What is Integrative Psychotherapy?

Integrative Psychotherapy is an approach that considers the whole person. The integration of evidence-based clinical interventions with somatic awareness while also addressing the impact of lifestyle choices on emotional and physical well-being. Mental health does not exist in isolation from the body. Factors such as chronic stress, inflammation, blood sugar regulation, hormonal shifts, and exposure to environmental toxins can meaningfully impact mood, energy, and resilience.

While integrative psychotherapy is not a substitute for medical care, we may explore how daily rhythms, dietary patterns, nervous system load, and environmental inputs are affecting your overall regulation. When appropriate, referrals to holistic practitioners in the Soma Thrive network who support comprehensive care are offered, including providers in functional medicine, naturopathy, cranial sacral therapy, Structural Integration bodywork, herbalists, acupuncturists, energy and sound healing, and trauma-informed massage therapists, for example.

The goal is to help restore balance — so your body, your story, and your inner life can move in greater harmony.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Somatic Therapy?

Somatic therapy is a body-based approach that helps you process emotions and trauma through sensation, movement, and awareness — rather than only through talking. It’s rooted in the understanding that the body remembers what the mind forgets. Through breath, presence, and gentle dialogue, we explore how your nervous system has adapted to stress, and help it find safety again. By learning to feel and follow the language of your body — the tightening, the softening, the tremor, the sigh — you begin to trust that each one is part of your healing.

What is Somatic Experiencing (SE)?

Somatic Experiencing (SE) is the life’s work of Dr. Peter A. Levine, resulting from his multidisciplinary study of stress physiology, psychology, ethology, biology, neuroscience, indigenous healing practices, and medical biophysics – together with over 45 years of successful clinical application. 

SE aims to resolve symptoms of stress, shock, and trauma that accumulate and weaves stories we carry in our bodies and nervous systems. Trauma, from an SE lens, is focused on how it shows up in the nervous system and how that dysregulation impacts life, relationships and growth. 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 applied in multiple professions and professional settings for healing trauma and other stress disorders from a nervous system lens within a practitioner’s scope of practice. It can be used to support the resolution of PTSD and 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. 

THE SCIENCE

Trauma may begin as acute stress from a perceived life-threat or as the end product of cumulative stress. Both types of stress can impair, sometimes seriously, a person’s ability to function with resilience and ease. Trauma may result from a wide variety of stressors such as accidents, invasive medical procedures, sexual or physical assault, emotional abuse, neglect, war, natural disasters, grief, loss, birth trauma, epigenetics, systems, or the corrosive stressors of ongoing fear and conflict.

HOW IT WORKS

The Somatic Experiencing approach facilitates the completion of self-protective motor responses and the release of thwarted survival energy bound in the body, thus addressing the root cause of trauma symptoms. This is approached by gently guiding clients to develop increasing tolerance for difficult bodily sensations and suppressed emotions and working to complete defensive responses previously thwarted from bringing resolution to the nervous system and, therefore, to the individual.

What Is An SE Session Like?

Sessions are unique to each person because nervous systems are unique to each person. In an SE session, it does not require a traumatized person to re-tell or re-live the traumatic event(s). Instead, it offers the opportunity to engage, complete, and resolve, in a slow and supported way, the body’s instinctual fight, flight and freeze responses. SE is a gentle process that helps the nervous system release patterns at a pace that feels safe. There is no rush. The pace is slow and steady. There will be a period of getting to know each other with conversation, inquiry, and noticing nuances. The difference between SE and talk therapy is that rather than retelling difficult stories, we track patterns, language, AND the body’s sensations — subtle shifts in breath, temperature, tension, or emotion. Somatic work doesn’t reject talk therapy; it completes it. It recognizes that trauma is not an idea we can reason with — it’s a set of reflexes, muscular contractions, and breath patterns coded into the nervous system. By learn the language of your body, a somatic therapist helps you to feel safe, sometimes for the first time. 

