Somatic Therapy in Sacramento
Somatic Experiencing Practitioner
Anxiety, Depression, Bipolar Disorder, Trauma, LGBTQIA+ Affirming
Your Mind Knows You Are Safe.
Your Body Hasn’t Gotten the Message Yet.
Your mind knows you're safe. Your body doesn't believe it. You feel as if something bad is about to happen, like you're on the precipice of a cliff, and you don't know why. Your body is on overdrive even when you want to slow down or rest. That gap between what you know and what you feel isn't a character flaw; it’s just exhausting.
You can't get your brain to stop thinking and your body to unclench. It feels like your body forgot how to settle. You strive for goals to prove to yourself that you can do hard things. You go to yoga or do the breathing, and nothing seems to make a lasting impact on that revving in your body.
In social situations, you're on guard, watching for the rejection you've felt so many times before. You read the room, adjust your behavior, and still feel like an imposter. You're so preoccupied with analyzing and strategizing about how to fit in that you don't know who you are anymore. You second-guess yourself and ruminate about what you said, or why you said it.
The Knowing and the Doing Feel Miles Apart.
Talk therapy helped for a little while. You learned to notice what you were thinking and maybe name your feelings. But the pattern of avoiding them didn't change. You learned how to identify a boundary, but not how to change the heart-pounding fear when you try to express it to someone. You learned about different communication styles, but you can't bring yourself to use them.
Underneath the vigilance, the shut down, or the hiding, there's someone who wants to stop bracing and start breathing. Someone who wants to know who they are when they're not performing or strategizing or pushing through. Someone who wants to feel settled in their own body, maybe for the first time.
Hi, I’m Colleen King, Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and Somatic Experiencing Practitioner
I offer somatic therapy in Sacramento, CA for overwhelmed adults who may intellectually know what “healthy” looks like but still find themselves stuck in the same patterns. Not because they haven't tried hard enough. Because the part of them that needs to heal isn't only living in their thoughts. It's living in their body and their nervous system.
That's the piece that talk therapy alone often can't reach. And that's exactly where working with a somatic therapist in Sacramento comes in.
My approach is trauma-informed and focused on the mind-body connection. We don't just talk about what happened to you. We work with what your nervous system learned to do in response to what happened and the relationship patterns you learned, and we help it learn something new. Slowly and carefully and at a pace that doesn't push you into overwhelm, but does invite something to shift.
I work with adults navigating anxiety, trauma, depression, and bipolar disorder. I also specialize in working with LGBTQ+ individuals and relational patterns that feel impossible to break, bringing the same body-centered, affirming lens to all of it. Many clients arrive having already developed some insight about themselves, but what they haven't yet found is a way to take that insight somewhere it can actually change things. That's what somatic therapy offers.
How do I know When Somatic Therapy Works?
Clients often tell me that something shifts when they stop trying to think their way out of their experience and start getting curious about what's happening in their body. The cycling through vigilance and collapse, heart-pounding fear, or the inability to rest, these are not signs that something is wrong with you. They're signs that your nervous system learned to protect you, and it hasn't yet learned that it's allowed to rest. Many clients find that when that understanding moves from their head into their body, the self-blame begins to soften. That softening is often where real change begins.
You Don’t Have to Keep Pushing Through Alone.
You've already proven you can do hard things. This next step isn't about doing something harder. It's about doing something different.
I know it can feel like a big step to reach out to a therapist in Sacramento, but I’ll make it easy. Click on this link to get to my calendar and sign up for your free 15-minute phone or video consultation. I’ll answer any questions you have to see if I’m a good fit for you. If I’m not the right person, I’ll do my best to get you to someone who can support you.
Contact me today, I’d love to help
Learn more about how I help adults living with anxiety, depression, trauma, or bipolar disorder with LGBTQIA+ Affirming and Trauma-Informed therapy in Sacramento by clicking on the links.
Anxiety
Bipolar Disorder
Depression
Trauma
Frequently Asked Questions About Somatic Therapy in Sacramento
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Somatic Experiencing is a body-based approach to healing trauma and nervous system dysregulation. In our sessions, we pay attention to what's happening in your body in real time alongside your story. We notice sensations, impulses, shifts in breath or posture, without forcing anything or pushing into overwhelm. We work with what's present, gently and with curiosity.
This isn't about becoming someone different. It's about becoming more fully yourself, with less interference from a nervous system that's been working overtime for a very long time.
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If you've tried talk therapy and gained insight but still feel stuck in the same patterns, somatic therapy might be the missing piece. It's especially helpful if you notice that your body reacts in ways your mind can't explain, like a racing heart in social situations, difficulty relaxing even when you want to, or a persistent sense of being on guard. If you recognize yourself in any of that, it's worth a conversation.
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We slow down and get curious about what's happening in your body in real time, not just what's happening in your thoughts. We might do some slow gentle movements to elicit more awareness of what feel pleasant, neutral, or unpleasant. We practice noticing the cues that tells us we’re activated, settling, or shut down. We work with those signals gently and without forcing anything. Sessions feel more like a collaborative exploration than a performance or a test.
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Not likely. Many clients who come to me have done meaningful work in talk therapy and still feel like something isn't shifting at a deeper level. Somatic Experiencing works with the nervous system directly, which is where many of our patterns actually live. Clients often describe it as taking the insight they already have and finally being able to feel it, not just know it.
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Yes. Somatic Experiencing was specifically developed as a body-based approach to healing trauma. If your body reacts to present-day situations as though old threats are still happening, somatic therapy can help. We identify those patterns of fight, flight, freeze, and fawn that are showing up today and work to create new patterns that fit your life today. We work at a pace that feels safe and manageable, never pushing into overwhelm.
In-person and online
My Sacramento therapy office is conveniently located on University Avenue, across the Guy West Bridge from Sac State. Can’t make it into the office? No worries – I’ve got you covered with online therapy in California via HIPAA-secured video platform.
