Body-based, deep-healing designed to BRING YOU BACK TO safety + CONNECTION
Come home to yourself
One-on-one Somatic Sessions, fully customized to meet you where you are, support your unique needs and heal early development trauma + attachment ruptures to deepen your connection to yourself + others
What happens inside of you shapes everything outside of you.
Add in its about early dev vs attachment difference
If you feel like you've tried everything but still struggle with repeating patterns, chances are, your nervous system is running the show.
As humans, we’re wired for connection, safety and belonging. But when old wounds haven't healed, they shape everything: the partners we choose, the way we shrink in conflict, the exhaustion of never quite feeling like ourselves.
Maybe you explode over something small and then spend days wondering what's wrong with you. Maybe you give and give until there's nothing left, then feel invisible when no one notices. Maybe intimacy sounds wonderful in theory but has you running – or clinging – the moment it gets real.
You might find yourself saying yes when you mean no, staying silent when you're screaming inside, or watching the same painful patterns play out again and feeling powerless to stop them.
Or maybe you just have this gnawing sense that this isn't how it should be.
I see you. I hear you. And you're not alone.
OLD COPY:
This is for you if you’ve found yourself stuck in the same painful relationship patterns — whether that’s losing yourself completely in a relationship, or avoiding them altogether because every time you start to get close to someone, you feel scared and want to run away.
Maybe you get a vulnerability hangover after asking for your needs to be met—or struggle to identify what those needs even are, stuck in the painful gap between recognizing things aren’t working and not being able to imagine what could be better or different.
You may find yourself cycling between overgiving, overthinking, or shutting down completely—until you’re so exhausted you just want to curl up in a Netflix-binging cocoon and hide for several months.
You see that healthy, nourishing relationships are possible for other people, but you’re starting to wonder if maybe they’re just not in the cards for you.
Come up with 2 more non-attachment examples. Include physiological - what does it feel like? drains your energy, leaving you frustrated and worn out.
Trauma isn’t always obvious.
This isn't only about dramatic or obvious trauma. Sometimes it's subtler than that – but no less impactful.
It might be a parent who was physically present but emotionally somewhere else. One who couldn't handle your tears, changed the subject when things got hard, or made you feel like your needs were an inconvenience. A home where love felt conditional. Where you learned to be a certain way to keep things calm.
It might be needs that went unmet so consistently you stopped noticing you had them. No one to turn to when you were scared. No one who asked how you really were and meant it.
Or an early loss, a long separation, a childhood that just felt unstable in ways you couldn't name then and can't fully explain now.
If you grew up feeling unseen, unsafe or like too much – or somehow never quite enough – that lives in your body. And it's been running the show ever since.
Resolve stored trauma to make space for possibilitY
Your body holds what words can't reach
Trauma doesn't live in the cognitive mind. It lives in the nervous system. Whether it occurred before language existed or you know exactly what happened, no amount of thinking, analyzing, or talking your way through it will resolve what needs to be addressed at the physiological level.
“On the surface, my life looked fine. But internally, I often felt emotionally distant, drained, and alone. I realized that after years of attempting traditional therapy, which never quite worked for me because talking alone felt difficult, I needed a different approach. Somatic work made so much sense: I began to understand that many of my traumas were held in my body and nervous system, shaping how I reacted to situations and relationships.”
It’s not your fault
Your nervous system is doing exactly what it learned to do. The problem is, it learned those survival strategies a long time ago – and now, they’re no longer serving you. Whether it happened before you could speak, or it's simply lived in your body so long it's stopped having a name – trauma puts you in survival mode. And that drains your energy, leaving you frustrated and worn out.
Bringing it to completion
When your body’s automatic, protective responses take over, they do it for reasons that can only be addressed physically. By resolving what’s stored in the body and allowing it to settle safely, you’ll create space and energy for the things you love and aspire to.
Curious? I’d love to talk.
Resolve stored trauma to make space for new possibilities.
Is somatic healing for you?
If moving ahead feels impossible, I can help.
Many of the people I work with feel exhausted in a way sleep doesn’t fix. Like anxiety, stress and overwhelm have become the default.
Often, something is going on that can’t be expressed in words. You’re trying to move forward, but no matter what you try, you remain stuck. You want to take better care of yourself – your body, your health, your life, your relationships – but can't seem to close the gap between knowing and doing.
Maybe you’re struggling to feel at home in your body and find yourself repeating old patterns despite wanting to change. You've done therapy, read books, tried tools – but something still isn't shifting.
Whether your emotions feel impossible to manage or you feel disconnected from everything, my sessions can help you move toward a space of safety.
No more talking about the same painful story on repeat, or white-knuckling your way through triggers. When we work to resolve what's underneath, you'll have a different response without even trying.
