This is bodywork for the nervous system. You arrive, we practice breath. You listen for sensation, heat at the back of the heart, metal in the jaw. We attend to the emotional layer: grief, overwhelm, a younger version of you, caught in harm or shame. Together we invite them into safety.

We explore posture and embodiment: getting wide to remember your ferocity, enough bend in the knees to signal playfulness. I work in the fascia, at the base of the skull and the belly, the sacrum and feet, to make space, bring alignment. The manual therapy I offer supports what your body already knows, how to organize around wellness.

The body carries memory. Tissues and structures often hold frozen states—harm, confusion, lack. Over time, these constrictions reshape us: a hip chronically holding, low back pain from inaccessible pelvic floor muscles. Talk therapy can shift patterns and stories, but without tending to the body, the imprint of pain rarely releases.

Likewise, bodywork without the attending to mind and emotional layer can stir strong emotions—tears in massage, grief in acupuncture—yet without integration, wounds close back over. Somatic tools bring both together: the body’s experience is witnessed, tended, and held. This creates lasting release, because the body no longer needs to maintain the old shape born of rupture.

We focus especially on the belly and pelvis, where trauma often resides. Subtle mapping and presence here allow profound change. We move slowly, letting the nervous system guide. Scar tissue is a protective mechanism; we honor it until safety allows it to soften. This opening may bring tears, we offer contact, myofascial release, song, or guided movement into new postures.

As new space opens in body and mind, you integrate, choose what wants to grow, and a new self emerges.

The pain is real, but the doctors keep saying everything’s ‘normal.

My body is always on high alert, even when nothing is happening.

I’ve tried everything and I still feel stuck in my body.

Patterns of tension and pain, overwhelm and contraction, are part of being human. This bodywork is designed to attend to what is, and make space for repair.

Somatic bodywork sessions take place in-person, in our office in Portland. There’s a comfortable couch and space to land in, where we’ll start with conversation. I’ll ask about what is happening in your body and mind - maybe there’s chronic pain, or an anxiety pattern that feels like shortness of breath. We will spend some time seated, listening for insight your body has to offer. Then, if and when you feel ready, we will transition to the bodywork table. There I’ll bring manual therapy (my hands holding your feet, slow fascial work at the abdomen, one hand under your head and one under your sacrum) that attunes to the emotional layers brought forth in the initial part of the session. When we provide care to the parts of our emotional body that experienced harm or neglect, the physical body rearranges - resolving persistent tension and pain patterns.

Specialties: 
Myofascial release / Internal pelvic floor therapy / Somatic dialogue / Abdominal visceral manipulation / Low back + pelvic pain resolution / Trauma + PTSD / Perinatal + postpartum bodywork / Scar tissue repair / Queer-celebratory pelvic care