Reconnect With Your Body. Feel More at Home Within Yourself.
Explore somatic approaches that support nervous-system regulation, embodiment, safety, and connection through Transforming Touch®, Safe and Sound Protocol®, and Rest and Restore Protocol®.
Somatic Healing
Reconnect with your body. Regulate your nervous system. Come home to yourself.
There are experiences you can understand intellectually but still feel deeply in your body.
You may know you're safe, yet still feel on edge. You may understand where a pattern came from but struggle to change how your body responds. You may feel disconnected, overwhelmed, shut down, or like you're constantly operating in survival mode.
Somatic healing offers a different pathway.
Rather than working only through thoughts and words, somatic approaches bring attention to the relationship between your body, nervous system, emotions, relationships, and lived experiences.
At Embodied Wholeness & Wellness, I offer three complementary somatic approaches:
Transforming Touch®
Safe and Sound Protocol® (SSP)
Rest and Restore Protocol® (RRP)
Each works differently, and you don't have to determine which one you need before you begin.
Together, they provide different ways of supporting regulation, safety, embodiment, rest, and connection.
What Is Somatic Healing?
Somatic healing is a body-based approach to wellness that recognizes the interconnected relationship between your nervous system, body, emotions, and experiences.
Your body is continually responding to the world around you.
Stress, chronic overwhelm, developmental experiences, trauma, sensory input, relationships, and prolonged periods of feeling unsafe can all influence the way your nervous system responds.
Sometimes these patterns continue long after the original experience has passed.
You may notice them as:
Feeling constantly "on"
Difficulty relaxing or resting
Emotional overwhelm or reactivity
Feeling disconnected from your body
Difficulty recognizing what you need
Sensory sensitivity
Trouble feeling safe in connection with others
Difficulty settling after stress
Feeling shut down, numb, or disconnected
Difficulty sleeping
A persistent sense that your body is carrying more than you can explain
Somatic healing doesn't require you to force your body to change. Instead, it creates opportunities to slow down, notice what is happening, build greater awareness, and support your capacity for regulation and connection.
Your Body Has Its Own Language
Your nervous system communicates constantly through sensations, impulses, patterns, and responses.
Sometimes your body reacts before your conscious mind has had a chance to understand why.
You might think:
"I know I'm okay, but I don't feel okay."
"I know I can trust this person, but something in me still wants to pull away."
"I want to relax, but I don't know how."
"I understand what happened, but my body still reacts."
Somatic work creates space to listen to those signals without judging or forcing them.
The goal is not to override your body's responses.
It is to develop a different relationship with them.
Three Ways to Support Your Nervous System
Your somatic wellness work may incorporate one or more of the following approaches.
Transforming Touch®
Restoring Safety, Regulation & Connection from the Inside Out
Transforming Touch® is a gentle, hands-on somatic approach within the Transforming the Experience-Based Brain (TEB) model developed by Stephen J. Terrell, PsyD.
The approach focuses particularly on early developmental experiences and the ways that disruptions in early caregiving, attachment, or co-regulation can influence the developing nervous system. When early experiences do not provide consistent safety, attunement, touch, or connection, the body may develop protective patterns that continue into adulthood.
These patterns can show up as:
Difficulty trusting others
Hypervigilance
Emotional reactivity
Difficulty receiving support
Feeling unsafe in relationships
Difficulty relaxing
Disconnection from the body
Fight, flight, freeze, or shutdown responses
Transforming Touch® uses gentle, intentional touch and relational presence to create an experience of safety, attunement, and co-regulation. The work is not about forcing the body to release something. Your body leads the pace.
Transforming Touch® & Attachment
Early relationships help shape our expectations about safety, connection, boundaries, and whether our needs will be met. When those early experiences were inconsistent, frightening, unavailable, or overwhelming, attachment patterns can develop that continue to influence adult relationships. Transforming Touch® provides an opportunity to experience a different kind of relational environment—one characterized by attunement, consistency, respect, and safety.
Over time, this may support greater capacity to:
Feel safe in connection
Receive support
Recognize and communicate needs
Stay connected during difficult emotions
Set boundaries
Trust your own internal experience
Respond rather than react
Transforming Touch® & Primitive Reflex Integration
Transforming Touch® also incorporates an understanding of primitive reflexes—automatic movement patterns that are part of early nervous-system development. These reflexes are expected to integrate as development progresses. When developmental experiences are disrupted, some people may continue to experience patterns involving sensory processing, coordination, startle responses, attention, emotional reactivity, or motor restlessness. Transforming Touch® may incorporate gentle body-based work intended to support greater awareness and integration of these patterns.
