Somatic Psychotherapy
Go Beyond Insight to Create Meaningful Change
IN-PERSON PSYCHOTHERAPY FOR ADULTS IN BRANCHBURG AND ONLINE THROUGHOUT NEW JERSEY
Therapy for the Mind-Body Connection
Psychotherapy with me offers a thoughtful space to explore the deeper layers of your experience. Together, we look at the influences—family, culture, and history—that have shaped your story, as well as how your mind and body have learned to respond and protect you. As these patterns shift, you open new possibilities for connection, flexibility, and growth—both within yourself and in your relationships with others.
When You Can’t Think Your Way Out of Old Patterns
The people I work with are resilient, accomplished, and highly self-aware. Some have been in therapy before and gained a great deal from the experience. Others are beginning therapy for the first time because something about themselves has become increasingly difficult to ignore.
You might recognize yourself here:
Emotional & Physical Well-Being
- Changes in sleep, appetite, or energy make routines harder.
- You withdraw from people or activities you once enjoyed.
- Your mind is restless with worry, self-criticism, or looping thoughts.
- Your body is tense, on edge, or easily startled.
- Around certain people, you tense up, shrink, or feel unusually young.
Coping & Relational Patterns
- You prioritize others’ needs while neglecting your own.
- Coping relies on food, alcohol, work, or screens.
- Old pain or memories still feel present.
- You repeat painful or confusing relationship patterns.
- Change feels hard, even when you know what’s happening.
Self-Trust & Direction
- Changes in sleep, appetite, or energy make routines harder.
- You withdraw from people or activities you once enjoyed.
- Your mind is restless with worry, self-criticism, or looping thoughts.
- Your body is tense, on edge, or easily startled.
- Around certain people, you tense up, shrink, or feel unusually young.
If any of this sounds familiar, you’re in the right place.
You may have tried to understand yourself, make changes, or talk things through, but still find yourself falling back into familiar patterns. Sometimes insight alone isn’t enough to change deeply ingrained patterns of thinking and behaving.
What is Somatic Psychotherapy?
Yes, we talk. Somatic psychotherapy doesn’t replace conversation; it broadens what we notice together.
Our work centers on genuine connection, with attention to what unfolds in your body as we talk. Often, these responses offer insights that words alone can’t express. We might notice tension as you share something difficult, slow down when emotions feel overwhelming, get curious about urges to withdraw or care for others, or notice a shift in your breathing when something feels important.
Stress, trauma, and challenging relationships shape not only how we think and feel, but also how our bodies respond. Somatic psychotherapy brings these responses into awareness, helping us explore how they connect with our emotions, thoughts, and relationships.
A Holistic Approach That Responds to You
Depending on your needs, Our work may include:
- Tracking — noticing sensations, feelings, and impulses in the body
- Resourcing — finding what brings steadiness or a sense of safety
- Titration — working with difficulty in small, manageable steps
- Pendulation — shifting attention between distress and ease
- Grounding — using your senses and environment to reconnect with the present
- Movement — allowing your body to move freely
- Mindfulness — observing your experience without reacting
- Focusing — attending to your felt sense to explore what’s hard to put into words
- Experiential practices — using creative expression to process emotions and cultivate self-compassion
Somatic work isn’t about doing physical exercises or focusing only on your body every session. These practices are gentle invitations, introduced together and tailored to what feels helpful for you.
Serving adults in Morris, Somerset, and Hunterdon counties and throughout New Jersey via telehealth.
Is Somatic Psychotherapy Right for You?
Somatic psychotherapy may be a good fit for you if:
- You understand your patterns but keep repeating them.
- Stress or anxiety shows up physically through muscle tension, headaches, or pain.
- It often feels difficult to access or express your emotions.
- You want therapy that cultivates the mind-body connection.
- Overwhelming emotions leave you numb, shut down, or disconnected.
- Trauma, chronic stress, or difficult relational experiences continue to affect you.
- You feel numb, shut down, or disconnected from your body.
- Certain situations trigger confusing physical or emotional reactions.
- You’ve been in therapy but haven't experienced the change you’re looking for.
Somatic Psychotherapy in New Jersey
Begin Where You Are
You don’t have to have it all figured out to take the first step. A consultation is simply a conversation—an opportunity to share what’s bringing you here, what you hope for, and to see if we’re the right fit for working together.
Areas We May Explore
People seek psychotherapy for many reasons, often bringing concerns shaped by early relationships and experiences that continue to affect them today. Here are some of the concerns I most often support:
High-Functioning Anxiety
Perfectionism, overthinking, people-pleasing, self-doubt, trouble resting, overworking, and constant pressure to perform.
Depression & Emotional Disconnection
Numbness, emptiness, loss of self-connection, low motivation, or feeling absent from your own life—even while functioning well.
Relationships & Family Dynamics
Recurring patterns, boundary challenges, conflict, family roles, struggles with closeness, or staying connected without losing yourself.
Relational Trauma & Attachment Wounds
Early experiences that affect trust, intimacy, belonging, and how you see yourself in relationships.
Complex Trauma
Long-term survival patterns that shape emotions, identity, relationships, your body, and sense of safety, including ways of coping or finding relief that can become difficult to change.
Life Transitions & Grief
Loss, endings, identity shifts, career changes, divorce, or times when life no longer fits.
