SERVING RESIDENTS OF CALIFORNIA, VIRGINIA, MARYLAND, AND WASHINGTON, DC
TRAUMA SENSITIVE SOMATIC THERAPY
Sometimes you can understand something so deeply with your mind, but your body hasn't yet caught up.
You know you're safe, but you still feel on edge.
You know you can say no, but your body freezes.
You understand where your anxiety comes from, but you still feel overwhelmed by it.
Sacred Space offers trauma-sensitive somatic therapy for adults who want to feel more connected and in sync to their bodies, emotions, nervous systems, and sense of self.
Rather than focusing only on what's happening in your mind, somatic therapy invites us to listen to what's actuall happening within your whole body.
Together, we gently build awareness, capacity, regulation, and self-trust - all to create space for healing that can be physically felt and not just understood.
Virtual somatic therapy is available throughout Maryland, Virginia, Washington, DC, and California, with in-person sessions available at times in Maryland
WHAT is somatic therapy?
Somatic therapy is a body-based approach to psychotherapy that includes your physical sensations, emotions, nervous system responses, and embodied experience alongside thoughts, memories, and relationships.
Your body can communicate things that are difficult to put into words.
A tightening in your chest.
A sinking feeling in your stomach.
Shoulders that brace before you even realize you're anxious.
A sense of numbness when something feels too overwhelming.
Somatic therapy invites us to become curious about these experiences rather than overriding, judging, or trying to immediately change them.
MY APPROACH
SOMATIC EXPERIENCING ® + TRAUMA-SENSITIVE THERAPY
My primary somatic approach is Somatic Experiencing® (SE™), which I integrate with other therapeutic approaches according to your needs.
Somatic Experiencing offers a way of gently paying attention to the nervous system and the ways stress and trauma may continue to shape our present-day experience.
Rather than forcing you to revisit or retell painful experiences, we may slow down and notice what is happening in the present—your sensations, emotions, impulses, activation, settling, and what helps you feel more resourced.
We move at a pace that honors your capacity.
There is no need to force a release, push through overwhelm, or become more connected to your body than feels safe.
The work is collaborative, curious, and grounded in choice.
TALKING ABOUT YOUR EXPERIENCES CAN BE VALUABLE, BUT THAT INSIGHT ALONE may not CREATE CHANGE
You may understand your patterns and still repeat them.You may know that you're safe and still feel unsafe.You may recognize that you're people-pleasing but struggle to stop. You may have processed something intellectually while another part of you still feels stuck.
Somatic therapy gives us another way into this work.
Rather than trying to think your way out of every experience, we become curious about what is happening underneath the thoughts.
What happens in your body when you set a boundary?
What happens when someone gets close?
What happens when you begin to feel angry?
What happens when you finally allow yourself to rest?
Sometimes, healing begins with learning how to listen.
who is somatic therapy for?
SOMATIC THERAPY MAY BE FOR YOU IF...
You feel disconnected from your body or unsure how to understand what you're feeling.
You experience emotions deeply or become easily overwhelmed by your internal or external environment.
You understand your patterns intellectually but struggle to change them.
You have experienced trauma or chronic stress that still seems to affect your body, relationships, or sense of safety.
You want to feel more grounded, embodied, present, and connected to yourself.
You want to develop greater trust in your own needs, boundaries, intuition, and inner knowing.
You don't need to arrive knowing exactly what you need. We can discover that together.
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SOMATIC THERAPY FOR TRAUMA & NERVOUS SYSTEM REGULATION
Trauma and chronic stress can affect the way we move through the world long after an experience has ended. You may find yourself constantly “on,” scanning for danger, struggling to relax, or feeling overwhelmed by emotions. Or you may experience the opposite—numbness, shutdown, dissociation, disconnection, or difficulty knowing what you feel at all.
DOES ANY OF THIS SOUND FAMILIAR?
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anxiety or panic
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hypervigilance
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chronic stress or tension
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emotional overwhelm
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shutdown or numbness
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dissociation
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difficulty setting boundaries
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people-pleasing or fawning
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difficulty trusting yourself
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feeling disconnected from your body
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difficulty knowing what you need
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feeling unsafe even when you know you're safe
Somatic therapy can help you become more familiar with these patterns and develop greater capacity to move through them.
Regulation doesn't mean being calm all the time.
It means developing greater flexibility, awareness, and choice in how you respond to what life brings.
WHAT DOES SOMATIC THERAPY LOOK LIKE?
EVERY PERSON IS DIFFERENT AND THUS EVERY THERAPY JOURNEY IS CURATED TO HONOR THAT DIFFERENCE. OUR WORK MAY INCLUDE:
NOTICE
Slowing down and mindfully becoming curious about sensations, emotions, images, thoughts, impulses, and nervous system responses to build greater internal awareness.
PROCESS
When you're ready, gently exploring and processing sensations, emotions, memories, and held protective patterns and experiences that may be keeping your nervous system in a loop of activation or stuckness without resolution.
RESOURCE
Developing skills related to grounding, orientation, boundaries, supportive movements, and other experiences that create greater stability and capacity within your body and nervous system.
INTEGRATE
Bringing what you're discovering into your relationships, choices, boundaries, and everyday life .The goal isn't to make difficult feelings disappear. It's to develop a deeper ability to remain connected to yourself while moving through them.
UNIQUELY CURATED FOR YOU
MY INTEGRATIVE APPROACH
While Somatic Experiencing® is the primary somatic approach I use, I don't believe healing happens through one modality or protocol. I tailor our work to your history, body, nervous system, identities, relationships, and intentions. Depending on what feels supportive, I may integrate:
Somatic Experiencing®
Body-oriented trauma therapy that supports awareness of nervous system responses and present-moment experience.
Mindfulness & Embodied Practices
Cultivating greater awareness of your internal experience while learning to meet yourself with compassion rather than judgment.
Internal Family Systems (IFS)
Exploring the different parts of self with curiosity and compassion to create harmony within, wounded parts, protective parts, and all.
Liberation-Based & Decolonial Perspectives
Recognizing that healing doesn't happen separately from culture, identity, family, community, history, or the systems we live within.
Brainspotting
A body- and brain-based approach that may support deeper processing of experiences that feel difficult to access through talking alone.
Psychodynamic Therapy
Understanding connections between present-day experiences, emotions, relationships, unconscious patterns, and earlier experiences.
Attachment & Relational Therapy
Exploring how relationships shape your sense of safety, connection, trust, boundaries, and belonging.
Ancestral & Intergenerational Healing
Building a clear awareness of and respectful relationship to what you carry - wounds and wisdom - from your ancestors.
SOMATIC THERAPY IN MARYLAND, VIRGINIA, WASHINGTON, DC & CALIFORNIA
VIRTUAL AND IN-PERSON OPTIONS AVAILABLE
Somatic therapy can be adapted for online psychotherapy, including body awareness, grounding, mindfulness, nervous-system work, and other experiential practices.
If you're searching for a somatic therapist in Maryland, Washington, DC, Virginia, or California, I invite you to schedule a free consultation to explore whether working together feels like the right fit.
FAQ: SomatIc Therapy in Maryland, DC, Virginia & California
01.
Schedule a free healing consult with Arielle to chat about where you are in your journey, your current wellness needs, and to learn about how she may be able to support you!
02.
After the call, if all feels in alignment and resonant, Arielle will schedule a time for your first session and send over a welcome invite to the client portal to complete needed intake forms.
03.
Then, the journey begins with your first healing session in person or online, where you will learn more about the healing container, what to expect with our work and begin clarifying and moving towards your healing intentions!
