Somatic Therapy in Los Angeles (Hakomi Method)
Somatic therapy is a gentle, body-based approach to healing that brings awareness to your present-moment experience—your sensations, emotions, and internal patterns. Rather than focusing only on thoughts or past events, this work invites us to slow down and listen to what your body is holding, often beneath conscious awareness.
I offer somatic therapy in Los Angeles, with in-person sessions in West Los Angeles—serving clients in Venice, Mar Vista, Santa Monica, Culver City, and Marina del Rey—as well as virtual therapy throughout California.
What is somatic therapy?
My approach to therapy integrates mind, body, and heart, recognizing that emotional patterns are shaped not only by our thoughts, but also by experiences held in the nervous system. Many of the patterns we struggle with—like anxiety, disconnection, or feeling stuck—are rooted in implicit memory and learned responses that live in the body.
Somatic therapy works by gently bringing awareness to these patterns in the present moment, allowing them to be experienced, understood, and gradually transformed. Rather than pushing for change, we create the conditions for new experiences to emerge naturally.
What is Hakomi?
Hakomi Mindful Somatic Psychotherapy is a gentle, experiential approach to therapy that brings together mindfulness, body awareness, and present-moment experience to explore and work with core emotional patterns and beliefs. Instead of only talking about what’s happened in the past, Hakomi invites us to slow down and notice what’s happening inside in the present moment—sensations, emotions, images, and beliefs—as they arise in a supported and safe space.
It’s based on the idea that much of what shapes us operates outside of conscious awareness, and that healing can happen when those patterns are brought into awareness with curiosity and care. This is a soft, gentle approach that I value deeply and that continues to inform my work.
One of its core principles is non-violence, which I take seriously in my clinical practice—meaning we don’t push past what isn’t ready to be felt, and we stay closely attuned to what feels safe and manageable in the moment.
After graduate school, I completed two years of training in Hakomi Mindful Somatic Psychotherapy. It’s a modality that has also supported my own healing, and I’ve found that it often helps clients access shifts and transformation that go beyond what talk therapy alone can offer.
How somatic therapy can help
Somatic therapy can be especially helpful if you feel stuck in patterns that don’t seem to shift through talking or intellectual insight alone. It may support you if you’re experiencing:
anxiety or chronic overthinking
trauma or lingering effects of past experiences
depression or emotional numbness
dissociation or feeling disconnected from your body
challenges in relationship or attachment patterns
By working with the nervous system, this approach helps shift patterns at a deeper level—supporting greater regulation, self-understanding, and a more grounded sense of self.
What sessions are like
Sessions are collaborative, slow-paced, and guided by your experience in the moment. We may bring attention to subtle sensations, emotions, images, or impulses as they arise, helping you develop a deeper awareness of your internal world.
This work is not about forcing anything to happen. Instead, we follow what naturally emerges, creating space for new insights and experiences to unfold in a way that feels supportive and manageable.
I often integrate somatic therapy with other approaches, including talk therapy, trauma therapy, and EMDR, depending on what feels most supportive.
Working gently and at your pace
This work unfolds gradually. At times, we may focus on building resources and strengthening a sense of safety in the body, rather than moving directly into more intense material.
My role is to stay attuned to your pace, helping you remain within a range that feels manageable. From this foundation, deeper processing and integration can happen over time in a way that supports lasting change.