Somatic Therapy
When Your Body Is Holding What Words Can't Reach
Your body holds the story your words sometimes can't tell. The tightness in your chest before a difficult conversation. The shutdown that comes from nowhere. The activation you feel before your thoughts have time to catch up. These aren't overreactions. They're your nervous system doing exactly what it learned to do.
Somatic therapy brings awareness to the physical experience of emotion and works with it directly rather than talking around it. I'm a trauma-informed somatic therapist at Path of Purpose, and for many of my clients, this is where the deepest and most lasting shifts happen.
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What Somatic Therapy Actually Is
Most therapy works from the top down. You talk about what happened, build insight into how it affected you, and work to shift the thoughts and beliefs that formed around the experience. That matters, and it helps. But for many people, especially those carrying trauma, the body doesn't get the memo.
Somatic therapy works from the bottom up. Instead of starting with the narrative, we start with what's happening in your body right now. The tightness, the holding, the places that brace or collapse. We bring attention there, slow down, and work with those physical responses directly. The nervous system, it turns out, can change. But it needs to be met where it actually lives.
This is trauma-informed work at its most foundational. The body isn't a symptom to manage. It's the place where healing happens.
What to Expect in a Somatic Session With Me
We don't dive straight into the body on day one. The early work is about building safety, understanding your nervous system's particular patterns, and developing enough internal resource that we can approach difficult material without becoming overwhelmed by it. That foundation is part of the therapy, not a delay before it starts.
In session, I'll invite you to slow down and notice what's happening physically as we talk. Where do you feel something in your body? What happens to your breath, your posture, your energy when a particular topic comes up? We follow those signals rather than pushing past them. Sometimes that looks like staying with a sensation for longer than feels comfortable. Sometimes it's moving, adjusting, finding a different position. The body often knows what it needs when we give it space.
I hold certifications in both Somatic Psychotherapy and Sensorimotor Psychotherapy for Trauma, which means I bring a rigorous, research-informed approach to this work alongside genuine attunement to what's alive for you in the room.
Why Somatic Work Reaches What Talk Therapy Sometimes Can't
Trauma doesn't live in the story. It lives in the body's learned response to threat, the bracing, the freezing, the shutdown, the hypervigilance that persists long after the original experience is over. Talking about trauma can be meaningful and important. But talking about it doesn't always change how the body responds to it.
In my practice, I integrate somatic work with EMDR, which is one of the most evidence-based trauma treatments available, and with Sensorimotor Psychotherapy, a body-centred approach specifically designed for trauma themes. These modalities speak the same language. Together they create conditions for change that go deeper than insight alone.
If you've searched for a trauma therapist in Boulder and found your way here, this is the level at which I work. Not just understanding what happened, but helping your nervous system complete what the original experience interrupted.
Who I Work With
I work with adults whose experience of anxiety, depression, or trauma lives primarily in the body rather than in thought. People who brace, freeze, collapse, or disconnect, and who have found that understanding why hasn't changed how they feel physically. Somatic therapy tends to be a natural fit for those who have spent years in more cognitive approaches and noticed that the body hasn't gotten the memo.
I've worked with artists and creatives who experience emotion intensely and physically, and with adults navigating complex relational trauma that has become embedded in how they hold themselves in the world. My practice is trauma-informed, justice-centered, sex-positive, shame-free, and proudly LGBTQIA+ affirming.
somatic Therapy
This might be right for you if...
Your body reacts before your thoughts catch up
You've done talk therapy and something still feels stuck
You carry anxiety, stress, or tension that lives physically in you
You've experienced trauma and want to work with it at a nervous system level
You shut down, freeze, or disconnect when things get hard
You feel emotions intensely but struggle to make sense of them
You're ready to slow down and actually listen to what your body has been trying to tell you
You want therapy that works with all of you, not just your thoughts
Training Rooted in the Same Values I Bring to Every Session
My somatic training comes from the Sensorimotor Psychotherapy Institute and the Noeticus Counseling Center and Training Institute, where I completed certifications in both Sensorimotor Psychotherapy for Trauma and Somatic Psychotherapy. My graduate training is from Naropa University, where I earned a Master's in Clinical and Mental Health Counseling with a concentration in Mindfulness-Based Transpersonal Counseling.
Naropa's contemplative tradition gave me something that most clinical training doesn't: the ability to be genuinely present with what's happening in someone's body without needing to immediately interpret or fix it. That quality of attention is what somatic work requires, and it's what I bring into every session.
Sessions and Pricing
I'm private pay only, which means our work is never shaped by insurance timelines or approval requirements. Sessions are $140 for 50 to 55 minutes. A free 15-minute consultation is available before any commitment.
start with a free 15 minute consultation
You don't need to have it figured out before you contact me. The first step is simply a conversation, and I'd be honored to be part of what comes next for you.
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Talk therapy works primarily with thoughts, beliefs, and narrative. Somatic therapy includes the body in the process, bringing direct attention to physical sensations, breath, posture, and nervous system responses. Rather than talking about an experience from a distance, we slow down and work with what's actually happening in your body right now. For many people, especially those carrying trauma, this is where the deepest shifts happen.
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Yes. Somatic therapy is specifically designed to work with how trauma lives in the nervous system, not just in the story we tell about it. In my practice, I integrate somatic work with EMDR and Sensorimotor Psychotherapy for Trauma, both of which are evidence-based approaches for trauma treatment. Together they address trauma at the level where it actually lives.
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Most people find it quieter and slower than they expect. We pay attention to what's happening in your body as we talk, following sensations, noticing breath, tracking what shifts when certain topics come up. It can feel unusual at first if you're used to more verbal, narrative-focused therapy. Over time, most clients find it deeply settling, because they're finally being met where they actually are.
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Sessions run 50 to 55 minutes and cost $140. I'm private pay only, which keeps the structure of your care entirely between us without third-party involvement. A free 15-minute consultation is available before any commitment.
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You can reach me by calling (720) 663-0334, emailing jacqui@pathofpurpose.org, or booking a free 15-minute consultation through the website. Path of Purpose is located at 1895 Bluff Street, Boulder, CO 80304. Telehealth sessions are available for Colorado residents throughout the state.