If any of this feels familiar, book a free call
MY OLD WRITING - CAN USE TO REPLACE + INTEGRATE INTO THE NEW:
If you’ve read every John Gottman book on relationships but haven’t physically processed what is stored in your body, your body will still react on autopilot. Those quick-fix “somatic” tips you saw on Instagram might provide temporary relief, but your nervous system will revert to its old responses as soon as you get triggered. That’s because you can’t simply “hack” your way through this — these tools don’t actually address the root causes of what’s happening in your nervous system. And using your intellect will not solve a somatic issue; you have to address it physiologically to do the deeper work necessary to address things at the root level of your earliest adaptations.
Ruptures that occur during early childhood development are experienced, felt, and stored in a non-cognitive part of the nervous system, so meditation and mindset work are simply not enough to heal and change those patterns in a lasting way. Working directly with the nervous system is crucial for supporting healing at the root, where our earliest survival adaptations began. When we resolve things at the nervous system level, external situations and patterns finally begin to change.
What’s been holding you back from creating the changes you’ve been working so hard for is stored deep in the body, and we need to make space for it to be supported in completion and healing so your nervous system can finally feel safe enough to respond differently, instead of running the same old protective patterns.
These 1:1 sessions work on a somatic level, incorporating presence, regulation, relationship, and secure attachment to repair those early ruptures and create an opportunity to reorganize and re-pattern early experiences stored in somatic memory. We work together to increase regulation and address threat responses, providing a deeply supportive container for redesigning those earlier developmental platforms.
Once we’ve brought resolution to what’s stored in your nervous system, you’ll have more capacity to regulate or move through difficult emotions as they arise, respond differently to triggers, stop feeling drawn to the familiar but unavailable partners, and make different choices that lead to safer and more connected relationships. All the work you’ve done up to this point will finally start to come together in an embodied way, and you’ll find yourself showing up in ways that feel more authentic and honoring of yourself and others.
Because we are biologically wired to connect, we are also biologically wired to heal. Regardless of what happened in early childhood or the nature of your relationship experiences, it is possible to restore secure attachment, radically change the dynamics when you’re in conflict, and strengthen your ability to form deep and lasting connections. When we resolve things at the nervous system level, the external situations and patterns finally begin to change.
When we trace back to the earlier moments when you felt unsafe—when your emotions were ignored, invalidated, or shut down, your needs dismissed, comfort withheld instead of given, or love felt unpredictable and out of reach—and in a safe and titrated way (never more than your nervous system can handle at once)—bring those stored memories to completion or resolution with proper support, your body no longer needs to protect itself in the same old ways.
As your system shifts from protection to connection, life doesn’t just feel a little calmer — it begins to look completely different.
The same situations that once left you stuck, shut down, or over-giving start to open up to new possibilities. Instead of defaulting to old patterns, you find yourself responding in ways that bring relief, connection, and choice.
People who used to freeze or shut down in fear start to notice that peaking up no longer feels impossible — it just happens, without the inner battle that once silenced them. The chronic people-pleaser who once said “yes” to everything now pauses long enough to check in with themselves first. They stop giving at the expense of their own well-being, and the quiet resentment that used to build when others didn’t reciprocate begins to fade.
Those who would chronically betray themselves for the sake of connection and belonging stop self-abandoning and start honoring their true selves, which opens up space for a completely different experience and choices regarding the kinds of relationships they want to pursue, rather than just settling for whatever comes along.
Relationships start to feel different. Where there used to be dread when facing difficult personalities, there is now a grounded ability to set boundaries with real consequences. Instead of tolerating behavior that drains them, clients find themselves establishing clear limits — and with those limits, a new sense of self-respect.
During conflict, instead of reacting automatically or collapsing, there’s more space to pause and choose a different response. A conversation that once would have spiraled into disconnection can instead become a chance for understanding and repair, strengthening the connection.
People who once struggled to identify and articulate their needs or doubted whether their needs even mattered start to gain clarity about what they truly need in a relationship to feel safe and secure. They can clearly name what they need, ask for it directly, and receive it without feeling ashamed. As a result, relationships not only feel safer but also become richer, more honest, and more nourishing than they ever thought possible.
When you address your relational imprints through nervous system healing, what once felt automatic and unchangeable becomes flexible, authentic, and full of choice.
MOVE From PROTECTION INTO CONNECTION
Somatic SESSIONS COMBINE the following modalities
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Somatic Resilience and Regulation® and Transforming Touch® are attachment-focused, neurophysiological methods of hands-on healing for regulating the nervous system, as well as the other physical, intellectual, emotional, and spiritual components of self. They are especially helpful for those who experience Developmental Trauma (trauma that occurs early in life) from adverse childhood experiences, a difficult birth, pre-natal trauma while still in the womb, or intergenerational, ancestral trauma passed down our familial lines.
