Connect with your body’s wisdom
Somatic Trauma Therapy in Chicago, Illinois
You’re tired of feeling like you don’t belong.
SOMATIC TRAUMA THERAPY CAN HELP.
You have difficulty being your true self around those closest to you. You put on a mask each time you’re with someone, but it’s not on purpose; it’s practically automatic. It feels safer to shift into who they need you to be.
Even when you're alone, you don’t feel fully at home in your skin. Whether it’s a low-level tension that never loosens or a constant sense of having to watch your back, you can’t fully relax and just be. You can’t remember the last time you felt fully at ease, carefree, or safe.
These responses may be a result of unprocessed trauma in your body.
The good news? Somatic trauma therapy takes a gentle, body-based approach that’s ideal for you. It’s an especially powerful approach if you’re neurodivergent, LGBTQ+, or have experienced childhood or relational trauma.
By easing into body awareness, understanding the parts of you that learned to put others first, and slowly building safety from the inside out, you can begin to feel more grounded, connected, and like you truly belong.
Sound like you?
A part of you wants connection and a part of you is terrified of it
You’re tired of feeling anxious, irritable and unmotivated
You wish the nagging shaming voice in your head would go away
You’re ready to prioritize yourself and get to the root of your struggle
What is Somatic Trauma Therapy?
Somatic therapy helps you tune into your body’s signals, using movement, breath, and awareness to process emotions, try new postures or gestures, and release stored trauma. It’s especially helpful if talk therapy alone hasn’t worked for you, or you tend to ‘think your feelings’ – as it allows you to heal at a nervous system level rather than just intellectually understanding your experiences. While we will evaluate the best approach for you, this approach is gentle, adaptive, and supports most neurotypes.
THE POWERFUL BENEFITS OF SOMATIC TRAUMA THERAPY
Our work together can help you feel seen and understood.
As a somatic trauma specialist and a survivor of trauma myself, I work to create a safe space where you can communicate your deepest fears, concerns, hopes, and dreams safely and openly, even if you aren’t sure what those are yet or you’ve never shared them with anyone.
Together, we explore the current symptoms that you’re experiencing, such as muscle tension, low self-esteem, hypervigilance, or more.
We’ll take a multi-step approach: I will help you develop compassion and understanding for those symptoms while working toward reducing their impact on your life. I’ll weave in a variety of modalities to help your body release trauma and feel more at peace.
We will examine how you think about yourself in relation to others, your work, and society in general. Doing so will require us to dive into your family history, experiences growing up, and patterns in your relationships with family, friends, and romantic partners.
Then we take time to build resources to help you respond to nervous system activation so you are able to process trauma and not become overwhelmed.
The goal of somatic trauma therapy is, quite simply, to feel better. That may lessen anxiety and depression, increase self-esteem, and help you feel safer and more fulfilled in your relations. Throughout therapy, you will learn that you—and your willingness to cultivate curiosity and self-compassion—are the key to your healing.
What SOMATIC TRAUMA THERAPY CAN HELP WITH
What if you could feel…
More at ease in your mind, heart, and body.
Less overwhelmed because you can listen to and calm the parts of you that feel scared.
Worthy just as you are, and that masking is an optional survival strategy.
Valuable enough to put your needs first because you no longer need to please people.
Free from past experiences that are still impacting you
With somatic therapy, your body is a gateway to healing
Your body is a gateway to healing.
Somatic trauma therapy starts with your body, because that’s where trauma lives. Through intentional pacing, gentle awareness, and nervous system healing, it helps you feel safer, more connected, and more like yourself.
When it doesn’t feel like “trauma”
Because your body is brilliant at adapting to your surroundings, your trauma may not feel like…trauma. You may not experience flashbacks or nightmares. Your trauma may show up as fatigue, low energy, and difficulty focusing.
Or, it may just feel like “you”—but a version of you that doesn’t feel good, safe, or connected.
Over time, these factors compound, leading to low self-esteem or depression. You start isolating yourself from your loved ones. The anxiety, fear, hopelessness, and panic won’t subside.
Now, take a deep breath.
If you’re feeling a resonance with this description, and it’s making you panic or shut down, that’s okay—and completely normal. You’ve landed exactly where you need to be to take the first step towards healing.
Questions?
FAQs
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Unfortunately, not all therapists are trained to treat trauma or were trained to get to the root causes of your symptoms. I incorporate the body by tracking movements you make and helping you learn to check in with your inner sensations because trauma gets stored in the body, and talk therapy alone cannot resolve that. Also, while I will help you build skills to reduce anxiety and depression symptoms, the work I do with clients goes deeper than that. The child part of you yearns to be seen, understood, and allowed to grieve what was missing from childhood—my goal is to provide the acceptance, nurturance, and compassion your inner child didn’t get enough of.
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I have had plenty of clients come in saying their childhood was fine. However, through our work together, we might uncover that one of their caregivers was anxious or had their own trauma history.
I have also had clients who didn’t know that witnessing fighting between their parents or having a parent who abuses drugs or alcohol can have a significant impact. Having undiagnosed ADHD or autism, or living with a marginalized identity, can also be traumatic since we live in an ableist, racist, transphobic, etc world. Trauma can sometimes come from places or things you don’t expect.
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Other factors can cause developmental trauma besides childhood experiences. These causes can include racism, homophobia, transphobia, xenophobia, ableism, poverty, and other forms of systematic oppression. Parents who immigrate to give their children a better life are often escaping traumatic conditions and the effects of those traumas can affect their children. Being autistic or ADHD in a neurotypical world can also cause developmental trauma.
Some religions also play a role in trauma, as they intertwine with and reinforce systemic oppression in the name of morality, which gets passed down generationally. This issue significantly impacts those who identify as LGBTQIA+, creating feelings of shame and unworthiness for people who don’t conform to sexuality, relationship, and/or gender norms.
Any trauma, whether inflicted by childood experiences or systemic oppression, needs to be processed and healed. Those who suffer from trauma due to abuse or neglect experienced in relationships can only heal through the experience of a healthy and nurturing relationship where your emotions and needs matter.
Trauma therapy can help you stop associating getting help with guilt and shame. Reaching out for help should be celebrated and not frowned upon, since it is essential to depend on others in order to heal from trauma.
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Many of my clients have had these kinds of thoughts. I view them as a coping strategy for intense pain and feelings that are overwhelming. Many, many people have thoughts of suicide. However, if you find yourself wanting to act on these thoughts, with plans, we do need to talk about hospitalization. However, that is a last resort option and one I always try to avoid as I’m aware of the trauma that can be caused by it. In our work together, I want to help you devise other strategies to find relief and understand that having these thoughts is a normal response to trauma and overwhelm.
FEEL SAFER, GROUNDED, & CONNECTED