed down by past experiences, I’d be honored to support you in person or through somatic experiencing online sessions.
In the sections below, I’ll share what Somatic Experiencing looks like in practice, the techniques we may explore together, and how it can gently support your healing process.
How Online Somatic Experiencing Supports Trauma Healing
Unlike traditional talk therapy, which primarily processes life events through the mind, somatic therapy engages the nervous system to access and release experiences held in the body.
Through mindful awareness, body-based techniques adapted for virtual sessions, and practices that support nervous system regulation, somatic experiencing online can help restore a sense of balance, safety, and ease.
Developed by Dr. Peter Levine, Somatic Experiencing is a globally recognized, neuroscience-informed approach that uses gentle body awareness to process trauma, renegotiate overwhelming experiences, and support deep, lasting healing.
What Are Somatic Healing Techniques, and How Do They Work?
Somatic healing techniques are body-based practices that help you reconnect with your physical sensations, emotions, and inner experience. These techniques are rooted in the understanding that trauma and chronic stress are not just stored in the mind but also held in the body.
By bringing mindful awareness to cues like breath, tension, posture, and sensation, somatic healing therapy supports the nervous system in moving out of survival states and into regulation. Even in an online setting, this process can be deeply effective.
Over time, it can help release stored trauma, increase resilience, and restore a felt sense of safety and ease.
Here are a few examples:
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Helps anchor your awareness in the present moment by connecting to your body and the environment. This might include noticing your feet on the floor, your seat in the chair, or the contact your body makes with the earth. Grounding helps regulate overwhelm and build a sense of safety.
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Involves gently noticing physical sensations inside your body—such as warmth, tightness, tingling, or spaciousness—without judgment. Tracking helps bring unconscious experiences into conscious awareness so they can be processed and integrated.
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Guides you to connect with memories, people, places, or objects that evoke a sense of comfort, safety, or strength. Resourcing can stabilize the nervous system and build capacity before exploring more difficult material.
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Instead of diving fully into overwhelming memories, titration breaks the experience into smaller, more manageable pieces. This allows the body to process trauma gently, without re-triggering or re-traumatization.
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Involves moving awareness between sensations of distress or discomfort and sensations of ease or safety. This natural back-and-forth flow helps the nervous system expand its capacity to feel and release stuck energy.
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Uses your senses to explore the space around you—looking around the room, noticing colors, shapes, or sounds. Orientation calms the fight-or-flight response and helps reestablish a sense of presence and control.
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Encourages small, intuitive movements—like stretching, shaking, or expressive gestures—that help release stored tension or complete unfinished survival responses. This allows the body to move through what it once couldn’t.
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Focuses on the natural rhythm of your breath to support regulation. Rather than controlling the breath, you gently observe it, allowing it to soften and deepen at its own pace, which can bring a sense of calm and presence.
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These include visualizations or physical exercises that help you repair and strengthen your personal boundaries and create a sense of containment. This can be especially helpful for those who feel “too open,” emotionally overwhelmed, or disconnected from themselves
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Occurs in the therapeutic relationship when your nervous system attunes to the calm, grounded presence of a supportive other. This relational safety helps regulate your internal state and supports new, healing experiences.
These techniques are designed to regulate the nervous system, gently release stored trauma, and support the development of healthier, more resilient coping patterns over time.
The Benefits of Somatic Healing & Who It Helps
Somatic experiencing trauma work helps by addressing the root of stress and tending to trauma symptoms in small, manageable amounts. You may be moving through anxiety, chronic pain, C-PTSD, or burnout. Somatic practices help restore balance by supporting your nervous system’s natural ability to regulate, release, and heal.
Key benefits include:
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By tracking sensations, slowing down, and working in small, manageable steps, Somatic Experiencing helps your body shift out of chronic fight, flight, or freeze responses. Over time, your nervous system begins to settle into a more balanced and regulated state, allowing for greater calm and presence.
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Unprocessed trauma can create holding patterns in the body that show up as chronic tension or pain. Somatic practices support the gentle release of this stored activation, helping the body unwind habitual bracing and soften protective patterns.
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Techniques like grounding, orienting, and resourcing reconnect you with the present moment and your physical surroundings. This builds internal and external cues of safety, which are essential for healing from trauma.
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By learning to stay with and regulate difficult sensations or emotions without becoming overwhelmed, you build emotional capacity. You begin to feel more able to meet life’s challenges with steadiness, flexibility, and self-compassion.
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Somatic work helps down-regulate the overactive stress response that underlies anxiety. As your system learns that it doesn’t have to stay “on alert,” you may notice more ease, spaciousness, and the ability to rest and stay in this state.
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Somatic Experiencing doesn’t require you to relive the details of your trauma. Instead, it works through the body in a titrated, gentle way—helping you complete and resolve the survival responses that were interrupted and did not get to complete.
