Navigating the Social Energy Battery: A Proactive Tool for Holiday Parties
Work events and friend gatherings are kicking off, often demanding a high social performance. For many, this feels less like a celebration and more like a heavy drain on the nervous system. You may go home feeling depleted, having given away all your energy without making a single genuine connection.
Tending to your energy in all settings might feel daunting at first, but preparation is proactive care
From the Therapist’s Chair: What Happens in Therapy, Really?
Today, I want to pull back the curtain on what actually happens in therapy, especially somatic therapy. When we begin to track the body in context with our environment, what happens and what to expect.
One of the most common questions I get from new clients is,
“What should I expect in a session with you?”
It’s a fair question, especially when someone is already feeling dysregulated, overstimulated, or stuck in seasonal fatigue.
How to Ground Your Nervous System Without Overriding It
When stress builds, it’s tempting to manage it from the top-down. Meaning with thinking, planning, fixing or brain work. But somatic therapy reminds us: the nervous system doesn’t respond well to being managed. It responds to being heard.
Settling In: Seasonal Light Shifts and Your Environment
This November, we’re returning to the body.
As the light changes, so do we. You might feel it already — that tug to go to bed earlier, the extra effort it takes to wake up, or a desire to stay cozy and close to home. These are not flaws in your motivation. They’re physiological cues from your nervous system.
What Therapy Can (and Can’t) Do for Families & Couples
If you’ve ever wondered:
“Would family therapy help, or just make it worse?”
“Is couples therapy only for people on the brink?”
“Can therapy actually help our dynamic?”
You’re not alone. These are common and valid questions.
Let’s start this month by grounding ourselves in what couples and family therapy can (and can’t) actually do.
Working with Emotion Waves in the Therapy Room
This week’s Tend to it Tuesday post explored how somatic therapy and Emotion-Focused Therapy (EFT) pair beautifully to support emotional regulation — not through suppression, but by staying with the wave.
As a therapist, I see this integration play out in real time: when clients realize they don’t have to "get rid of" an emotion to feel better — they just have to stay present with it, safely.
Using Somatic Therapy to Support DBT in the Therapy Room
DBT offers powerful, life-changing skills — mindfulness, distress tolerance, emotion regulation, and interpersonal effectiveness — but for many clients, there’s a catch:
“I know the skill… but I can’t use it when I need it most.”
As a therapist, I’ve heard this again and again. And I believe them. Not because the skill isn’t effective — but because the nervous system needs to feel safe enough to use it.
Feel It, Don’t Fight It
This week in our September series, we’re exploring how somatic therapy complements the structured, skills-based model of Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT).
You don’t have to choose between skills and sensations.
Sometimes, it’s the combination that helps you stay afloat.
Using Somatic Practices to Support IFS in the Therapy Room
This week’s Tend to it Tuesday explored the powerful integration of somatic therapy and Internal Family Systems (IFS). Today, I want to reflect on what it means from the therapist’s perspective to work with clients who are building relationships with their internal parts through the body.