Talk hasn't been enough
You've understood your patterns for years and can explain them clearly, yet the feeling underneath them hasn't budged. Insight alone often isn't where change lives.
Somatic therapy
Somatic therapy in Austin, in person and online across Texas
Body-based therapy that works with your nervous system, not just your thoughts, for adults carrying anxiety, trauma, and the kind of stress that never fully switches off.
What somatic therapy actually is
Somatic therapy is a way of doing therapy that includes the body, not just the thinking mind. "Somatic" simply means "of the body." The starting point is a straightforward observation: a lot of what keeps us stuck doesn't live only in our thoughts. It lives in the nervous system too, in the bracing, the shutting down, the reactions that fire before we've had a chance to think.
That's why understanding a problem so often isn't the same as feeling different about it. You can know exactly why you get anxious and still feel your chest tighten every time. Somatic work meets that gap by paying attention to what's happening in your body in the present moment, and gently working with it rather than talking past it.
It isn't a replacement for talk therapy, and it isn't bodywork or massage. Think of it as talk therapy that keeps the body in the room, so that the changes you make are felt as well as understood.
How I bring the body into the work
In practice, somatic work usually looks quiet and unhurried. As we talk, I'll invite you to notice what's happening underneath the words, a change in your breath, a tightening in your shoulders, a sudden urge to change the subject, and we slow down there. Those small signals are often where the real material is.
We move carefully and always at your pace. That means working in small, tolerable doses rather than flooding you, and building a felt sense of safety before going anywhere difficult. You stay in the driver's seat the whole time; nothing is forced, and there's no pushing through.
I don't practice somatic work as a rigid protocol. I weave it together with individual talk therapy, Internal Family Systems (IFS), and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), choosing what fits you rather than fitting you to a method. For some clients, that eventually includes ketamine-assisted psychotherapy; for many it doesn't, and body-aware talk therapy is the whole of our work. Both are completely valid.
Signs this kind of work might fit
You don't need to arrive knowing whether somatic therapy is right for you. But these are some of the things that tend to bring people to it.
Anxiety you feel in your body
The tight chest, the shallow breath, the sense of always bracing. We work with those signals directly rather than only talking about them.
Trauma that still lives in the body
Long after an event has passed, the body can keep responding as though it's still happening. Somatic work gives that response somewhere to go.
Shutdown and numbness
When the response to stress isn't panic but going flat, foggy, or disconnected. We gently rebuild a felt sense of being here.
Chronic stress and holding it together
For the capable people whose nervous systems never quite get the memo that the danger has passed. We practice letting the body down slowly.
Wanting more than coping skills
You've collected the techniques. What you're after now is a deeper, steadier sense of safety that doesn't take constant effort to maintain.
Sessions & logistics
- Format In person & online South Austin, plus virtual across Texas
- Length 50 minutes Typically weekly to start
- Fee $175 / session Limited sliding scale when available
- Insurance Out-of-network Superbills provided for reimbursement
You'll receive a Texas Good Faith Estimate before we begin, so you always know what to expect. Somatic work is part of individual therapy, not a separate program or fee, and it's available in person in South Austin or online across Texas.