Somatic therapy for anxiety
In-person & online therapy in Massachusetts
somatic therapy in Worcester, MA. online therapy in massachusetts.
You can’t remember the last time you had a day without feeling overwhelmed. The shallow breaths, the tightness in your chest, the lump in your throat, the knots in your stomach, the flooding thoughts. You keep stuffing your feelings down and hoping they eventually go away. You worry that letting the feelings in will be like opening an emotional floodgate that you won’t be able to close. Things that happened so long ago are still with you even today. You know that rationally you are safe, so why is your body still responding as if it’s still happening?!
your body has a story to tell.
As humans, we are good at rationalizing everything. We have needed this black-and-white thinking for survival: if we know and understand it, it’s safe. But have you ever noticed that no matter how much information your brain has that tells you you’re OK now, you still feel unsettled? It’s like our bodies don’t get the message.
Our bodies have an incredible way of keeping a record of the experiences from our past. It’s what we generally know as feeling triggered. An environment, a voice, a sound, or a person can remind your body of a time when it wasn’t safe. You’re suddenly flooded with body sensations and emotions that activate your brain's fight-or-flight signals. No amount of rationalizing will help simply because your body doesn’t speak that language.
start somatic therapy to understand your body’s response to anxiety and overwhelm.
My name is Maya Gengarelli Ribot, LICSW (she/her/hers), and I am a somatic therapist near Worcester, MA. I help stressed-out, overthinking adults better attune to their bodies to heal from chronic stress, burnout, and complicated pasts.
I’m here to help you learn what triggers your nervous system and what calms it down using a somatic approach to therapy. Somatic therapy is a way of incorporating the body into the counseling process. Through this work, we will uncover the way your body responds to emotions so that you can better navigate your life.
I work towards building relationships by providing you with time, space, and support to work through complex topics and feelings. The right balance of thought work and somatic interventions produces the most sustainable change and transformation. Throughout your sessions, I will support you in building your capacity for tolerating big feelings and uncomfortable sensations. We will ease into this work and get curious about what has happened to you, finding a language to understand what you are going through.