What It's Like to Work With Me
Therapy with me is conversational, honest, and open—sometimes compassionately challenging, often spontaneous, and always a place where stories, jokes, laughter, tears, and emotion are woven into the dynamic we create together. I’m an active participant—I’ll listen closely, ask questions, share observations, offer another perspective, and occasionally share something from my own life if I think it may help you feel less alone.
There may be moments when we sit with something painful or make room for feelings that haven’t had space to be felt before. Sometimes, something unexpected arises and helps you see an experience differently. I’m with you for all of it.
You don’t have to edit yourself into the “good therapy client.” Our work makes room for uncertainty, contradiction, grief, frustration, fear, loneliness—even the thoughts, feelings, or parts of yourself you’re not quite sure what to do with yet. You can bring all of you.
How Our Work May Unfold
Therapy with me doesn’t follow a set formula or move through a series of prescribed steps. Our work is shaped by what brings you here, what emerges between us, and what you need along the way. While the process is different for everyone, these are some of the ways our work may unfold.
Cultivate Safety & Connection
Our relationship provides a foundation for the work. Through connection, co-regulation, and experiences of being met with care and consistency, we create conditions that can help your nervous system settle and develop a greater sense of safety. We’ll also discover the practices and resources that help you feel more grounded, supported, and connected to yourself.
Connect Past & Present
With greater safety and support, we can become curious about how earlier relationships and experiences continue to shape your emotions, beliefs, nervous system responses, and ways of relating to yourself and others today. Together, we’ll explore these connections with compassion, making sense of responses that may once have helped you cope, protect yourself, or maintain connection.
Create New Meaning
As you begin relating differently to your experiences, there is room to understand your story—and yourself—in new ways. We can experiment with new ways of responding to emotions, relationships, and familiar patterns, strengthening self-trust and creating greater freedom to choose how you want to relate to yourself, others, and your life now.
A Relationship Where You Don't Have to Perform
The relationship we build is central to healing and growth. Therapy isn’t about having the right words, a plan, or knowing exactly what you want to work on—just bring your whole self. Our time together offers a supportive space to notice what it feels like to be known, understood, and connected, as well as what can make that difficult.
What happens between us—including moments of pulling away, uncertainty, or trying to accommodate—can become part of the work, giving us a chance to understand familiar patterns and gently experiment with something new. We’ll approach these moments with curiosity and compassion, without judgment or pressure to change before you’re ready.
There’s no right or wrong way to show up for therapy—just come as you are.
“Somatic psychotherapy expands the conversation by inviting the body and nervous system into the dialogue—helping you connect insight with real, embodied change.”
— Lisa M. Drew, MA, LPC, CCTP
In-Person: Branchburg, NJ Office
My office is located in Branchburg, NJ. It is a comfortable, private space designed to help you feel at ease and supported. The environment is warm and welcoming, with flexible options for movement, mindfulness, and creative exploration—including meditation cushions, yoga mats, sand trays, art materials, and adjustable lighting—so you can find what feels most comfortable as we work together.
Telehealth: Available Throughout New Jersey
Session Length & Fees
Individual therapy sessions are 60 minutes and $195 per session, payable at the time of service by secure credit card or HSA/FSA.
I am an out-of-network provider and partner with Thrizer to help clients use their out-of-network benefits. Thrizer can verify your benefits and submit claims on your behalf, making reimbursement simpler. Check your out-of-network benefits here.
Ready to Begin?
A brief phone consultation gives us an opportunity to talk about what brings you to therapy and whether working together feels like the right next step.
Schedule your consultation here.
Questions About Somatic Psychotherapy
If somatic psychotherapy is new to you, it’s natural to have questions about what sessions are like and what you can expect. Here are answers to some of the questions I hear most often.
What is somatic therapy, and how does it differ from traditional talk therapy?
I've never done somatic work before. What does a typical session look like?
What if I’m not comfortable with body-based exercises?
That’s completely okay. Somatic psychotherapy doesn’t require you to do exercises or focus on your body in ways that feel uncomfortable. Any somatic practice is an invitation, and we’ll decide together what feels useful and manageable. You’re always free to pause, decline, or approach something differently.
Do I need to have experienced trauma to benefit from somatic psychotherapy?
No. While somatic psychotherapy can be helpful for people affected by trauma or chronic stress, you don’t need a trauma history to benefit from this approach. We might use somatic work to explore anxiety, emotional disconnection, relationship patterns, difficulty identifying your needs, or simply the ways your body responds to stress and emotion.
What is your approach to pacing and emotional safety during sessions?
Our work begins with caring conversation and a foundation of compassion, curiosity, and collaboration—nurturing your courage to explore, heal, and grow. Before we address deeply ingrained patterns, we focus on resourcing: strengthening experiences of steadiness, connection, and support that you can draw upon when things feel difficult. Using gentle techniques like pendulation, we move between moments of ease and discomfort, always honoring your pace and readiness for change.
Can somatic psychotherapy be done through telehealth?
Yes. Somatic psychotherapy can work well through telehealth. We can still explore what’s happening emotionally and physically in the moment and incorporate grounding, mindfulness, movement, breath, or other experiential practices when they’re helpful. Meeting from your own space can also give you access to familiar surroundings and resources that help you feel comfortable during the session.
How do we begin the process, and do you offer a consultation?
Ready to Connect?
Serving adults in Branchburg, NJ, and throughout New Jersey via telehealth.