What Happens During a Transforming Touch® Session?
Sessions are fully clothed and are gentle, respectful, and non-invasive.
Depending on your needs, a session may include:
Light supportive touch to areas such as the shoulders, hips, adrenal/kidneys, brainstem, ankles and feet
Grounding practices
Co-regulation
Awareness of body sensations
Tracking nervous-system cues
Verbal processing when helpful
Time for integration
Your body leads the pace. Nothing is forced or pushed. Transforming Touch® can also be adapted for remote work through guided self-touch and co-regulation practices.
Safe and Sound Protocol®
Using Sound to Support Regulation, Connection & Auditory Processing
The Safe and Sound Protocol® (SSP) is a listening-based intervention developed by Dr. Stephen Porges. SSP uses specially filtered music delivered through headphones and is designed around auditory input associated with human communication and safety. The protocol is intended to provide structured auditory experiences that may support nervous-system regulation, auditory processing, and social engagement. Rather than requiring you to verbally process an experience, SSP gives your nervous system another form of input to work with.
What Does SSP Involve?
SSP begins with an individualized screening and readiness process. Listening sessions are paced according to your needs and responses rather than following a rigid one-size-fits-all schedule. Listening periods may be relatively brief at first and can be adjusted based on how your system responds.
SSP may be explored by people experiencing:
Chronic stress
Difficulty regulating emotions
Sensory or auditory sensitivities
Difficulty feeling calm or present
Trauma-related nervous-system patterns
Challenges with social engagement
Difficulty shifting out of heightened states
The goal is not to push your nervous system into relaxation. It is to provide appropriately paced auditory input while paying attention to how your system responds.
Rest and Restore Protocol®
Supporting Deep Rest, Relaxation & Restoration
The Rest and Restore Protocol® (RRP) is another listening-based approach, but its emphasis differs from SSP. Where SSP is oriented toward safety, social engagement, and auditory processing, RRP is designed around restoration and deep relaxation. RRP incorporates music and natural biological rhythms, including rhythms associated with breathing and heartbeat, to create a calming auditory environment. For individuals who have difficulty slowing down, resting, or settling after prolonged stress, this can provide a structured opportunity to practice being in a more restorative state.
RRP may be explored by people who experience:
Chronic stress or burnout
Difficulty truly resting
Persistent nervous-system activation
Sleep difficulties
Feeling chronically "on"
Difficulty settling after stress
A desire for deeper relaxation and restoration
RRP can be used following SSP or as a standalone wellness approach depending on the individual's goals and needs.
Safe and Sound Protocol® vs. Rest and Restore Protocol®
These two approaches are related, but they are not the same.
Safe and Sound Protocol®
Safety • Connection • Auditory Processing
SSP uses specially filtered music to provide structured auditory input with an emphasis on safety, regulation, and social engagement.
Rest and Restore Protocol®
Rest • Relaxation • Restoration
RRP uses music incorporating natural rhythms to create an environment that supports deeper relaxation and restorative states.
Which one do I need?
You don't necessarily need to choose. Depending on your goals and how your nervous system responds, one may be a better starting point than the other, or they may be incorporated at different points in your wellness journey.
The Nervous System & Your Capacity for Regulation
Your nervous system is constantly evaluating your environment and responding to what it perceives. When you've experienced prolonged stress or overwhelm, it can become difficult to shift easily between activation and rest.
You may feel:
Activated — anxious, restless, irritable, overwhelmed, or constantly alert.
Shutdown — numb, disconnected, exhausted, withdrawn, or unable to engage.
Reactive — easily triggered or overwhelmed by situations that once felt manageable.
Somatic healing creates opportunities to build greater awareness of these patterns and support your capacity to move toward greater regulation. This isn't about being calm all the time. A healthy nervous system still responds to stress. The goal is greater flexibility, resilience, and capacity to return to regulation.
Somatic Healing for Trauma & Developmental Wounds
Somatic approaches can be particularly meaningful when experiences have been held not only as memories but also as patterns within the body and nervous system.
