Window of Tolerance
A key concept in somatic work is the window of tolerance—the range within which we can stay present, connected, and emotionally engaged without becoming overwhelmed or shutting down.
Trauma and frequent stress can narrow this window, making it harder to tolerate a range of emotions and the daily stressors our modern world likes to throw at us. When this happens, the nervous system often moves into protective states:
Sympathetic activation (“on”) — anxiety, angry outbursts, chronic tension in the body, hypervigilance(heightened awareness or scanning that’s hard to shut off), hyperactivity, rumination, inability to control emotions
Dorsal vagal shutdown (“off”) — numbness, continuing sense of hopelessness or helplessness, feeling frozen, disconnected, depression, shutdown
What is Somatic Therapy?
Somatic therapy is a body-based approach that supports healing by working with the nervous system to support people with chronic stress, trauma, and attachment injuries by addressing the accumulated stress stored in the body.
Somatic work helps you reconnect with bodily sensations, internal signals(you know when you miss a cue in a relationship and someone gets upset? Or when there’s a little part of you that wants to set a boundary but you don’t realize it till after? Those signals!), and stored emotions so adverse experiences can be processed and integrated more fully(so that you’re not ruminating so much and so we don’t keep repeating old patterns), and you can reclaim access to energy, motivation, and connection with yourself and others.
This approach complements traditional psychotherapy by supporting nervous system regulation, emotional processing, and embodiment, helping insights gained in therapy translate into lasting change.
How somatic integration can help!
Somatic integration focuses on gently expanding the window of tolerance (or capacity), allowing clients to remain present with their internal experience (this is one of the biggest things we often struggle with after something unexpected and unfortunate happens, when memories, emotions, and sensations can surface all at once). But rather than “forcing” emotional processing, somatic work focuses on building internal stability first and then transformation through pacing, internal tool building, capacity growth, and finally trauma-renegotiation.
We do this through…
Somatic psychology education in session - The “gateway” to healing in the body is the “mind”. Trauma can make us feel out of control, and our mind can work on overdrive, trying to get a handle on things, without getting anywhere. When the mind is respected and empowered through education, we can reclaim a sense of agency and safety for the entire mind-body system to open up to healing. So this is where we’ll start!
Tracking bodily sensations and nervous system shifts to help name our internal experience and recognize how our body responds to thoughts, beliefs, and what we say and do
Pendulating between pleasant and uncomfortable sensations or emotions to safely build capacity and become more comfortable with tolerating discomfort
Titration — moving slowly into tender feelings that may have been disconnected from out of fear, trauma, to create safety throughout the healing process
Supporting Completion and release of stored stress patterns held in the nervous system. I’ve noticed that old, outdated habits and behaviors naturally resolve themselves at this stage.
Increasing emotional capacity and resilience by investigating habitual emotional “go-tos” while building tolerance for emotions with lower capacity (ones clients typically avoid or view as “negative”)
Why is this important?
As powerful as our minds are, at the end of the day, we can’t think our way out of trauma. If we struggle with symptoms like…
repeating “similar” relationship patterns
inability to actually be present and enjoy life and relationships
can’t let go of relationships and people that repeatedly hurt us
unintentionally “sabotage” good relationships
feel “stuck”, powerless, and lack fulfillment in a major area of life
have a continuous sense of urgency to “get to the next stage of life” but can’t seem to be making any progress
And/or if you have tried traditional coaching, therapy, or programs for self-improvement and made some progress, but it hasn’t addressed and transformed the “root” of our challenges, or you can’t seem to implement the new behaviors you know you should be doing.
Unresolved trauma stored in the body can silently get in the way of our ability to create the life and relationships we truly want. Somatic work addresses these wounds at their physical and emotional source, allowing us to release held patterns and make the necessary inner shifts that then support meaningful outer changes.
My Approach
I integrate tools from Somatic Experiencing (SE) and the NeuroAffective Relational Model (NARM). Learn more about NARM and attachment work here.
My goal is to help you create lasting change that goes beyond insight.
Over time, somatic work supports deeper shifts that help you feel more confident, palpably connected to yourself and others, and alive (like reclaiming that child-like wonder and excitement that makes people magnetic).
Many clients find that somatic work allows the insights they’ve gained in therapy or personal growth work to finally land—so they can move beyond survival-based patterns and into a life and relationships that actually align with who they are now, and who they’re becoming.