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As you learn to listen to your body’s signals with curiosity and compassion, you rebuild trust with yourself. This creates a more integrated sense of who you are—physically, emotionally, and intuitively.
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Somatic work helps you tune into the felt sense of your boundaries—where you begin and end—allowing you to more clearly sense what is yours and what is not. This can lead to clearer communication, healthier relationships, and less emotional enmeshment.
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As the body releases survival energy and no longer feels stuck in protective states, more space becomes available for joy, creativity, playfulness, and a fuller range of emotional experiences.
As the body releases survival energy and no longer feels stuck in protective states, more space becomes available for joy, creativity, playfulness, and a fuller range of emotional experiences.
My Start with Trauma
Not too long ago, in what feels like another lifetime, I was living in the aftermath of trauma.
Although I didn’t realize that’s what it was.
I was drowning in shame, lived with chronic pain, and suffered through lonely, depressive times before I discovered the profound impact of somatic therapy and somatic healing. I was constantly overriding my internal messages; I said yes when I wanted to say no, and no when I wanted to say yes, and I embarrassingly continued to create dysfunctional relationships.
I was suffering & felt trapped in my experience.
After having a really big wake-up call, where my deeper issues surfaced and became blatantly obvious, smacking me in the face…
I realized I needed to turn towards it.
I had already done psychotherapy, energy healing & soul work.
So where do I turn now?
This question steered me toward somatic therapy and other body-based trauma resolution work.
In 2017, I enrolled in a somatic healing coaching program. By 2020, I had become a practitioner of 5 body-oriented approaches:
Somatic Experiencing Practitioner
Biodynamic Breathwork & Trauma Release Practitioner
Yamuna Body Rolling Practitioner
Certified Sex, Love & Relationship Coach
Alchemical Alignment: Trauma Resolution & Embodiment of Spirit Practitioner
Through study, mentorship, and my own personal healing, I transformed long-held trauma patterns, resolved chronic pain, set healthy boundaries, and reconnected with my body. My anxiety eased, depression lifted, and I began living with clarity, confidence, and freedom.
Somatic healing enabled me to resolve the core of my original trauma and has become the foundation of the work I now offer.
I had been suffering from worsening anxiety, for which I saw a therapist and psychiatrist to treat… Sessions weren’t helping, and meds caused me to progress to full-blown panic attacks that were detrimental to my everyday life.
I was looking for an alternative and found Brianna… Through working with her on trauma resolution and my nervous system dysregulation, my panic attacks have all but stopped, and my anxiety is minimal!!!
Female, age 34, Registered Nurse
For the majority of my life, I had been suffering from debilitating stomach problems and poor digestion until I experienced somatic symptom disorder treatment, which brought me true relief.
Before treatment, these stomach problems controlled my life; I was always nauseous after eating every meal or even just something as simple as an apple…
Bri made me feel seen and validated, and that is something I have never had before. After two sessions with her, we did somatic trauma resolution work, and my entire life has done a 180. The problems I had with my stomach have gone away completely, and I have cried with joy to so many of my friends and family at how my life has changed BECAUSE of the work Bri did with me.
I have already gained six pounds back that my body needed! I have tried so many different things to try and remedy that issue (talk therapy, CBT, etc.), and nothing had worked until I went to Bri. She is an amazing human and healer.
Female, age 26, Student
How We Work Together
Sessions are offered online via Zoom or in person in San Juan Capistrano, California. I guide clients through somatic healing for people with trauma to release stored patterns, restore nervous system balance, and reconnect with their authentic selves.
Book an Appointment
If talk therapy or energy work has not helped you fully heal, or if you feel caught in old trauma patterns, I am here to help. Through somatic experiencing online or in-person sessions, we can gently work together to release what is keeping you stuck and create space for lasting change.
Healing is possible at any stage of your journey.
Book your appointment today:
FAQ
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Yes, Somatic Experiencing can be effectively conducted online, and many clients find virtual sessions to be deeply transformative. While traditional SE was developed for in-person work, the core principals of tracking sensations, working with the nervous system, and supporting the body's natural healing capacity translate beautifully to online sessions.
As someone who integrates mind, body, and spirit healing with soul-level work, I've found that the online format often allows for an even deeper spiritual connection, as clients are able to fully relax into their sacred space while we work together to navigate your body and nervous systems, clear energy blocks and restore alignment. This healing happens within you - I am simply holding space and providing guidance for your body's natural wisdom to unfold.
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The main criticism of somatic experiencing is that the evidence base supporting it is currently inadequate. There is only a very limited number of studies addressing the effectiveness of SE treatments for PTSD. For this reason, it is not yet a viable substitute for more well-researched treatments.
Some critics sometimes misunderstand SE as unstructured or non-evidence based, overlooking the growing research supporting its efficacy. Criticism of somatic experiencing of arises because it differs from the more dominant approaches typically used in Western medicine.
