Somatic bodywork : care for the nervous system.

Somatic bodywork offers deep support through the thresholds of fertility, pregnancy, loss, birth, and postpartum, moments when the body holds both extraordinary possibility and extraordinary stress. For queer and Trans parents, this work creates space to feel at home in changing bodies, to soften scars of medical or cultural harm, and to restore connection to safety, vitality, and joy.

What a Session Looks Like

  • Sessions take place in our Portland office.

  • We begin with conversation on a comfortable couch, exploring what’s happening
    in your body and mind.

  • If and when you’re ready, we move to the bodywork table.

  • Manual therapy may include gentle contact at the feet, slow fascial work at the abdomen, or supportive holds at the head and sacrum. If you are seeking pelvic therapy, after several sessions of somatic bodywork to establish nervous system regulation and understand your goals, internal pelvic floor therapy can be integrated. This includes a slow embodied consent process.

  • Throughout, we listen to your nervous system and attend to emotional layers that may surface: grief, overwhelm, younger parts of self.

    When we provide care to the emotional body, the physical body rearranges, and persistent tension and pain can finally resolve.

Areas of focus: 
Bodywork to support conception, pregnancy, postpartum / Internal pelvic floor therapy / Abdominal massage / Scar tissue remediation /
Back + pelvic pain resolution / Somatic dialogue / Myofascial release / PTSD support

For Queer & Trans Parents Holding Stress, Trauma, or Chronic Pain

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

So many queer and Trans parents are dismissed when it comes to fertility struggles, pregnancy shifts, postpartum recovery, or pelvic pain. In this work, your body’s voice is the compass. Together we listen for what your body needs: rest, acknowledgment, permission. When we meet those needs, patterns of pain can soften, and alongside bodywork, they often release.

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

For many, the nervous system is worn down by years of survival mode, whether from trauma, medical harm, or the demands of new parenthood. In our work, you’ll practice building signals of safety with your body. Over time, this regulation helps you respond to stressors with more ease, grounding you in resilience for the journey of being human in family.

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

It can feel discouraging to seek care again and again, only to be left without answers, especially in systems not designed for queer and Trans families. Here, you don’t have to figure it out alone. We guide you in attuning to your body and listening for what is needed. From there, we help you create the shifts your life is asking for. Remarkable changes happen swiftly in this work.

Patterns of tension and pain, overwhelm and contraction, are part of being human, and they are amplified in the perinatal journey. This work helps make space for repair, integration, and growth so you can step into parenthood with more connection, safety, and vitality.

Common Perinatal Concerns This Work Supports

  • Pelvic floor tension, pain, or scar tissue after birth

  • Chronic low back, hip, or abdominal pain

  • Grief and trauma after miscarriage, stillbirth, or loss

  • Postpartum overwhelm, anxiety, or depression
    held in the body

  • Nervous system exhaustion from pregnancy,
    birth, or parenting

  • Disconnection from pleasure, safety, or
    aliveness in your body

“Kate’s touch is skillful and responsive. The abdominal massage soothed and softened thick knots of tension. The pelvic floor work offered a revolutionary experience of consent, and helped release physical holding of fear. It opened me to a new understanding of my anatomy. The somatic dialogue throughout the experience, which felt like a meditation in conversation with my body, gave me information about places that I hadn’t been able to hear on my own. As a doula, my standard for pelvic care is high. Kate’s clinical and intuitive skills are exquisite. I wish for access to this work for all people with pelvises.”

Why Body and Mind Together?

The body carries memory. This is especially true through perinatal thresholds. Tissues and structures often hold frozen states of harm, confusion, or lack. Over time, these constrictions reshape us: a hip chronically holding, a low back burdened by inaccessible pelvic floor muscles, scar tissue that feels like it locks the past in place.

Talk therapy can shift patterns and stories, but without tending to the body, the imprint of pain rarely releases. Likewise, bodywork alone can stir strong emotions, tears in massage, grief in acupuncture, without giving the mind and heart a way to integrate them.

Somatic tools bring both together. The body’s experience is witnessed, tended, and held in safety. This creates lasting release because the body no longer needs to carry the old shape born of rupture. For queer and trans families, this integration is essential—it helps us reclaim our bodies not just as sites of survival, but as places of power, connection, and possibility in the journey of family-building.

  • No. Most of the work happens with you fully clothed. If internal pelvic floor therapy is part of your care, we’ll talk about it ahead of time, go slowly, and make sure you feel safe and in full consent at every step. Your comfort and choice guide the process

  • It’s normal for tears, memories, or big feelings to surface when the body finally has space to release what it’s been carrying. We move slowly, letting your nervous system set the pace. You’ll be supported with presence, grounding practices, and space for integration so that nothing feels rushed or overwhelming.

  • Massage often helps release tension in the muscles, and talk therapy can shift patterns of thought and story. Somatic bodywork brings the two together. We attend to the body’s memory and the emotional layers at the same time, so lasting change can happen. Many clients notice that this approach helps resolve pain and patterns that neither massage nor talk therapy alone could shift.