Hi. I’m Soma.
My motivation to respond to personal and environmental challenges was born from early trauma, tragedy, and illness. I was a pre-Olympic athlete as a pre-teen and learned the value of working through challenge and loss with perseverence, faith, and courage. My early athletic years drew me to the mystical and to the power of the mind to influence performance. The use of my body as a swimmer enabled me to relate to that which is felt and sensed, but not yet seen. This eventually inspired me to pursue a career in holistic healing that integrated somatic health with mental health and spirituality, including somatic psychology, where I have been a certified practitioner and licensed manual therapist for nearly three decades. A trauma specialty emerged from dealing with my own history as I matured as a therapist.
As a teenager a mystical experience revealed to me there was more to our existence than what I’d been taught up until then, and I became hungry for all things spiritual, mystical, and psychological. I was influenced by the mysticism of the Jesuits during my college studies at Boston College, wanting to know more how our thoughts and experiences impact our physical health and spiritual well-being. I became a voracious learner intellectually until I recognized my symptoms of several years lingered. In the midst of intense challenges I heard the call to change direction in my career and found my passion as a psyche-spirit counselor and bodyworker. After years of deep exploration in my inner landscape my gifts offer assistance in uncovering one’s true Self, and living this union in an embodied life. This I am committed to for life. I create a safe and gentle therapeutic container to connect with this union through emotional uncovering and self-discovery.
Body Wisdom. Throughout my journey I saw how the body must be included in our psyche’s healing for transformation to occur, and that healing the body spontaneously heals the psyche. They are one. My career led me into learning cutting-edge body-centered psychology and hands-on therapies to help release trauma stored in the nervous system and in the memory of our cells. Therapies including Somatic Experiencing, bodywork, energy medicine, yoga therapy, dance movement, expressive arts, and Craniosacral therapy. I studied with the best and had tremendous apprenticeships and support.
Ecotherapy & Spirit Wisdom. My early career saw me drawn to explore nature-based Earth healing rituals and animal totem medicine, eventually finding my way to Yogic traditions and Eastern philosophies. Healing nature therapies inform my work to this day. I have trained in the practice of Insight Meditation since 1994 and still practice in the Vipassana lineage. Although I do not claim any secular commitment, I am extremely influenced by my Sacha lineage and the teachings of my beloved guru Sri ShantiMayi, with whom I have been a devotee since 1997. Tibetan Buddhism teachings and forms, the work of Byron Katie, Marianne Williamson, and Brene Brown, also have a deep impact on my work.
Love Wisdom. Even after many doctors, healers, and anecdotes from my early days, I did not experience deep, life-long healing until I experienced loving connection with myself. This was facilitated through great guides and teachers… acts of deep love, unconditional listening, healing touch, and being lovingly witnessed and held by them.
It’s hard being human! My time in India, meditating in ashrams, studying yogic psychology, and especially my time with my guru, Sri ShantiMayi, showed me the gifts that ultimate presence brings, and the indelible positive impact it can have on navigating this world.
These gifts are the ultimate healers, and what I bring to you.
All good things,
Soma