WORK WITH ME
As a Somatic Experiencing® practitioner, I understand the deep, vital connection between the mind and body. In sessions I will work with you to: identify and deepen your internal and external resources; develop coping skills to foster greater capacity and resilience for difficult emotions and life experiences; identify and communicate wants, needs, preferences, and boundaries; explore habituated and conditioned patterns of relating, reacting, numbing, and avoiding so you can move away from the various levels of activation your nervous system has developed into states of more ease, flow, spaciousness, and freedom.
Somatic Experiencing® supports releasing fixed patterns held within the body and nervous system developed through traumatic events and/or growing up in an unsafe, fearful, chaotic, emotionally absent, or unstable environment, allowing greater access to a deeper and wider range of emotions. Somatic Experiencing® also supports healing from other types of traumatic events, ranging from medical conditions (surgeries, diseases, chronic illness) to accidents to sexual assault.
My practice places great emphasis on mindfulness, as I believe that cultivating present-moment awareness is essential for self-discovery, self-awareness, and freedom from painfully constricting beliefs, emotions, and physical sensations. We will incorporate mindfulness practices into therapy sessions, helping you develop greater self-compassion, emotional regulation, and insight.
With a relational approach, I recognize the significance of the therapeutic container and connection. Together we create a safe and non-judgmental space where you can explore your relational patterns, uncover underlying dynamics, and build healthier and more fulfilling relationships.
In addition to somatic and mind-body approaches, I'm trained in ketamine-assisted psychotherapy, an innovative modality that has shown promise in treating a range of mental health conditions. We can explore utilizing this therapy as another possible tool, tailoring your treatment plan to meet your unique needs and goals. I am deeply committed to supporting you on your journey towards well-being. Together we work to unlock your innate healing capacities and create meaningful change in your life.
SOMATIC PSYCHOTHERAPY
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Emotions and the accompanying body sensations and thoughts can sometimes be overwhelming and intolerable. This often leads to avoidance, distraction, depression, excessive worry, rage, collapse, relationship difficulties, and when extreme, self-medicating with drugs, alcohol, sex, video games, and other addictive behaviors.
When we're activated (triggered), the root cause is usually something from our past: messages from our families or peers that we interpret as being unloveable, too much, that something's wrong with us (shame), or that our needs cannot be seen and met. We use our minds and body patterns to protect these vulnerable parts of ourselves, resulting in maladaptive patterns of behavior, mood issues, and chronic physical distress.
My approach is to identify, build-on, and use your strengths and resources, while also exploring negative patterns that stop you from living a full, integrated life. Together we cultivate your inner wisdom through gentle focused attention and presence (mindfulness), awareness of and building capacity for the somatic (body) sensations response to triggers, and quieting the accompanying internal dialogue. The result is more choice, freedom, and possibility for your life.
Somatic Experiencing® (SE) aims to resolve symptoms of stress, shock, and trauma that accumulate in our bodies. When we are stuck in patterns of fight, flight, or freeze, SE helps us release, recover, and become more resilient. It is a body-oriented therapeutic model for healing trauma and other stress disorders. It is based on a multidisciplinary intersection of physiology, psychology, ethology, biology, neuroscience, indigenous healing practices, and medical biophysics and has been clinically applied for more than four decades. It is the life’s work of Dr. Peter A. Levine.The SE approach releases traumatic shock, which is key to transforming PTSD and the wounds of emotional and early developmental attachment trauma. It offers a framework to assess where a person is “stuck” in the fight, flight or freeze responses and provides clinical tools to resolve these fixated physiological states.
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KETAMINE-ASSISTED PSYCHOTHERAPY (KAP)
​"Psychedelics can provide a deeply significant experience, but ultimately, healing is the result of greater psychological and cognitive flexibility and the capacity to adapt constructively to life situations as they happen, rather than the result of a life free of emotions or symptoms...." --Marc B. Aixala from Psychedelic Integration: Psychotherapy for Non-Ordinary States of Consciousness
A unique therapeutic method used to address a variety of mental health conditions, including depression, post-traumatic stress, chronic pain, addiction, and some forms of anxiety. It involves the use of the psychoactive substance ketamine to enhance and deepen the therapeutic process, and the use of psychotherapy and other integrative forms of treatment to amplify and prolong the curative effects of ketamine.
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SPECIAL OFFERING
4 month KAP + Somatic Experiencing® (28 hours)
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4 Preparatory Sessions-virtual & in-person (4 weeks): Build our therapeutic relationship, learn and apply Somatic Experiencing® nervous system regulation techniques, and prepare for your ketamine-assisted psychotherapy (KAP) session. At least one session will be in person at the Sage office to introduce Somatic Experiencing® touch work.
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4 Ketamine Dosing & 4 Integration Sessions-virtual & in-person (8 weeks): Four in-person ketamine dosing sessions (every other week at the Sage office), with virtual integration sessions in between. Integration sessions help deepen and sustain ketamine-influenced neuroplasticity (durability/cumulative effect) by exploring session themes and content, strengthening positive mood changes, reinforcing pro-health behaviors, and applying Somatic Experiencing® regulation techniques.
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Post-Dosing Somatic Experiencing® Touch Work-in-person (4 weeks): In-person sessions at the Sage office to support continued integration and healing.
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Berkeley office (ketamine-assisted psychotherapy):
2185 Ashby Avenue, Berkeley, CA, 94705
Use this link to contact Sage Integrative Health directly to request an appointment through the clinic's practice.
In-person appointments available for ketamine-assisted therapy.
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PSYCHEDELIC INTEGRATION
An important part of any psychedelic or consciousness-altering experience is the integration of the experience days, weeks, or months afterwards. Engaging in integration during and after a psychedelic experience supports a "positive imprint [that] gives us some confidence in our own internal processes and helps us develop an optimistic attitude towards life." (--Marc B. Aixala from Psychedelic Integration: Psychotherapy for Non-Ordinary States of Consciousness) Together we identify ways to engage with and enhance the experiences, ideas, feelings, and sensations of the experience, and identify practices to includes in daily life to promote healing.