Therapy office in Gainesville Florida

AREAS of Focus

Anxiety Treatment

Anxiety sucks. The constant movement, potential panic attacks, inability to think clearly — it can feel like you are hijacked by your own body. In many ways, you are.


When the body perceives danger (which can sometimes be only the thought of something), the nervous system prepares to fight, flee, freeze, or appease in order to survive. Anxiety is not just something we think. It is often something we live physically.


You may notice overthinking, hypervigilance, perfectionism, difficulty resting, people-pleasing, panic, shutdown, or the feeling that your body is always preparing for something.


In our work together, I use somatic therapy techniques that help you reconnect to your body as it is, rather than fighting against it. Through this process, we begin learning which resources and patterns support regulation and which continue reinforcing anxiety. Fully embodying our anxiety can help us orient to what is true in the present moment and find whatever safety is available in the here-and-now.


Together, we work to better understand the protective patterns your nervous system has learned over time and begin building more flexibility, awareness, and safety within the body.


I care deeply about anxious people because I understand how consuming and exhausting anxiety can feel. My own experiences with anxiety, OCD, and trauma recovery have shaped both my personal life and my clinical work. It has led to a personal and professional passion for braiding together the most updated neuroscience with the somatic and poetic experience of the individual.

Anxiety sucks. The constant movement, potential panic attacks, inability to think clearly — it can feel like you are hijacked by your own body. In many ways, you are.


When the body perceives danger (which can sometimes be only the thought of something), the nervous system prepares to fight, flee, freeze, or appease in order to survive. Anxiety is not just something we think. It is often something we live physically.


You may notice overthinking, hypervigilance, perfectionism, difficulty resting, people-pleasing, panic, shutdown, or the feeling that your body is always preparing for something.


In our work together, I use somatic therapy techniques that help you reconnect to your body as it is, rather than fighting against it. Through this process, we begin learning which resources and patterns support regulation and which continue reinforcing anxiety. Fully embodying our anxiety can help us orient to what is true in the present moment and find whatever safety is available in the here-and-now.


Together, we work to better understand the protective patterns your nervous system has learned over time and begin building more flexibility, awareness, and safety within the body.


I care deeply about anxious people because I understand how consuming and exhausting anxiety can feel. My own experiences with anxiety, OCD, and trauma recovery have shaped both my personal life and my clinical work. It has led to a personal and professional passion for braiding together the most updated neuroscience with the somatic and poetic experience of the individual.

AREAS of Focus

Somatic Therapy

It is important to keep the body in mind when working with trauma.


Trauma shows up in the body. I don’t need to tell you that, though. You’ve noticed how your heart races or jumps at the thought of something, or that quick need to get up and out of the room you’re in. All of this is your nervous system trying to help you in the here-and-now, not realizing that the overwhelming thing that happened is actually in the past. A sudden thought, image, or sensation brings it all back.


Somatic therapy is grounded in the understanding that our experiences are not only held cognitively, but also within the body and nervous system. Rather than trying to force those responses away, we work to understand them with curiosity and compassion while building greater capacity for connection, regulation, and choice.


While I may notice possible tension in your body, signaled to me by your shoulders rising up toward your ears, you would confirm the accuracy of that assumption through feeling into your body (a skill you can develop, I promise). I cannot know your internal experience and you are the authority of our interpretation of what is happening within it and being expressed from it.


Somatic practices aim to increase your connection to the information you have inside yourself as well as give you more choice in regulating states like anxiety and dissociation. This may look like feeling into emotional expressions with supportive tools, like resistance bands, and/or tracking sensation to help us understand something that feels true to your body but is different from how you think about what has happened. It may look like grounding through your feet or back-body to lower hypervigilance or standing up and moving as needed. The goal is to integrate and not override your body with rationalizations and logic because, frankly, it doesn’t work. Instead, we will find the meanings that do validate your body’s experience and work with your body to reshape chronic states of distress.


If you could have thought your way out of it, you would have. I know this to be true personally and I have worked with many people who have tried for a long time before getting help. It is time to start a dialogue with your body.

It is important to keep the body in mind when working with trauma.


Trauma shows up in the body. I don’t need to tell you that, though. You’ve noticed how your heart races or jumps at the thought of something, or that quick need to get up and out of the room you’re in. All of this is your nervous system trying to help you in the here-and-now, not realizing that the overwhelming thing that happened is actually in the past. A sudden thought, image, or sensation brings it all back.


Somatic therapy is grounded in the understanding that our experiences are not only held cognitively, but also within the body and nervous system. Rather than trying to force those responses away, we work to understand them with curiosity and compassion while building greater capacity for connection, regulation, and choice.


While I may notice possible tension in your body, signaled to me by your shoulders rising up toward your ears, you would confirm the accuracy of that assumption through feeling into your body (a skill you can develop, I promise). I cannot know your internal experience and you are the authority of our interpretation of what is happening within it and being expressed from it.


Somatic practices aim to increase your connection to the information you have inside yourself as well as give you more choice in regulating states like anxiety and dissociation. This may look like feeling into emotional expressions with supportive tools, like resistance bands, and/or tracking sensation to help us understand something that feels true to your body but is different from how you think about what has happened. It may look like grounding through your feet or back-body to lower hypervigilance or standing up and moving as needed. The goal is to integrate and not override your body with rationalizations and logic because, frankly, it doesn’t work. Instead, we will find the meanings that do validate your body’s experience and work with your body to reshape chronic states of distress.


If you could have thought your way out of it, you would have. I know this to be true personally and I have worked with many people who have tried for a long time before getting help. It is time to start a dialogue with your body.

common questions
common questions

What does 'somatic' mean?

What if I do not like my body?

AREAS of Focus

EMDR Therapy

Sometimes experiences remain stuck in the nervous system long after they are over intellectually. You may know something happened years ago and still feel your body react as though it is happening now. This can look like anxiety, hypervigilance, panic, nightmares, flashbacks, shutdown, or strange body sensations that seem to arrive out of nowhere, even when part of you knows you are technically safe.


This makes sense when we understand how overwhelming experiences impact the brain and nervous system. When we are deeply overwhelmed, parts of the brain responsible for processing and storing experiences can go offline. As a result, the body may continue responding to the experience as unresolved or ongoing rather than something that has already passed.


EMDR helps the brain and body process overwhelming experiences in a way that allows the nervous system to recognize the present moment as different from the past. I integrate EMDR with somatic therapy and nervous system work, particularly when working with complex trauma, anxiety, OCD, and chronic patterns of overwhelm or protection.

At its core, EMDR supports the brain in reprocessing experiences that may still feel emotionally or physically “stuck,” helping the body begin to re-establish a sense of safety, flexibility, and connection in the present moment.


What is EMDR?

EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) is an evidence-based trauma therapy that uses bilateral stimulation to support the brain and nervous system in processing overwhelming or unresolved experiences.


Is EMDR Right for You?

EMDR may be supportive if you notice that past experiences continue to impact your present-day life emotionally, physically, or relationally, even when you logically understand that those experiences are over.

common questions
common questions

What types of trauma can EMDR treat?

Can EMDR treat things besides trauma?

Who should not do EMDR?

What tools are used in session?