This may include:
Developmental trauma
Attachment wounds
Chronic stress
Relational trauma
Sensory overwhelm
Hypervigilance
Shutdown or dissociation
Difficulty with emotional regulation
Feeling disconnected from the body
Difficulty experiencing safety or connection
For some people, talking about an experience creates insight without necessarily changing the body's response to it. Somatic work offers another avenue for exploring those patterns.
Somatic Healing & Relationships
The way your nervous system responds internally can influence how you experience relationships externally.
When you're overwhelmed or activated, it can be harder to:
Communicate clearly
Stay present during conflict
Ask for what you need
Receive support
Set boundaries
Tolerate vulnerability
Remain connected while experiencing difficult emotions
As you develop greater awareness and capacity for regulation, you may find more space between a trigger and your response. That space can create new possibilities for connection with yourself and with others.
What Does a Somatic Healing Session Look Like?
There is no single somatic healing session. Your experience depends on the approach we're using and your individual goals.
A session may include:
Body-Based Work
Gentle touch, grounding, body awareness, or co-regulation.
Listening-Based Work
Structured listening through headphones using SSP or RRP.
Nervous-System Tracking
Noticing changes in sensations, activation, comfort, or regulation throughout the session.
Integration
Creating space to notice what your body experienced without immediately needing to analyze or explain it.
Individualized Pacing
Adjusting the approach based on your responses rather than forcing you through a predetermined protocol.
Who Is Somatic Healing For?
Somatic healing may be a good fit if you:
Feel disconnected from your body
Have difficulty relaxing or resting
Experience chronic stress or overwhelm
Feel easily activated or shut down
Want support developing greater nervous-system awareness
Have experienced developmental or relational trauma
Struggle with sensory overwhelm
Want to explore body-based approaches alongside other wellness or therapeutic work
Understand your patterns intellectually but still feel them strongly in your body
Want to cultivate greater embodiment and self-trust
You do not need a specific diagnosis to explore somatic wellness.
You simply need curiosity about whether a body-based approach may support you.
You Don't Have to Choose the Modality
This is one of the reasons I created wellness packages. Your needs can change. You might begin with Transforming Touch® because your focus is safety, connection, or embodiment. Later, SSP may feel like the better fit for your nervous system. At another point, RRP may provide the restorative support your body needs. You may also choose to combine somatic work with energy healing, muscle testing, or other holistic wellness services.
Your wellness plan can evolve as you do.
Somatic Healing & Your Whole-Person Wellness Journey
Somatic healing is one part of the broader wellness approach at Embodied Wholeness & Wellness.
Depending on your goals, your wellness work may also incorporate:
Energy Healing
Reiki and Mind Body Spirit Release™
Muscle Testing & Kinesiology
Individualized wellness assessment and support
Chronic Health & Detox Support
Complementary wellness approaches based on your individual goals
The goal isn't to fit you into a particular modality. The goal is to determine what type of support makes sense for you.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is somatic healing the same as psychotherapy?
No.
Somatic healing services offered through Embodied Wholeness & Wellness are separate from my LCSW psychotherapy practice. While some somatic approaches may also be used within therapeutic settings, the wellness services described on this page are offered as complementary holistic wellness services. If you're looking for clinical psychotherapy for trauma, anxiety, depression, relationships, or other mental-health concerns, please explore the psychotherapy pathway.
Is Transforming Touch® hands-on?
Yes. Transforming Touch® is a gentle, hands-on somatic approach. Sessions are conducted fully clothed, and the work is paced according to your comfort and nervous-system responses. Remote sessions can incorporate guided self-touch and co-regulation.
Do I have to do the entire Safe and Sound Protocol®?
SSP is individualized and paced according to your responses. A readiness process and ongoing observation help determine an appropriate approach rather than assuming everyone should progress at the same pace.
Can I use SSP and RRP together?
They can be incorporated into the same broader wellness journey, but whether that makes sense depends on your individual goals and response to the protocols.
Can somatic healing replace psychotherapy or medical care?
No. Somatic wellness services are complementary and are not a replacement for appropriate medical or mental-health care.
Ready to Explore Somatic Healing?
You don't have to know which approach you need. You don't have to understand your nervous system perfectly. And you don't have to have a specific diagnosis to begin exploring a deeper relationship with your body. Start with where you are. We'll determine together what type of support makes sense for you.