Developmental Trauma is often non-verbal as it happens very early in life before we had the vocabulary to put our experience into words - it is felt, and stored in a non-cognitive part of the nervous system, so we cannot always make sense of it, and do not always have a story to go with it. Working directly with the body is often necessary for supporting the healing on the nervous system level, where our earliest survival adaptations began.
These modalities are based on the idea that when there are ruptures during early development, they can continue to disrupt a person's life into adulthood. SRR + TEB incorporate presence, regulation, and relationship to repair these ruptures, and support the importance of presence and relationship in the healing process, creating the opportunity to reorganize and re-pattern the early experiences that are held in somatic memory.
A synthesis of Allan Schore, John Bowlby + Mary Ainsworth’s work on human attachment combined with Stephen Porges' work on Polyvagal Theory, Stephen Terrell + Kathy Kain’s work with threat response and autonomic regulation, dashes of Somatic Experiencing, and Dick Schwartz’s parts work (IFS - Internal Family Systems) creates a deeply supportive container for redesigning those earlier developmental platforms.
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Do you ever wonder why you interact with others the way you do?
If you’ve ever struggled in a relationship or suffered from anxiety, depression or other emotional difficulties, attachment theory can help us get to the source of these challenges and understand what’s going on.
Attachment was first described by British psychologist John Bowlby as a “lasting psychological connectedness between human beings.”
Bowlby believed that the earliest bonds formed by children with their primary caregivers is the original blueprint for how we perceive, connect with and relate to others and the world around us.
In attachment theory, we understand that our earliest childhood patterns can carry over into adulthood —which can shape our expectations and interactions for all our relationships, including family, friendships, work or romance.
Relational trauma and emotional wounding can amplify our sense of fear, anger, isolation and helplessness, which sometimes makes it hard to seek help.
The good news is that when we become aware of how these feelings, emotions and patterns first developed, we can also learn how to begin healing and ask for what we need. Attachment styles aren’t rigid or set in stone. Because we’re biologically wired to connect, we’re also biologically wired to heal. You see, no matter what insecure attachment adaptation you might have developed, secure attachment is always possible.
That means, no matter what happened in early childhood or what your relationship experiences look like, it’s possible to restore secure attachment, radically change the nature of your relationships and strengthen your ability to form deep and lasting connections.
We’re all capable of healing and repair. But we can’t do it alone because we’re not wired to heal in isolation.
Dr. Diane Poole Heller’s signature approach, DARe––Dynamic Attachment Repatterning experience––is a powerful and pragmatic, science-based method that helps change deep-rooted patterns to resolve trauma and open the path to a secure way of relating to themselves and others.
Wondering if this work is right for you?
Book a free 30-minute exploratory call.
✺ CHECK IF THIS COPY FITS ANYWHERE ✺
This work is cumulative — each session builds on the last, creating tangible shifts that add up over time.
Over time you may begin to feel more regulated, less triggered, and notice tangible shifts: catching yourself before falling into an old pattern, managing difficult moments more easily, responding or choosing differently, or feeling safer to ask for what you need.
While lasting transformation requires ongoing support, this first step lays the foundation and shows you what’s possible when your nervous system begins to heal.
The core of this work happens in the relational container of our 1:1 sessions. Because we are wounded in relationship, we heal in relationship, and you were never meant to do it alone — so you don’t actually need to do anything outside our sessions together to experience changes.
For some people with early developmental trauma, leaning into non-efforting can actually be beneficial — you get to decide what works best for your nervous system.
Many people who’ve tried breathwork, meditation, catharsis-based methods, or intense self-guided work sometimes end up feeling re-traumatized because the pace or intensity didn’t match what their nervous system could handle—it was “too much, too fast.”
This work focuses on nervous system regulation as the base, and is tailored to your system’s needs. We move at a pace you can safely tolerate, gently supporting what arises instead of forcing it. Even when difficult emotions, memories, or triggers show up, you’re met with steady support and attunement so your nervous system can process them without being pushed beyond its capacity. The result is that old patterns begin to resolve at their source—you’re supported in processing and completing what’s stuck in your nervous system, rather than being re-traumatized.
It’s very common to wonder if your patterns are “too much” or if your history is “too severe” to heal. The truth is, somatic work is designed to meet you exactly where you are — whether you’ve experienced early attachment ruptures, chronic stress, or significant trauma. Because we’re working with the nervous system itself, we don’t need to re-live or re-tell everything for healing to happen. What matters most isn’t the severity of what you’ve been through, but that we go at the pace your system can safely handle.
