Somatics as an interdisciplinary field of study is concerned with how we articulate the felt experience of the body, what it means to sense, and how we correlate sensation with interpretation. 

As an intentional form of care, somatic support focuses on helping people notice the body's internal sensations, perceptions, and experiences. By noticing how we feel and how we hold ourselves, we can uncover our core organizing beliefs.

Somatic processing cultivates this awareness through through dialog, movement, meditation, and touch. A few examples of specific somatic practices are body scanning, mindfulness experiments with posture or contact or movement, and noticing or naming sensation in the body. 

Somatic support can help you learn to listen to your body and notice habitual patterns of response. Greater connection to our bodies helps us to with act and react in alignment with our values and desires.

Somatic sessions with me are largely focused on discovering an embodied sense of self and examining the relationships between physical sensations and your interpretation of experience. Regarding frameworks, I primarily utilize Somatic Internal Family Systems and the Hakomi Method.

No, I am not a therapist, and I do not offer therapy. My work is not and should not replace psychotherapy or mental health counseling from a licensed care provider. I am happy to provide referrals to experienced therapists if you are seeking that form of care.

I offer somatic care as an educator and skilled peer who takes ethical care seriously. I have been trained and supervised in somatic exploration and therapeutic relationship skills by psychotherapists, bodyworkers, social organizers, and movement teachers. I have hundreds of hours of experience in session.

The care I offer may not work for you depending on your needs and history. I believe you know what you need, and if we aren’t a good fit I will help you find another provider.

East Asian medicine (EAM) is a complete medical system which has been in contiguous use for thousands of years. It offers a complementary yet distinct model of health and illness to biomedicine, the dominant medical paradigm.

EAM views our anatomical systems differently than biomedicine and has different but not incompatible ideas about the relationships between systems and how disease happens and progresses. You could think of it as a different kind of map describing the same world we know.

There doesn’t need to be something “wrong” with you for us to work together. Likewise, there is nobody who is “too broken” to benefit from acupuncture, herbal medicine, and East Asian medical theory.

Biomedicine deals primarily with morphological issues: if the chief complaint can be captured in a lab, imaging, or exam, it can be diagnosed, and there are treatment options. This medicine saves lives, and I’m intensely grateful for it’s ability to respond to extensive systemic or deep local damage.

In contrast, EAM organizes around patterns and change. It emerges from a physiological and philosophical view that mind and body are inextricably related expressions of being adapting to our constantly changing natural world. As such it deals primarily with functional attunement.

Acupuncture and Chinese-style herbal medicine are the clinical interventions of East Asian medicine. They seek to regulate the body’s ability to respond in the moment. In this tradition, a healthy body is a body able to shift with the seasons, a body which can reasonably recover from harm (while having been changed by it), and one which processes experience with ease rather than dis-ease.

These tools can be incredibly effective at treating what biomedicine would consider “sub-clinical” conditions: issues that are symptomatic but have not yet caused tissue change. It also offers relief from compounding symptoms in those with more progressed concerns.

This medicine can support the process of being at all points in the human life cycle, from birth to aging to death.

East Asian medicine is not a substitute for biomedicine.
It is a different approach which can offer support in different way.

According to the World Health Organization, acupuncture can alleviate symptoms of the following concerns:

Orthopedic
Arthritis
Back Pain
Neck Pain
Knee Pain
Frozen shoulder
Carpal Tunnel Syndrome
Fibromyalgia
Muscle Pain
Muscle Weakness
Muscle Cramping
Sciatica
Post-Operative Pain

Digestive
Abdominal Pain
Constipation
Diarrhea
Indigestion
Ulcers
Gastritis

Emotional
Anxiety
Depression
Insomnia
Nervousness
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder

Reproductive
Premenstrual Syndrome
Amenorrhea
Dysmenorrhea
Menopausal Symptoms
Infertility
Sexual Dysfunction

Respiratory
Asthma
Bronchitis
Common cold
Sinusitis
Smoking cessation
Tonsillitis
Tinnitus
Toothache

Neurological
Headaches
Migraines
Parkinson’s Disease
Stroke Sequela
Peripheral Neuropathies

Other Concerns
Substance dependency
Blood pressure regulation
Prostatitis
Incontinence
Chronic Fatigue
Immune System regulation
Stress Reduction

Most often, no.

I hope to insert needles as painlessly as possible. There is also sensation associated with needling. How this feels varies from person to person. I have heard it described as everything from surprising, to painful, to weird, to tingling. Many folks don’t feel the needles at all.

After insertion, the site of needling can feel heavy or achey. This is a good sign in treatment, it means we’ve accessed resource in the body.

If we are retaining needles for a time, you might feel shifts in sensation in your body while you rest. This may include small swells of discomfort followed by relief or settling.

That said, needles should be generally easy. If you ever experience persistent sharp, burning pain on needle insertion or during retention, let me know. This means the needle needs to be adjusted.

If you’re concerned about the potential pain of needles or afraid of needles please communicate this with me during intake. We can do low or no needle sessions while still utilizing the theory of East Asian medicine to your benefit.

There are many proposed mechanisms for how acupuncture works from a biomedical perspective. Here are a few particularly compelling theories:

Neurotransmitter Release: The insertion of acupuncture needles stimulates nerve endings, sending signals to the brain to release certain neurotransmitters. These neurotransmitters can have pain-relieving or anti-inflammatory effects.

Endorphin Release: Acupuncture triggers the release of endorphins, which are natural painkillers produced by the body. Endorphins can help reduce pain and induce a sense of well-being.

Modulation of Neural Pathways: Acupuncture may effect the way the nervous system processes and transmits signals, which influences the perception of pain and regulate various physiological functions.

Blood Flow and Circulation: Acupuncture promotes blood circulation in the targeted areas. Improved blood flow can enhance the delivery of oxygen and nutrients to tissues, facilitating the body's natural healing processes.

Connective Tissue Stimulation: Acupuncture needles stimulate the connective tissue, influencing cellular and biochemical processes. This can contribute to the regulation of inflammation and the promotion of tissue repair.

If you want to understand more about how acupuncture works from the perspective of East Asian medicine, I’d recommend you just come try it for yourself: ultimately experiencing this kind of care over time is the best way to understand it’s theory.

Please wear loose, comfortable clothing which gives me easy access to your arms below the elbow and legs below the knee. Occasionally, I may ask to access other areas of the body, such as the abdomen or the back. In those cases, I use draping to keep you covered and comfortable.

Our work is working if your primary complaints are improving and you are feeling more attuned to the present more often. Sometimes this will take time, and very occasionally things might temporarily get worse before they get better. If I expect this to be the case, I will tell you in advance.