Somatic Experiencing in Minneapolis, MN
You don't have to keep carrying the weight of what happened
You may know you're safe, but your body may still feel stuck in what happened.
Trauma, chronic stress, and painful life experiences can leave a lasting impact on the body. Even when the event is over, you may find yourself feeling anxious, overwhelmed, disconnected, on edge, or unable to fully relax.
It’s common to understand that the danger has passed, but still feel like your body hasn't gotten the message.
You might notice :
Feeling constantly alert or easily overwhelmed
Anxiety that seems to come out of nowhere
Feeling disconnected from yourself, your emotions, or your body
Difficulty trusting yourself or others
Feeling stuck in patterns that don't make sense
Exhaustion from always trying to cope, manage, or push through
You may wonder:
"Why am I still reacting this way?"
“Why does this keep happening?”
"Why can't I just move on?"
"What's wrong with me?"
Your body has been doing its best to help you navigate what you've been through. When experiences feel overwhelming, our nervous system adapts to keep us safe. Sometimes those survival responses remain active, even when life has changed, leaving you feeling stuck, disconnected, or on edge.
Somatic Experiencing helps your nervous system gently unwind these patterns, creating more space for safety, connection, and ease.
Somatic Experiencing Therapy can help you move out of survival mode and feel like yourself again.
How I can help
Vanessa Robinson, MA, LPCC, is a trauma therapist in Minneapolis specializing in Somatic Experiencing Therapy and helping people reconnect with themselves after overwhelming experiences. Vanessa has completed extensive training through Somatic Experiencing International, including a three-year program focused on trauma, stress, and the nervous system.
If you’ve experiencing trauma or complex trauma, it's likely you've spent years trying to understand yourself. You're probably thoughtful, self aware, and done a lot of the "work" already but you're still feeling stuck.
Through Somatic Experiencing Therapy we’ll slow things down in a way that isn’t overwhelming and gently shift from only focusing on the story of what happened toward the sensations, feelings, images, urges, and experiences happening in your body.
As we begin to listen to the wisdom of the body, we can understand the ways you’ve adapted to protect yourself and create more space ease, connection, aliveness, safety, joy, and whatever you need witnessed.
Curious About Somatic Experiencing Therapy?
-
Somatic Experiencing (SE) is a body-based therapy that helps heal trauma, anxiety, chronic stress, and nervous system overwhelm. By increasing awareness of physical sensations, emotions, and nervous system responses, SE helps you feel more grounded, regulated, and connected to yourself and the present.
-
In a Somatic Experiencing session, we'll get curious about what's happening in your body and nervous system. Rather than pushing through difficult emotions or staying stuck in your head, we'll slow down and notice the sensations, emotions, and patterns that arise. This gentle, body-based approach can help you feel more connected to yourself, more regulated, and less overwhelmed by stress, anxiety, and life's challenges.
-
Somatic Experiencing recognizes that your body has its own story to tell. While insight and understanding are important, lasting change often happens when the body has the opportunity to experience something different. Together, we work with the nervous system's natural capacity for healing, helping you move beyond old survival patterns and toward a greater sense of safety, connection, and ease.
-
Somatic Experiencing may be a good fit if you feel like you understand your experiences, know where your patterns come from, or have spent a lot of time talking about them, but your body still responds as if something is unresolved. Sometimes we can understand something in our mind and still have our body respond in old protective ways.
This work may be a good fit if you’re curious about what’s happening in your body, open to slowing down, and want to explore the ways your body has learned to respond to stress, trauma, and overwhelming experiences.
Somatic Experiencing may not be the best fit if you’re looking for therapy that is only focused on talking through what happened. SE includes your story, but we also pay attention to the body’s signals, sensations, and survival responses as part of the healing process.
Still have questions? Find out more information about Somatic Experiencing
“Trauma is not what happens to us, but what we hold inside in the absence of an empathetic witness.”
― Peter A. Levine