Somatic Therapy for Trauma, Connection, and Liberation
My teacher Carey E. Smith often says “Change is muscular.” I believe this is why insight and awareness don't always support positive shifts in our lives and relationships. It's not easy to respond in new ways when our nervous system is operating on old scripts that are struggling to adjust to our current needs. Somatic therapy helps by affirming and gently expanding our bodily experience and wise impulses. When we can feel something different, new possibilities and choices emerge.
Somatic means welcoming our holistic bodily experience including our emotions, imagination, actions, senses, and insight. All cultures pre-colonization have offered rituals and practices of well-being rooted in the body, nature, and relationship. Somatic work is about rediscovering the wholeness and wisdom that is our birthright, that connects us to all things.
Somatic Therapy may be supportive if any of these feel familiar to you:
You feel constantly on guard; it’s hard to relax or to feel safe.
You feel disconnected or checked out and confused about what you need.
You have plateaued in talk therapy or your self-awareness isn't translating to feeling better.
Your responses to events, interactions, your own sensitivities, or chronic pain feel out of control.
You are struggling with relationships, feeling inflexible and/or abandoning your needs in favor of others.
You don't call what you've been through 'trauma', but you struggle with shame and anxiety.
You have a sense that things could be better and are unsure of what's not working or why.
I offer a complimentary 15-30 minute consultation to see if we would be a good fit. Please use the button below to schedule, and feel free to reach out if you have questions that are not addressed on this page.
Working with Me
I am an LCSWA (Licensed Clinical Social Worker Associate), a massage and bodywork therapist, and a psychotherapist with a somatic and liberatory focus. This means I recognize the body as the doorway to lived experience, I honor your unique personal history and its impacts on your body and psyche, and I make sense of mental health concerns within oppressive systems fed by our distress. Healing and liberation are fundamentally intertwined and this context deepens our capacity for full, loving, and satisfying participation in our lives, relationships and communities. I'm honored to be in service of your healing, learning with you, and offering a space where your unique gifts can emerge and be witnessed and celebrated.
I partner with you in your goals of greater ease, enjoyment, connection, and belonging using Somatic Experiencing and other somatic models, and I am informed by Internal Family Systems (parts work), attachment theory, feminist approaches, and continued study of liberation and eco psychologies.
I have supported a wide range of human concerns, and my areas of special interest include:
Reintegration from past and recent trauma including sexual trauma, religious trauma, physical trauma, and the trauma of oppression.
Relief and support for anxiety and depression.
Processing of grief and transitions.
Addressing relational concerns and building relational skill.
Supporting identity development, including gender, sexuality, race, and culture.
Building capacity for emotional and nervous system regulation, self-awareness, conflict, and connectedness.
If you are ready to explore further, click the button below to book a consult. We will explore your needs together and see if we are a good fit.
Rates and Frequency
I work with most clients weekly as repetition is an important part of re-patterning; we will adjust frequency of your sessions as needed.
My work is offered on a community-supported sliding scale as we all deserve resonant care.
60 minutes: $100 - $160 // $130 suggested / out of network insurance billing.
If you need some help assessing your place in the scale, here is a helpful guide generously offered by Worts & Cunning Apothecary. If these ranges are not accessible to you, please reach out or bring this concern to your consult. I offer greater flexibility where possible through the support of my community fund, and I prioritize those who experience barriers to receiving consistent care.
Access
Covid-cautious sessions are my norm, and telehealth sessions are always available.
Community Fund: Sessions below my suggested rates are supported by my client community through a portion of all session fees and direct donations. Whatever your payment, you contribute to the well-being of your neighbors and a living wage for me. You receive care without concern for my resources, and I'm free to care generously without overextending myself. YES, I accept donations directly to my community fund! Please use my paypal link here: paypalme/melindahunt
Positionality: As a white, trans non-binary, able-bodied person, I delight in and have supported people across the vast spectrum of human possibility, including ability and neurodiversity, shape, race, ethnicity, and I take particular joy in supporting gender identity development. I am also happy to help connect you with therapists whose identities are similar to your own. As a white-bodied person, I benefit from the eurocentric ideals of the mental health profession, and as a queer person I am committed to subverting these power dynamics, affirming all persons as experts of their own experience.
Important notes: I work under the supervision Meagan Powlas LCSW, and engage in regular peer and expert consultation on Somatic Experiencing and other modalities.
Contact Me
Please use this contact form to reach out about basic questions that aren’t covered on this page, or about my community fund capacity for flexible rates. Your note goes straight to my personal inbox.
For more in-depth questions, please schedule a complimentary consult.