Your body can have a different experience.
NeuroAffective Touch
Touch might seem like an odd pairing with psychotherapy, but when it comes to meeting the fundamental and often missing experiences of connection, support, attunement, and nurturing, touch is just what many of us are missing.
NeuroAffective Touch is a polyvagal-informed somatic approach that integrates psychodynamic psychotherapy with the therapeutic use of touch to help you build an in-the-body connection to the physical sensations of trust and comfort.​​​
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Why Touch?​
Our emotions are experienced and processed in both our minds and bodies.
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While traditional talk therapy focuses solely on the cognitive aspect of your experience, somatic approaches recognize sensation as the language of the body.
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Sensation is also our first language. Attuned, nurturing touch helps babies to know that they exist, are loved, and that their needs are important. Sensation also moves babies toward expressing discomfort and needs.
From a developmental standpoint, infants cannot survive without touch. But touch is also necessary as we age. Research shows that touch calms our nervous system, reduces anxiety and depression, and can help us to feel emotionally connected to others.
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Many people come from families and cultures where touch was rare, only offered when one did something “right”, or used to inflict harm.
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Nurturing, consensual touch is a doorway to healing relational wounds and meeting the often missing needs of feeling supported, understood, and validated in your needs and wants.​​​
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Touch and Trauma​
Renowned trauma therapist Peter Levine once said, “trauma is not what happens to us, but what we hold inside in the absence of an empathetic witness.”
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As a result of your experiences, your body might be holding:
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chronic nervous system dysregulation
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frequent dissociation as a means to cope with an unsettling or painful inner world
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constant self-judgment and shame
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difficulty trusting others
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fear that you’ll never belong
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This all may feel especially potent for those with early trauma and neglect.
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When you’ve lacked connection and support during the most formative or overwhelming times in your life, a relational approach to therapy is necessary to reconnect mind and body, heal the impact of trauma on the body, and restore the innate human capacity to connect.
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The Benefits of NeuroAffective Touch
NeuroAffective Touch is particularly useful for pre-verbal or non-verbal trauma that cannot be reached my talk therapy alone, such as developmental, complex, and racial trauma, as well as health issues such as chronic pain.
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NeuroAffective Touch was initially designed to help those with developmental and complex trauma feel safer and more trusting in relationships, and has been further developed to serve a broad range of individuals. I work with clients on themes ranging from racialized trauma to dissociation to chronic pain to people pleasing.
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NeuroAffective Touch taps into the sensory language of the body, helping the body and mind reconnect and partner in healing With NeuroAffective Touch, you can:
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experience that you actually exist!
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develop the ability to regulate and soothe yourself
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enjoy being in your body
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learn to trust relationships
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identify and communicate your needs
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reduce chronic self-judgment, shame, and guilt
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cope with and reduce chronic tension and pain
How it works
NeuroAffective Touch sessions are fully clothed and taken at the pace that feels best for you. We can integrate touch into your healing journey to help you get in touch with and make sense of different sensations impulses, experience a sense of comfort, expand your capacity for connection and more. You can learn more about how touch helps here.
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It is intended for in-person use, but can be adapted in a lot of ways for online work (I know, that seems counterintuitive!). If we meet in person, you can opt to be on the couch or on a padded massage table. I have lots of blankets and warm pillows to make you comfortable.
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If we work together in 1:1 Somatic Therapy, using NeuroAffective Touch is an option.
NeuroAffective Touch Intensives
It can also be received as a one-time or short-term “intensive.” This can be a good fit for those who don’t have a lot of free time or need to travel into town to work with me.
Adjunct NeuroAffective Touch
It's also a great supplement for those working with a therapist but interested in exploring somatic healing from this perspective.
Fee & FAQ
Sessions are 60-minutes long and cost $220, but I also offer some reduced fee spots ranging from $100-200. Please don't hesitate to schedule a consultation if my fee is beyond your budget.
If your insurance plan offers out-of-network benefits I can provide you with what's called a 'superbill' which you can submit to your insurance company for partial to full reimbursement.
For answers to other questions you might have about my fees, scheduling, or using insurance benefits check out my very thorough FAQ page.
How We Begin
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We’ll meet for a free 20-minute zoom consultation and schedule your sessions
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We’ll meet once to orient to one another and clarify our focus
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We’ll schedule your sessions according to the above options (ongoing, intensive, or adjunct)
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We’ll have a debrief session a couple weeks after we complete.
