How I Work

Relational

I am not a robot! Our time together will be centered in real human connection, curiosity and compassion.

Resource-based

My work is centered around helping my clients increase their experiences of well-being.

Systems-oriented

I work with the knowledge that the familial and social systems you navigate influence your experience.

Somatic

I help people access embodied experiences of safety, ground and wholeness as platforms for daily life and self-exploration.

Nonviolent

I strive to collaborate with you to ensure the work we do feels safe and right and is rooted in consent.

So what is somatics, anyway?

Somatics is a broad field that recognizes the inseparable connection between our bodies, minds and emotions.

The somatic work I do focuses on helping folks experience life in new ways by supporting different physiological responses to stress.

In becoming aware of and addressing our stress responses we hold a key that unlocks doors into more ease - and supports alternatives to those feelings, thoughts and patterns we can't seem to shake. In turn, we gain more freedom from within: greater capacity to follow our innate natures, more choices in action and relationship, and more room in ourselves to feel the full breadth and depth of life.

Who is it for?

Everyone!

My clients' common thread is that they are looking to deepen their connection with themselves and experience life in a new way. Many have the sense that something just isn’t right. Others come to me to heal from all kinds of trauma and/or are navigating anxiety, depression, panic, LGBTQIA+ issues, racism and other systemic issues, as well as low self-esteem, attachment issues and other struggles.

Therapy sounds scary...

I know!

It may help to know that you don't have to "know" anything, and you can never "do therapy wrong." It's hard to be a human! But your body's innate wisdom will take you everywhere you need to go on your healing journey, and I will be there to guide, support and hold your experience with you.

All of life is always moving toward healing. The cut on your hand magically scabs and turns back into skin. The tree cut off at its base sprouts new shoots. The bird with the broken wing. And, you!

Acknowledgements

I honor the tremendous pains and traumas - both physical and invisible, both present and past - that are a result of systems that do not center the health, happiness and sovereignty of all the beings of this Earth.

Somatics as a contemporary "field" is comprised of many practices that indigenous peoples the world over have always practiced, which have been used and profited on (in this field and others) without consent. I am on a personal journey learning how to address this in my work and life.

I live and work on territory traditionally stewarded by Duwamish, sdukʷalbixʷ (Snoqualmie), Cayuse, Umatilla and Walla Walla nations. To learn more about Native land and find out whose you're on, click here.

For more information on the work of those quoted on this site, please click on their names, which are hyperlinks.

Natalia Oncina

MA, LMHCA