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Most insurance providers do not cover somatic healing therapy. Clients typically pay out of pocket, although some may be able to use an HSA or FSA card.
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Think of Somatic Therapy as the umbrella and Somatic Experiencing as one of the specialized approaches underneath it. "Somatic Therapy" refers to a broad category of treatment that focus on the body and how emotions appear within the body, recognizing that our body holds and expresses experiences and emotions, and traumatic event or unresolved emotional issues can become trapped inside.
Somatic Experiencing (SE) is a specific somatic therapy that focuses on healing the impacts of trauma. SE is a body-oriented therapeutic approach that focuses on the psychophysiological consequences of traumatic events and was developed by Peter Levine .
My Integrated Practice: In my work, I draw from my comprehensive training in five different somatic body-based modalities, including Somatic Experiencing as one of my core specializations. This extensive somatic foundation allows me to offer a uniquely rich and multifaceted approach to healing that goes far beyond any single methodology.
Having trained in multiple somatic disciplines gives me the ability to meet you exactly where you are and customize our work based on what your nervous system and body needs in each moment. Whether we're addressing trauma patterns through SE techniques, working with energy blocks through other somatic approaches, or integrating soul-level healing, I can fluidly move between different modalities to support your deepest transformation.
This breath of somatic training, combined with my mind, body, and spirit healing philosophy, means we can address not only trauma and nervous system regulation but also energetic imbalances, alignment issues, and soul-level patterns that may be preventing you from living authentically and peacefully.
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While there are some gentle somatic practices you can explore on your own for daily nervous system support and grounding, it's important to understand that true somatic therapy - especially for trauma healing - is most safely and effectively done with a trained professional.
Here are some somatic self-care practices that can be easily integrated into daily life, offering practical tools for self-regulation and grounding:
- Body awareness practices: Using your "felt sense" to access physical sensations, behaviors, and emotions through simple mindfulness
- Self-soothing touch: Place one hand over your heart and the other hand on your abdomen, focus on the contact your hands are making with your body and notice your breath
- Conscious movement: for 5 minutes, turn your attention inwards towards your body and slowly begin to move while completely focusing on the slow movement. I find this easier to teach people when they are standing to sway back and forth and feel the weight shift between their feet.
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Body Awareness & Tracking
These techniques help clients describe and track bodily sensations and feelings, and facilitate the discharge of activation from the fight-flight-or-freeze responses. Simply noticing what you feel in your body - tension, warmth, tingling, expansion - without trying to change it.The "Voo" Sound
This vocal vibration technique helps regulate the vagus nerve which is a key part of your parasympathetic nervous system. You inhale deeply into your belly, then exhale with a long, low "vooooooooo" sound, feeling the vibration in your chest and abdomen.Visual resourcing
using your eyes to slowly scan your environment and intentionally going slow and noticing pleasant beautiful or comforting things in your space. This might be a favorite photo, a plant, sunlight streaming through a window, or your favorite color. Allow your gaze to rest on this pleasant sight while noticing how your body responds - perhaps your shoulders soften, your breath deepens, or a general sense of ease. This technique helps your nervous system remember safety and calm through positive visual anchoring.
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Somatic therapy is generally safe when practiced with proper guidance. However, there are some important considerations to be aware of as you begin your healing journey.
Emotional Intensity May Surface
For some people, focusing on the mind and body connection may bring up strong emotions and memories that have been stored in the nervous system. As we begin to create safety in your body and nervous system, previously suppressed feelings, sensations, or trauma responses may emerge. While this is often a natural part of the healing process, it can feel overwhelming without the proper support.
Why Pacing is Crucial
This is why pacing and professional guidance are so important. Healing isn’t a race - it’s about honoring your nervous system’s natural rhythm and capacity. With my training in five somatic modalities, I understand how to titrate the work, meaning we go slowly and track your body’s responses carefully. We work at the edge of your comfort zone without pushing you into overwhelm, allowing your system to integrate each step of healing before moving forward.
The Importance of Professional Guidance
A skilled somatic practitioner knows how to create containment and safety when intense emotions or memories arise. I’m trained to recognize the signs of nervous system activation and have multiple tools to help you return to regulation. This includes grounding techniques, resourcing practices, and knowing when to slow down or shift approaches entirely.
Temporary Discomfort for Lasting Transformation
Any temporary intensification of emotions or sensations is typically part of your body’s natural discharge process - like releasing pressure from a valve that’s been tightly closed. With proper guidance, these experiences become gateways to deeper healing rather than sources of retraumatization.
My Integrated Approach Provides Extra Safety
My mind, body, and spirit approach means we’re not just working somatically - we’re also addressing the emotional, mental, and energetic aspects of your healing, creating multiple layers of support and integration throughout your transformation journey.
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1 hour appointments: $190
1.5 hour appointments: $285
Cards are charged at the time of booking. After scheduling, you will receive a confirmation email and separate intake forms. Please return your completed form before your first session.