Scope of Practice

I am a Somatic Practitioner. I am trained to offer somatic education, care, and the facilitation of somatic intervention and somatic movement practices. I have studied autonomic nervous system, polyvagal theory, trauma-aware and trauma-informed care, and trauma-aware mindfulness and meditation. I can educate, facilitate, and support you in your personal practice of nervous system care.

I am a Somatic Attachment (non-clinical) Therapist. I can teach you about somatic attachment and be a valuable resource on your educational journey. We can explore your attachment style somatically through experiential exercises and inquiry. I can provide Somatic Attachment Therapy sessions in the methodology I was certified in by The Embody Lab.

I am a certified Trauma Healing Coach. I use my coaching interventions to support people who struggle with developmental trauma, complex ongoing trauma due to relationship stress, marginalization, and neurodivergence to develop practices that will support their healing. This is not intended to diagnose or treat mental illness.

I am a Grief & Loss Counselor. I am a trained Grief Ritual Facilitator and Grief Tending Practitioner. I am trained in somatic and attachment grief support. I am trauma aware and can be a secondary support outside of your therapeutic container. This is a place of companionship and “being with.”

I specialize in working with people who are late diagnosed with Autism, AuDHD, and ADHD. Those who have self diagnosed or received professional diagnosis that are between 30-60yo at the time of diagnosis have unique needs and experiences. As a fellow late diagnosed person I understand the confusion around identity, accommodation needs, rejection sensitivity, demand avoidance, and isolation. This is an informed place to explore all of this and more. 

I am a Soul Companion. I have trained to be a Soul Companion and Community Minister. Francis Weller is my primary teacher for processes of soul maturation. I am certified or trained in mythology, SoulCollage™, circle facilitation, ritual facilitation, parts work, and journey work. I have had a 30 year practice of courting and encountering non-ordinary reality through ecstatic dance, song-chanting, drumming, grief, ritual, meditation, and deprivation (fasting & vision quests) practices. My practice is earth based and rooted in elemental wisdom. I can support people cultivating practices of communion with ancestors, archetypes, and the other-than-human realms and beings. I can companion people who are at a threshold, encountering loss, or in an underworld/shadow realm journey.

This is not social work, psychological therapy, physical therapy, or medical care.

Some people might find this care therapeutic but this is not a licensed therapeutic container. I cannot diagnose or treat trauma, mental illness, addiction, or physical illness. I cannot work with people who have a habituated fight response or who are prone to verbal or physical violence. I cannot work with people who have severe mental illness and/or personality disorders (BPD, DID, SPD, PPD, APD, HPS, NPD, APD.) These require skilled care within a professional and therapeutic container.

I am not trained to provide behavioral therapy, speech therapy, life coaching, or education for, or on, any of the expressions that fall under the Neurodivergent umbrella.

I love working with neurodivergent people and welcome them to explore any of the services offered within my scope of practice. I have only a basic understanding outside my study of autism, AuDHD, and ADHD. Being trained in your neurodivergence is outside of my skill set, but if you are ok with taking on the burden of bridging my learning gaps, and what you need falls within my scope of practice, I’d love to explore working together.

This is not life coaching or spiritual direction.

This is a relational container of care and companionship. I invite somatic practices and experiments that aim to increase your awareness and relational response-ability. I have a limited capacity and want our time together to be generative and nourishing for both of us. We are co-creating safety, trust, and attachment. Not everyone wants an intimacy building relational container. If you looking for a life coach or something more relationally casual this practice is not for you. This practice aims to cultivate a consensual relational bond and healthy attachment.

I don’t work with couples or partners.

I do not have the skills or training to support the needs of couples either working separately in 1:1 sessions or together in shared sessions. It is a conflict of interest and an ethical risk given the intimate and vulnerable nature of the somatic attachment bond this work aims to cultivate and repair.

I don’t work with children or teenagers.

I do not have the skills or training to support the needs of children, teenagers, and their families. This practice is for adults only who are cognizant, capable of giving consent, and able to self-direct our work together.

First and foremost this is a practice of “being with.”

There are no bad parts or wrong feelings. Limitation and needs are respected. We move with consent, in your direction, and continually uplift agency. Together we will honor our window of tolerances so that our work together stays relational, generative, and healing. This is companionship.

