What Somatic Therapy Is
Somatic therapy is licensed mental-health care. A trained therapist works with trauma, PTSD, grief, and clinical conditions using body-based methods alongside talk. It's regulated, diagnostic when needed, and appropriate when something in your past or present feels beyond the scope of everyday coping.
What Somatic Coaching Is
Somatic coaching is body-based, forward-looking work. Instead of treating a diagnosis, we practice nervous system regulation, breath, presence, and new patterns — so your baseline shifts. It's for people who are functioning but tired of white-knuckling calm, and who want the body to be part of the answer.
The Core Differences
- Scope: therapy treats clinical conditions; coaching supports growth and regulation.
- Credential: therapists are licensed clinicians; coaches are trained practitioners, not mental-health providers.
- Direction: therapy often looks backward to heal; coaching looks forward to build new patterns.
- Pace: both are slow, but therapy holds more capacity for acute distress.
How to Choose
If you're navigating trauma, a diagnosis, or acute crisis, please begin with a licensed somatic therapist — that is the right room. If you're functioning, curious, and want steady, embodied support to regulate and feel more like yourself, somatic coaching may be a good fit. There's no wrong door; there's just the one your system needs right now.
Working with Emily
My work is somatic coaching, informed by trauma-aware yoga and breath. It's not therapy, and I'll always name that clearly. Most people begin with a single session to feel the work.
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