Somatic Therapy FAQs

What is Transformative Touch?

Transformative Touch is a one-on-one somatic therapy modality that combines contact (touch), body awareness and dialogue (language and communication), to connect you more deeply with your body. The use of touch by the practitioner is effective for moving directly to the clients nervous system. Questions are posed to explore sensation and open communication channels in the body to develop a great understanding the body’s language.

Is Somatic Therapy like talk therapy?

It is not like talk therapy. The cognitive mind and the stories you’ve maybe previously told yourself or others over and over again are gently put aside. It is an opportunity to tune into the body and listen closely to the truth it wants to share with you.

Are you a licensed therapist?

I am certified somatic therapist. I am not a mental health therapist.

How is somatic therapy different from traditional mental health therapy?

Mental health therapy is based on the mind being the control center of the body and the theory “I think, therefore I am.” Somatic therapy is based on the theory that the mind exists within the body, they are not separate. 

Mental health therapy, or psychotherapy, treats symptoms with talk therapy and medication. Talk therapy is a modality of expressing emotion and telling the stories about our life experiences. In talk therapy we use words to describe our reality. Somatic therapy hypothesizes that everything happens in the body - all of our life experiences are processed as information through our bodies. This information is then disseminated to our systems to establish patterns of thought and behavior. The 30 trillion cells in our humans bodies each have something valuable to share with us! Wow! 

In somatic therapy, the body is used as the access point for healing, uncovering the root of issues or concerns about self. Somatic therapy allows us to listen to what our body has to say about its experience, rather than listening to our conscious mind.

Are sessions in person or virtual or both?

I work with clients in person in and around Philadelphia, PA and online for virtual sessions.

Is a somatic therapy session movement based? Or talk based?

Somatic therapy is more based on a stillness. Being guided to turn inward to explore the body’s landscape. During the session, the client is lying down on their back on a massage table, fully clothed!, for the entirety. I bring gentle contact and subtle movement to major parts of the body like the feet, hips, shoulders and head. The “talk” that is used is a dialogue between myself and the client, and the client with their own body and even parts of their body with other parts of their body. I pose questions throughout for the client to deepen their awareness and respond with what they notice happening the body and where. Further questioning allows the client to further describe and excavate the sensations they are aware of and experiencing in their body. The body iterates to the client, the themes held within it that need to be acknowledged, attuned to and tended. This is how the healing occurs. 

What forms of movement do you use most during your somatic sessions?

No other movement is used during somatic sessions besides my hands subtly moving parts of them and their reorientation period at the end of the session when I am guiding them to walk again.

Who is somatic therapy ideal for?

Somatic therapy is ideal for someone in need of healing so that they can show up in their life as they desire. For someone who had previous experienced a traumatic event, big or small, which is us all!, and needs to be safely guided into the resulting trauma response and patterning held in the body.