SE sessions can be seated or lying down, fully clothed, on a ‘nervous system regulation table’ (a.k.a. Massage table). Through mindful attention, grounding, and small movements, the body learns to complete survival responses that were once interrupted. One often experiences a gradual sense of relief, calm, and reconnection to Self.

Each session unfolds collaboratively — guided by curiosity, respect for your limits, and the body’s innate capacity to restore balance and wholeness.You can expect a steady, attuned space. Session are collaboratve and personalized. We begin by settling your body and tracking sensations together. From there, we follow what arises — the story you’ve been carrying in your mental, emotional, and physical memories. Through discussion, we explore your emotional pain points and wounding through mindful conversation where we discover patterns, mindset, relational obstacles and triggers. Some sessions may feel reflective and insight-driven. Others may be quieter and more body-focused. Both are valuable. You’re always in charge of your pace, your boundaries, and your process.

Do I have to talk about my trauma?

No. You are never required to share the details of your past. In Somatic work, healing happens through felt experience, not through verbal storytelling. 

We may acknowledge that something happened, but we won’t analyze or relive it. Instead, we focus primarily on what your body is expressing in the present — the sensations, emotions, and impulses that lead us toward release and regulation.

Your system will only go as far as it feels ready. My role is to listen, support, and help you feel safe in every step.

How often should I come for sessions?

That depends on what your body is asking for. Many clients begin with weekly or bi-weekly sessions to establish safety and momentum, then move to monthly maintenance sessions as their nervous system becomes more regulated.

Deep healing unfolds best with consistency — but there’s no rigid formula. We’ll attune together and let your body’s rhythm guide the pace.

Why Touch in Somatic Experiencing?

Touch can be a powerful tool for nervous system regulation — but it must be used with clarity, consent, and intention.

In Somatic Experiencing (SE), touch is not used to manipulate muscles, release fascia, or transfer energy. It is used, when appropriate, to support the nervous system in finding greater regulation and stability. Touch in SE is not about intensity. It is about steadiness. You remain fully clothed, and you are in control at every step and is always optional.

The nervous system develops in relationship. Safe, attuned contact can help the body experience something many of us did not consistently receive — co-regulation.

When used skillfully, therapeutic touch can:

  • Support a sense of grounding

  • Increase awareness of body boundaries

  • Help settle stress activation

  • Strengthen internal stability

  • Support integration after processing

What Does Touch Look Like in a Session?

If touch is incorporated, it is:

  • Slow and still

  • Non-invasive

  • Gentle and steady

  • Used for brief periods

  • Always discussed beforehand

Examples of supportive contact may include:

  • Light contact at the ankles, knees, hands, arms, elbows, or shoulders

  • Gentle support at the base of the skull

  • Contact at the sternum or upper back to support breath and cardiac regulation

  • Support near the adrenal region (above the kidneys) to help settle stress activation

Sessions may take place seated, standing, or comfortably supported on a massage table and always fully clothed.

Consent and Collaboration:

Before any touch is introduced:

  • We discuss your comfort level.

  • You are informed about where and why contact is offered.

  • You are invited to say yes, no, or not now.

  • You may change your mind at any time.

Safety is always prioritized above anything else. Touch may not be appropriate if:

  • It feels activating or overwhelming

  • There is a history of boundary violations

  • You prefer strictly non-contact work

  • Your nervous system needs more internal capacity first

Your body’s signals guide the process.

There is no expectation that touch is necessary for healing. Many sessions are entirely non-touch. The work is equally effective through awareness, breath, movement, and relational presence.

What Is Facial Reflexology?

Facial Reflexology is a therapeutic technique that applies gentle, intentional pressure to specific points on the face believed to correspond with different areas of the body. It is designed to support relaxation, circulation, and nervous system regulation while inviting the body into a state of deeper balance.

Historically, facial reflex maps developed within East Asian medicine, particularly Chinese and Vietnamese traditions, where the body is understood as an interconnected system influenced by the movement of qi along meridian pathways. These systems were based on careful observation and centuries of clinical practice within their cultural context.