After years of working with several different coaching and facilitation approaches I have settled on a consent driven feedback and response, consensus based decision making, trauma informed care, living agreements, boundary and need affirming, and co-creative facilitation approach.

I go where you want to go. You know what you need and if you don’t I will be with you as you work towards understanding. I might invite inquiry or consented to feedback, but none of that is more important than your own trajectory and knowing.

I enjoy co-creating with people. I am skilled at many things. I would rather you choose what you would like so you are getting exactly what you want from our time together.

Your container can be sacred, somatic, educational, or responsive in the moment. Your support can include any and all that falls under my scope of practice.

Would you like me to facilitate somatic practices? Would you prefer a sacred container of calling on ancestors, elementals, etc.? Would you like a plain opening without any fanfare? Would you like to tend grief or create a ritual of care or have accountability with a new practice?

That is great. Let’s talk more about what you are wanting and lets keep reassessing it as our time together evolves.

Living agreements are vital, alive, and evolving. The first thing I do with every client is co-create our living agreements. This document will outline this container’s boundaries, my boundaries, and your boundaries. This is also the time to talk about accommodation needs and care that is unique to your needs. We will loosely outline what type of care you want. We will continually tend our living agreement making sure it stays potent and relevant. I enjoy seeing what remains important and what evolves. This practice is a foundational ritual of Love’s Response.

Boundaries are essential. Each person has their own relationship to boundaries. For some people, boundaries are simple and easy. These people are probably securely attached, resourced, and have a relatively low trauma load.

From what I see, most people in my Western culture struggle with boundaries. Learning the skill of boundaries was really hard for me. I struggled to identify what I was feeling, wanting, and needing. The vulnerability of having a need coupled with the potential for rejection or boundary violation was seriously one of the hardest things for me to address. It felt like I was showing people exactly how to hurt me.

It took a long time of taking small steps, small risks, and accumulating “good enough” successes to build trust and expand my window of tolerance for vulnerability and inevitable ruptures. I learned so much from Nedra Glover Tawwab through her book Set Boundaries, Find Peace: A Guide to Reclaiming Yourself and through her Instagram page.

We need to honor our boundaries and the boundaries of others in order for our relationships to be safe enough for growth, true connection, and fulfillment. In our living agreement we can start where you are and work towards ever greater capacity around honoring our needs and the needs of the people we are in relationship with. If this feels treacherous maybe we could use Nedra’s book as a starting place of inquiry.

I want to uplift limitations because there is so much pressure to be productive, capable, able, and independent. This is a space that deeply respects and honors limitation. This is the only humane approach because everything and everyone has limitation.

The human animal is in its essence social and socially entwined. We are dependent. Without water, air, fire, the earth, sun, moon, cosmos, our relations, and our own body, we would not exist.

I understand it is so vulnerable to acknowledge our limitations. I truly get it! I also have compassion for people who are living like sovereign little islands. I tired, it is a very lonely lie of not belonging.

I want more for all of us and I understand that we are each doing our best to manage a multitude of animating factors. You do what you need to do to feel safe and please know I value you not for what you can produce or how capable you are. I value you for the truth of your wholeness limitation and all.

Rupture and repair is part of every healthy relationship. I hope you can, when you feel safe enough, address misattunements, misunderstandings, and boundary violations as they occur. My goal is to listen, validate, take responsibly for impact, and work towards repair.

You are important to me. Somatic attachment work is not casual. It is sacred, vulnerable, and relational. Being the practitioner doesn’t mean I am immune. I will make mistakes and I can be hurt too. I am still a human being with wounds and wonders of my own. Let’s take really good care of ourselves and each other.

I am under supervision and I am working on my own somatic attachment in therapy. I am held in the ways that I hold others. I am resourced and supported. This however doesn’t mean that I am infallible, it just means when I do misstep I will have skilled supportive people to guide me and aid me in my movements forward. It also means I am practicing the skill of encountering “rupture and repair” so when it happens I can stay present with you and offer care that is hopefully reparative.

I sincerely wish there was a way for things to always feel perfectly attuned and aligned. It’s so painful when it goes wrong. Unfortunately this “being a human” is messy, so we will more than likely encounter mess. Let’s allow and welcome our beautiful human mess to our healing container. I think these are the parts that need the most love.