SPECIALTIES

I offer the option to integrate therapeutic touch-work (informed by SE Touch and Kathy Kain’s teachings on trauma-informed touch work for nervous system regulation). This is done with the client lying face-up on a massage therapy table (or seated in a chair in some cases) and the practitioner either standing or seated at various points around the table. There is no massage or any other manualized modality offered and everyone is fully clothed at all times.

The start of a session: After a brief discussion, while seated, we identify and briefly discuss something to work with. Then the client may situate their body on the table and a verbal conversation between client and practitioner confirms both of their readiness to begin listening/sensing into the client’s system together. The practitioner and client verbally negotiate where a good place to begin focusing attention might be. Once this is identified (and can be changed at any time by the client), the practitioner makes physical contact with the mutually consented to area with their hand(s).

The practitioner senses into their hands, using them as a kind of antenna, to help guide them as to what type of physical contact may be appropriate for the client (and when, where, how, for how long, when to shift, etc.) This is always an ongoing verbal negotiation between client and practitioner. Paramount in this type of work is moment to moment client consent to any and all physical contact and all elements of experience where client choice can possibly be identified as a factor.

This type of support can help one come into and more deeply connect with their felt sense in a more directly or deeply somatic manner, accessing conscious, unconscious, pre-conscious, non-conscious, or procedural memory experience.

Underpinning this work are the same principles as any other legitimate therapeutic mental health modality: it is a conversation built on mutual consent, respect for boundary, and trust.