With respect to these traditions, this work acknowledges its roots in classical Eastern medicine while adapting the techniques within the scope of modern esthetics and trauma-informed care.

In traditional meridian theory, stimulation of facial points is thought to influence internal organ systems through energetic pathways. From a modern neuroscience perspective, gentle facial stimulation may support regulation through sensory nerve pathways, circulatory changes, and autonomic nervous system responses.

At SomaThrive, Facial Reflexology is not used to diagnose or treat medical conditions. Instead, it is offered as a restorative practice that blends historical wisdom with contemporary understanding of nervous system regulation — creating space for the body to soften, settle, and return to coherence.

What Is Connective Tissue Release?

Connective Tissue Release is a slow, intentional manual technique that works with the superficial and deeper layers of fascia in the face, jaw, neck, and upper chest. Rather than focusing on cosmetic outcomes, this work supports mobility, circulation, and nervous system regulation.

Fascia is the body’s connective web — it surrounds muscles, nerves, and organs, and can become restricted under chronic stress or protective bracing. Gentle, sustained contact may help soften these patterns and restore ease to areas that commonly hold tension, especially the jaw, throat, and upper chest.

At SomaThrive, this work is offered through a trauma-informed lens and is paced according to your nervous system’s capacity.

How are Facial Touch Services Different from Facial Treatments?

While cosmetic facials primarily focus on skin care, exfoliation, and aesthetic enhancement, Facial Reflexology & Connective Tissue Release are centered on nervous system regulation and whole-body balance. The intention is not cosmetic improvement, but rather to encourage parasympathetic nervous sysem states that support relaxation and restoration.

Are Facial Reflexology & Connective Tissue Relase Safe?

Facial Reflexology & Connective Tissue Release are generally considered safe when performed by a trained and licensed practitioner. At SomaThrive, techniques are gentle, trauma-informed, and adapted to your comfort level and health history.

Most clients experience relaxation and a sense of internal settling. However, as with any hands-on service, there are considerations to keep in mind.

Possible temporary side effects may include:

  • Mild redness or warmth in treated areas

  • Temporary skin sensitivity

  • Light soreness in the jaw, neck, or facial muscles

  • Temporary fatigue or emotional release as the nervous system settles

Facial Reflexology may not be appropriate, or may require modification, if you have:

  • Active skin infections, open wounds, or recent facial surgery

  • Severe acne, rosacea flare-ups, or compromised skin barrier

  • Recent injectables (e.g., Botox or fillers) within the recommended healing window

  • Uncontrolled high blood pressure (modifications may be needed)

  • History of seizures (consultation recommended)

Please inform your practitioner of any medical conditions, recent procedures, or sensitivities so your session can be safely tailored to you.

When in doubt, consultation with your medical provider is recommended.

 Is this work right for me?

If you’ve tried traditional talk therapy but still feel stuck, this approach often brings the missing piece — healing that touches both the body and the soul.

It’s especially supportive for those experiencing:

  • Feel chronically stressed or overwhelmed

  • Struggle with attachment wounds or relational patterns

  • Are navigating midlife transitions or identity shifts

  • Feel disconnected from your body or inner voice

  • Have done therapy before but want something more embodied

How often should I come for sessions?

That depends on what your body is asking for. Many clients begin with weekly or bi-weekly sessions to establish safety and momentum, then move to monthly maintenance sessions as their nervous system becomes more regulated.

Deep healing unfolds best with consistency — but there’s no rigid formula. We’ll attune together and let your body’s rhythm guide the pace.

What makes Soma Thrive different?

SomaThrive integrates relational psychotherapy with somatic therapy and holistic wellness practices. While we may explore your story, and incorporate traditional talk therapy interventions to gain insight, we also pay close attention to how your experiences are held in the body and nervous system. Here, this work supports regulation, integration, and embodied change.

Every session is a nurturing collaboration between your nervous system, your story, and your authentic self. Together, we create the space where your body remembers peace — and your life begins to move with it.