Somatic Therapy as a Lived Experience: Carla's Journey of Becoming a Healing Healer
Education Journey, Overcoming Trauma & Discovering Somatic Experiencing
Somatic Practices, Minimalist Living, & Purposeful Wanderlust
The Music Inside & Rewiring Cycles of Stuckness
Running on Faith & Recognizing Privilege : Settling into Life in Spain
Is Your Nervous System Dysregulated?
When a system is dysregulated the resting baseline is higher, leading to quicker reactions rather than measured responses. Sometimes somatic awareness and reregulation integration needs space to move through all the levels in the body, from the circulatory, nervous, respiratory, digestive and skeletal systems.
If this applies to you, it may be worth exploring
Somatic Therapy:
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Struggle with knowing, sensing and communicating your needs
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Difficulty in being present to your body sensations
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Vivid and varied uncomfortable body sensations or unexplainable aches
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Feel unreasonably suspicious or weary of others’ intentions
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Strong, overwhelming fears of failure or success
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Difficulty concentrating because of overwhelming thoughts
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Experience an excessive need to plan for and be in control of your life
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Struggle with feelings of dissociation and disconnection
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Difficulty with sleep, digestion, and other physiological needs
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Feel especially foggy or out of touch with reality for a prolonged period of time
What is Somatic Experiencing ?
Trauma need not be something drastic. Trauma as defined by Dr. Peter Levine is anything that is too soon too much or too fast for the body to respond and reregulate. Somatic Experiencing is a holistic mind-body integration and stress regulation approach resetting the natural rhythm of the nervous system and helps to increase one's capacity to cope with stress from a place of intentional response rather than spontaneous reaction. SE focuses on developing coherence between the parasympathetic and the sympathetic nervous systems, to unfreeze stuck responses, to restore the defense response, to promote a reregulation of stress.
Somatic Experiencing focuses on nervous system regulation and providing closure to traumatic symptoms. As observed in evolutionary psychology, when animals face a threat, there is a release of chemicals such as adrenaline and cortisol to signal preparation for attack. When the threat passes, survival reactions shift toward release of that stress, with movements such as shaking, sighing, or stretching before the animal returns to normal behavior.
Do You Want To Feel Free & Light in Mind, Body, & Soul?
Regulated autonomic nervous systems can induce a state of “biological completion” in which stuck arousal energy is released and the system is restored to balance. A resilient nervous system is one that can move back and forth between alertness and rest.
Benefits of Somatic Experiencing Include:
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Fewer body and emotional pains
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Easier and more effective completion of daily activities
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More positive and stable affect and moods
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Increased compassion toward oneself and others
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Positive changes in behavior, attitudes, and beliefs
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More constructive and heart-centered communication
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Increased problem-solving capacity
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Greater openness and mindset flexibility
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Clearer reasoning capabilities and a deeper breadth of intuitive knowing
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Increased calm and confidence throughout your day
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Greater ease in learning new abilities and skills
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Asserting and practicing resilience
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Embodied mind-body-heart integration
Vicacious & Zesty Approach to Inner Growth
Education is the marrow of my soul. I am a Brazilian-born American scholar and intuitive healer who has made a home for herself in Spain after a two-year exploratory trip around the world. Ever the philosopher, my overarching question was “how do people in the world process and understand suffering, and how do they move through it? How do people from different cultures and experiences find peace being exactly where they are?”
Traveling cemented in me new patterns of relating and perceiving that connected me to my core values of integrity, curiosity, resilience, and community. The ever-changing dynamics also helped me to ground in myself more consistently, showing me the authentic origin of strength within, giving me a chance to work through different layers of my integration journey.
Training & Therapy Style
I have gone through a rigorous academic and training process to develop skills that have prepared me to be of service, but I am also an expert in somatic healing work because I have had the grit of moving through my own experiences even at difficult times when I didn’t know where I would sleep the next day. I have learned the hard way how to sense a no a say it out loud, and I have lived the consequences when I betrayed my intuition. I am an expert at reading the body, understanding how sexuality expression affects aspects of personality, evaluating mental and energetic patterns and brainstorming unique ways of breaking through the unhealthy ones. It is my joy to share what I have learned with others and to develop it into a framework for real change. I honor the gift and trust of receiving your nervous system.
