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.
What Kind of Grounding Actually Works?
In therapy and in wellness spaces, we’re often handed lists of “regulation strategies.”
But bodies aren’t checklists. They’re living systems. And when we override what they’re asking for, even a calming tool can become another form of pressure.
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.
From the Therapist’s Chair: Unpacking the Systems We Live In
As therapists, we’re trained to notice roles in our clients: the helper, the fixer, the avoider, the explainer.
But these roles don’t disappear when we become clinicians. In fact, many of us were drawn to this work because of the roles we learned to play early on.
How Relationships Shape Us and We Shape Them.
This week, we’re exploring family systems theory and attachment science to better understand the emotional patterns we carry into adulthood. Often, what feels like “just the way I am” is actually “how I learned to be” in relationship to others.