How I Work

Relational

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

Somatic

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

Systems-oriented

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

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.

Addressing our stress responses 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 come with the sense that something just isn’t right. Others come to heal from all kinds of trauma and/or are navigating life transitions, anxiety or depression, low self-esteem, attachment issues, LGBQ+ issues, systemic issues and other struggles.

Therapy sounds scary...

I know!

It may help to know that you don't have to "know" anything to begin (or continue!), and you can never "do therapy wrong." 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.

I believe that 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. We are made to heal and heal and heal again.

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