Humans have a natural negativity bias, focusing on threat more than safety. Approximately 80% of the way our brains valuate safety or threat comes from messages from the internal organs via neurons connected to the vagus nerve. Outdated holding patterns in the body perpetuate a feeling of threat and trauma responses continue in spite of our cognitive minds telling us that it is safe. Our mind/body may respond to threats from the past that are no longer present. Without intervention, the body gets worn down by the hyperarousal and the lack of subsequent regulation. This can lead to deleterious consequences over the long run. Do not continue to stay stuck in a cage of your own making!
I have a deep conviction about harnessing the wisdom of the body to find integration from within. At its best, SE aligns me as a conduit to facilitate others. I open myself up energetically to be receptive to you and your needs. I offer a holistic therapeutic approach targeted to fit client needs, and am dedicated to investigating and guiding experiences in the somatic ethereal realm while also staying rooted in proven scientific methods and techniques.
As a practitioner I am keenly attuning to the client’s body experience and I am passionate about the impact and potency of somatic experiencing. My hope is that you experience greater peace of mind, softness of heart, and conviction in your life choices after somatic experiencing sessions. Rooted in my offerings is a clarification and attunement to a new way of relating to the nervous system. I consider it very much a sacred service. If you resonate with this, do not hesitate to schedule a free consult!
Conceptual Foundations and Techniques
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somatic experiencing
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nonviolent communication (NVC)
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sensate focus
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trauma resiliency model (TRM)
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schema-focused cognitive therapy
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narrative therapy model
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trauma releasing exercises (TRE)
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inner child work
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personal projects analysis (PPA)
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tantric and conscious sexuality techniques
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cross-cultural psychology
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rebirthing and biodynamic breathwork
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theater drama therapy and theater of the oppressed exercises
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emotional freedom technique (EFT)
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imago relationship therapy
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intuitive wisdom practices
Topics of Interest
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developmental trauma/ C-PTSD
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spirituality and philosophy
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emotional labor and feminism
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boundary-setting/ healthy self-esteem
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bioenergetics
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dance movement psychotherapy
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authentic relating
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overcoming trauma bonding and narcissistic abuse
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somatic sexological bodywork
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conscious sexuality
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relationship repair/ conflict resolution
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attachment trauma
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diversity and immigration issues
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community building and activism
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socio-economic inequality, privilege and access
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death/ rebirth psycho-emotional cycles
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indigenous practices, traditions and teachings
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sexuality through the lens of religion
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alienation and anomie resulting from capitalism
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gender identity and LGBT-issues
Structure of Sessions
In a heart-centered place I can be of service in assisting to forge a path for others based on individual body response. The structure of SE-based therapy is informed by where the body feels safe to explore. We assess, establish emotional safety, and enter into the body in a measured, titrated way. Working with the gut and the nervous system is a serious and meaningful work, as they provide clarity about what feels like resonance or dissonance in the body. There is value in learning to feel and discern what feels good and what doesn’t. I invite everyone ready to delve deep to participate in this growth experience.
If you’re ready to release past experiences, move on from fight or flight nervous system dysregulation and transition into a calmer, more balanced life, let’s discuss how somatic-based sessions can alleviate your pain, insecurities and strife! Free 30-minute consult is available through the calendar. Book an initial consult now and let’s evaluate what sessions can do for you!
“You become. It takes a long time. That’s why it doesn’t happen often to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don’t matter at all, because once you are Real you can’t be ugly, except to people who don’t understand.”
-The Velveteen Rabbit
Influences
Peter Levine
Bert Hellinger
Stephen Porges
Deb Dana
The Trauma Center at JRI
Bessel van der Kolk
Feldenkrais Method
Brené Brown
Pat Ogden Byron Katie
Gina Ogden
Audre Lorde Joanna Macy
Gabor Maté
Alan Watts, Nadine Burke Harris
Jon Kabat Zinn
The Gottman Institute
Esther Perel
Erich Fromm
Dr. Ramani Durvasula
Alan Robarge, Janina Fisher
Irvin D. Yalom
Glenn Schiraldi
Joseph Campbell
Insight Meditation Center of Washington
"This is the time to be slow,
Lie low to the wall
Until the bitter weather passes.
Try, as best you can, not to let
The wire brush of doubt
Scrape from your heart
All sense of yourself
And your hesitant light.
If you remain generous,
Time will come good;
And you will find your feet
Again on fresh pastures of promise,
Where the air will be kind
And blushed with beginning.” -John O'Donohue
Schedule a Session in Andalucia, Spain and elsewhere in Europe. Also available in the United States