As a trauma-trained practitioner in several modalities explicitly designed to support complex (cPTSD) and early developmental trauma, I work in a safe, titrated way — step by step, always guided by what’s showing up in your body. If overwhelm arises, we slow down and meet it with care, so your system can stay supported and contained. Even when the history feels big, your nervous system knows the way when it’s supported gently and consistently.
✺ EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW ✺
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Each 50-minute session starts with a check-in to discuss anything specific that is needing attention and support, as well as any new observations or curiosities, then moves into working somatically with the body.
During an in-person session, your body is supported by a massage table while I move through a series of holds at various points along the nervous system to increase regulation and capacity and support attachment repatterning. We also work with the limbic system and several primitive reflexes or different body systems depending on each person’s unique needs and what is showing up in the nervous system.
Our initial session might spend more time going over your intake to ensure a deeper understanding of what you are seeking support with and any vital information related to it and to address any questions or concerns you may have, but we will still do some table work.
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The protocols and enhancements are designed to work with or without physical touch, and some clients, especially those whose nervous systems have adapted to feel safest with a bit of physical distance between themselves and another person (i.e. those who lean towards avoidant adaptive responses), find the benefits of the work to be extremely powerful when doing this work online.
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Because this work is titrated, and regulation + safety build over time, you'll experience the biggest shifts and benefits with weekly or bi-weekly sessions over a longer period of time, and almost everyone experiences a noticeable shift after just one session.
It is best to continue until one arrives at a place where they no longer need it, or just need occasional sessions when navigating difficult periods of life, but if you are unsure, committing to a minimum of 3-6 months will help you get a baseline idea of how this work shifts your nervous system over time. Often when we’ve had enough time to experience the benefits firsthand, we realize the value of somatic healing work.
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Yes! Packages of 5 sessions are available at a discounted rate. Please inquire during your free consult.
It’s important to me that this work remain accessible, so I also hold a few spaces at an even lower rate for those experiencing financial hardship - just ask.
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Yes! For people who already have some nervous system work under their belt and feel ready to go deeper, I offer a Somatic Immersion. You can get more information about that here. The immersion is not intended for people who are new to somatic work or are just beginning to address trauma.
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• Anxiety
• Depression
• Overwhelm
• Unresolved Trauma
• PTSD
• cPTSD (Early Developmental Trauma)
• Chronic Pain + Illness
• Difficulty Forming Close Healthy Bonds
• Recurring Relational Challenges• Attachment Ruptures
• Shifting Stress + Survival Strategies
• Soothing Coping Mechanisms such as addiction, substance use, eating issues
• Support in Navigating Intense Emotions
• Psychedelic Integration
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YES! There is a wealth of research that has been done in this area. You can click here for a list of studies on the efficacy of touch in healing practices
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• Psychological, emotional, verbal, physical, or sexual abuse
• Neglect, abandonment or basic unmet needs (emotional or otherwise)
• Parental/Caregiver inconsistency
• Preoccupied primary caregiver (this can be from their own unresolved trauma, mental illness, substance abuse issues, caregiving a sibling with a severe illness,)
• Loss of a parent/caregiver due to death or divorce, abandonment or incarceration
• Adoption, growing up in foster care or unstable, inconsistent environments
• Witnessing or experiencing domestic violence
• Maternal stress during pregnancy (relational or otherwise)
• Accident while mother was pregnant
• Birth trauma (including premature birth, c-section, induced birth, cord around neck)
• Serious accidents or life-threatening illness, surgery at a young age
• Long separation from caregivers (during hospitalization or for other reasons)
Have more questions? Schedule a complimentary
30-minute exploratory call to find out more.
WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING
"Before I starting this work, I was navigating the ending of a marriage, shifting monogamous paradigms (and the nervous system responses to that), and struggling with feeling safe to fully express my emotions and needs. I felt overwhelmed, a bit powerless, and confused.. Since starting our sessions, I feel safer to fully express my feelings and my needs, I'm able to access a fuller range of emotions, I feel less afraid to be honest about things that might be hard for someone to hear, and I feel more comfortable setting boundaries."
Katie, Spain
"Before our sessions, I was hesitant about communicating my needs as I felt exhausted afterwards, and my only tool for boundaries was leaving. Now, when setting a boundary and communicating my needs, I feel calm and find it is actually beneficial for me. Regardless of the results, it helps me to better understand the situation. I am not as agitated as I used to be when expressing myself. What surprised me is how much support was available. I am resilient and deal with things mostly by myself. Before this experience, I had never imagined that I could be supported and understood this much."
Mila, Spain
“One somatic session with Suzana did more for me than all the talk therapy I'd done in the past. It was hard to believe how powerful such seemingly gentle work could be. The immediate integration of responding rather than reacting to previously constant triggers was clearly noticeable not only to me, but also to others. Truly grateful for such a simple yet life-changing session.”
Renata, NYC