Discover your own wild and precious self

A somatic coaching approach uses the connection between the mind and body to help clients achieve growth and overcome challenges. Where traditional coaching focuses more on cognitive strategies, we incorporate mindfulness and attention to kinetic communication to build broader self-awareness and make lasting changes. Working with the body’s responses in the present moment allows us to explore your needs, identify what nourishes you, and motivate genuine self care, without revisiting your entire history.

Our first meeting is a complimentary vibe check and a mutual Q and A to see if there’s a fit. The foundation of this work is sitting together in loving presence: if the sense we can build trust is not there, by the end of that first session, we’ll know. Beyond that, I want to know about your areas of interest and your current challenges and context, and I imagine you want to know about my background and what tools, skills, and coaching options are available with me. I am most comfortable with complete transparency, so please ask me anything and everything you want. 

Between 8 and 12 sessions are usually enough to achieve satisfying resolutions, depending on goals and intentions. Sessions are about 90 minutes long, and take place over time frames we design together to meet your needs.

These can include:

• Weekly sessions during phases of active change or with near term goals
• Bi-weekly sessions for slower processing or incremental self exploration
• Single 90 minute sessions for somatic inventory or specific consultations
• Double 3 hour sessions for deep work, body doubling, or field trips

Single session: $120 - 90 minutes together and a fifteen minute follow up call

Double session: $240 - 3 hours together and a half hour integration call

Four pack: $408 - 4 sessions (6 hours total) and 4 calls - 15% off full price of $480

Eight pack: $768 - 8 sessions (12 hours total) and 8 calls - 20% off full price of $960

Specifics vary, but we begin with a walk and talk in one of the many lovely area parks, or a nice long video chat, building rapport and setting intentions. In most 90 minute sessions we'll talk about your process and current state, then spend some time in mindfulness. You access your internal experience without judgment, while I witness and reflect what I notice in your body: posture, movements, expressions, breath. These explorations and the meaning you make from them will inform and empower you to better understand your underlying drives, detect your deeper desires, provide yourself with authentic care, communicate more freely, and pursue what you long for most. Later sessions will support you in integrating the new ways of being into your life.

An hour is about the time we need to do the deeper work of self exploration and getting out of the comfort zone. However, somatic coaching is about so much more than figuring ourselves out and making solid plans for change. You need a place to safely vent, to practice co-regulation, to celebrate your subtle shifts and big successes, to envision and embody your fullest and freest self, and to let your biggest dreams soar. That's the fun and juicy part that keeps you engaged in your process. All my sessions start with sharing and settling in, and end with some integration and aftercare to help you savor your experience and equalize back to a regulated state. Ninety minutes overall tends to feel about right, and I want people to plan accordingly.

Hakomi is a therapeutic emotional art. Like many philosophical traditions and martial arts, it rests on simple principles that are powerful and effective in the practice room, and can also be applied to all realms of life. It invites us to explore ourselves in guided mindfulness and approach our barriers to satisfaction. The principle of non-violence means those barriers are approached gently, with gratitude for the protective function they served in their time. Every part of you and your experience is interconnected and what affects one part affects all others. You are the expert on you, and every feeling is welcome. No project is more worthy than learning about yourself, attaining what has been missing from your experience, and finding the nourishment you need to live in your peace and purpose.

 I studied for two years with the Hakomi Institute after I benefited more from sessions with a Hakomi trained practitioner than from any therapist I’d ever worked with. Not only did I feel understood and supported, but I began to pursue and achieve my goals as I never had, in ways that continued after we concluded my treatment. While I am not a therapist, I am a deeply empathetic person equipped with extensive life experience and 117 contact hours of training to help you tune in to your body, contact your inner wisdom, and sense and fulfill the missing experience you long for. 

Therapy focuses on addressing mental health issues, often by exploring the past, while coaching focuses on personal development, achieving specific goals, and creating life quality improvements. Therapists are licensed mental health professionals trained to diagnose and treat conditions, whereas life coaches are not regulated as a profession and do not diagnose or treat mental health conditions. Therapy and coaching can work together; effective therapy shifts deep patterns and old beliefs that don't serve us. Somatic coaching helps make tangible what arises organically from the newly revealed life affirming beliefs, and embody those changes in our bodies and our lives. For some who want therapy but haven't had good experiences with clinicians in the past, a coach can dig into the underlying resistance with them, and help them open up to trying again with different therapists and modalities.