Integrative and Somatic Psychotherapy
with Specialization in the Treatment of Trauma

Guiding Trauma Survivors to Reclaim Their Sacred Wildness.

Here, you’re safe, heard, supported, and empowered.

“What if the world is holding its breath - waiting for you to take the place that only you can fill?”
— David Whyte

Hi! My name is Katya – but feel free to call me Kat.

I'm a psychotherapist who practices integrative and somatic psychotherapy, with a specialization in the treatment of trauma.

I work with my clients to explore the body as a map to the psyche. The modalities I use are largely experiential in nature, and provide much more information than traditional talk therapy. The body’s gestures, postures, and habitual patterns are powerful indicators of underlying (and often unconscious) core material. This material often invisibly guides our decisions, behavior, relationships. It also impacts our self perception and the meaning we make of the world and our experiences. Somatic psychotherapy seeks to create a deeper sense of self awareness, safety, and self compassion, and allows us to come home to ourselves and our bodies.

Thank you for visiting my website. If you have any lingering questions after exploring these pages, please don't hesitate to contact me.

Kat

What I Do and How I Can Help

I have extensive trauma training, as well as 20+ years of experience in sitting with and guiding trauma survivors through the aftermath of their life experiences. I am so grateful to those who have trusted me with their wounds, their pain, their bravery. It is through my work with them — and my healing journey through my own trauma — that the idea of “sacred wildness” came to be. When a trauma occurs, survivors commonly feel that they have lost large pieces of their identities, personalities, lives in the aftermath of their experiences.

With severe, prolonged or repetitive exposures to traumatic events, there is often a feeling of annihilation — disintegration — that the “me” that existed prior to the trauma has been destroyed. As a result of my own trauma, I have a visceral sense of the way in which life (and even the self) can feel divided into “before” and “after” the trauma. My years of working with trauma have demonstrated — and allowed me to witness over and over — that there are always parts of the individual that survive the trauma. The challenge is that these parts are often buried under behavior patterns, somatic cues/sensations, body postures, etc that were developed as a result of our bodies and minds trying to protect us and keep the “system” functioning.

This can occur with trauma of any magnitude, and even with day to day stressors. While these protective mechanisms were originally developed and intended to safeguard the life force and vitality of the individual, they instead cloak it from external expression. The parts are often disconnected, buried under shame, or cast out — surviving as an exile. 

My Approach

If you choose to work with me, we will use mindfulness and curiosity to inquire about these behavior patterns and protective obstacles while maintaining an atmosphere of safety so that the new experiences or insights can arise. It is only when these unconscious habits and defenses are brought into awareness that they can be acknowledged and appreciated.

It is at that point of recognition that healing and change can occur. When these parts are unearthed, they can be returned to their state of pure, undomesticated freedom.

“Listen – are you breathing just a little, and calling it a life?”
— Mary Oliver

Kind Words

  • “As someone who has a huge amount of trauma, I felt like I was permanently damaged. I couldn’t imagine how I could ever heal or put the pieces back together. Our time together has brought back parts of myself that I thought were gone forever. I feel so much love and compassion from you. I have never felt so safe, accepted, and understood. You have shown me how to be gentle and patient with myself. I also appreciate that you are so real and show up as totally yourself. I know you say I am the one doing the hard work, but I need you to hear this. I have no idea how to thank you for what you have given to me. Although it seems so inadequate, thank you, thank you, thank you.”

    – Morgan W.

  • “I came to therapy at the insistence of my wife and didn’t want to be here. I was angry and miserable and saw no reason to talk to anyone about it. I can honestly say that working with Kat has changed me. No matter how much anger I came at her with, Kat welcomed it, sat with me through it, and taught me how to deal with what was happening in my head. I had no idea how much the old shit that happened to me was still affecting me. Our appointments are now the best part of my week. I am so lucky that I ended up in front of her.”

    – Jeremiah Y.

  • “Kat saved my life. She helped me see my life was worth living. There is nothing more that a person can give. I will give thanks for her for the rest of my life.”

    – Andrea M.

  • “Over the years I have been coming to you, I had the hardest years of my life. I would never have made it through without you. My cancer, my mom’s death, and the loss of my business were all awful, but having them happen so close together was too much to bear. Through it all, I never felt alone. You always seemed to know just what to say and what I needed. I am grateful for your willingness to meet me in whatever emotional place I was in. No matter how messy it got or how messy I got, I knew that you would hold the space for me to work through it. You were with me every step of the way. You were my light in the dark, and I will not forget it.”

    – Ariel C.

Read more

I’m glad you’re here!

Contact me and we can start the search for your own buried treasure — let’s recover the parts of you that have been abandoned so that you can reclaim your own sacred wildness.