Somatic Therapy Sessions
Yearning to Feel Alive and Not Just Survive?
Reclaim Your Aliveness
One-on-One Psychotherapy with Angela Herzog, MA, RP, SEP
As a Registered Psychotherapist and Somatic Experiencing Practitioner, I blend nature-connection with deep nervous system attunement. I believe healing isn’t about pushing harder, it’s about safety, presence, and moving at your own rhythm.
Virtual Sessions Available
Does this feel familiar?
You know you’re meant for a fuller, more authentic life.
But instead, you find yourself moving through the days on autopilot: disconnected, anxious, numb, or exhausted.
Or perhaps, you want to move forward, yet, are paralyzed, the past dragging you back.
Maybe you’ve shared your story of trauma many times.
But still the re-telling stirs the same wave of emotions.
That’s because trauma lives in the body.
In fact, our bodies are brilliant at surviving many stressful, traumatic situations and relationships.
Bodies adapt. Bodies protect. Bodies keep us going.
But survival mode, though once necessary, can begin to shape how we live long after the danger has passed.
Survival Mode Might Look Like:
Pushing away emotions
Caught in spiraling thoughts
Fear hijacking our bodies
Extreme highs and lows
A deep sense of unworthiness
But your body can learn to feel safe again.
Deeper healing begins when we become curious, not just about the story, but about how our body has survived that story.
That’s where Somatic Experiencing begins.
The Somatic Path to Healing
Somatic Experiencing® offers a different way through.
It doesn’t require you to retell your trauma or push through discomfort.
Instead, it slowly supports your nervous system in completing the survival responses it never got to finish and to rediscover its natural rhythm of safety, ease, and aliveness.
In our sessions, you’ll be met with warmth, empathy, and attuned presence.
This stable, therapeutic relationship, we build becomes the catalyst to your healing. As your co-therapist, nature, also becomes a secure base to support your regulation.
Together, we’ll explore:
🌱How your body has adapted to keep you safe
🌱 How to reconnect with your body, gently and with compassion
🌱 What it’s like to feel again, safely and slowly
🌱 How to soften survival patterns and rediscover the parts of you that have been hidden
Whether you're navigating recovery from a specific trauma event or healing attachment trauma, our sessions may include:
Mindful awareness of body sensations and nervous system patterns
Gentle processing of stuck fight/flight/freeze responses
Emotional regulation and rebuilding of self-trust
Relational healing through secure, attuned connection
Integration of fragmented or dissociated parts of your experience
As your nervous system begins to regulate, you may notice:
✨ A sense of calm starting to replace anxiety
✨ A renewed trust in your instincts, needs, and voice
✨ A growing sense of aliveness and feeling at home in your body
“The process of being seen, understood, and accepted by an attuned, empathetic other engenders a sense of genuine self-acceptance—a feeling that we are profoundly okay.”
— Linda Graham
Keep reading to learn more or book your 15-minute exploration call now.
What is Somatic Experiencing?
Developed by Dr. Peter Levine, Somatic Experiencing (SE) is a body-based, trauma-informed therapy that helps resolve and release trauma held in the nervous system.
It’s grounded in this truth:
Trauma isn’t what happened—it’s what lives on in the body when we didn’t get the chance to protect ourselves or receive proper support.
SE supports your body in completing the survival responses—fight, flight, freeze—that were never resolved. This allows your system to restore regulation. Instead of feeling the highs and lows of dysregulation, you will feel more balance and safety in your emotional experience.
SE is the foundation of Angela’s approach and weaves other modalities in for a wholistic approach to your healing.
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My approach is simple: You are not broken.
You are a living system that has been trying to survive an unsustainable, toxic environment. In our work together, we stop looking problems to fix, and start looking for wisdom. We look at how your nervous system has protected you, and we gently invite it to find a new, more spacious rhythm.
I weave together several different approaches to support this healing:
Somatic Experiencing® (SE): This is the foundation. We work with the biology of your stress response, helping your nervous system release stored tension and rediscover a sense of internal safety.
Nature-Based Therapy: We step outside the "clinical box." By partnering with the land as a co-regulator, we allow the seasons to teach us how to ebb, flow, and rest.
Rites of Passage Framework: We look at life’s big transitions and burnout through the lens of initiation. We honor the severance from the old, the threshold of the unknown, and the eventual incorporation of the new self.
Internal Family Systems (IFS): We get curious about the different "parts" of you—the ones that push, the ones that protect, and the ones that are tired.
Attachment Repair Work: We explore how your early connections shaped your sense of belonging and work to create a secure, steady base within yourself and your current relationships.
CBT & Solution-Focused Therapy: While we dive deep, we also stay practical. We look at the patterns of your thoughts and find tangible steps to help you navigate your daily life with more ease.Description text goes here
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Trauma Recovery (Shock, Developmental, or Complex)
Nervous System Regulation
Anxiety, Depression, PTSD, and Chronic Stress
Burnout and Life Transitions
Attachment and Relational Healing
What You May Experience
Somatic therapy isn’t about fixing what’s broken. It’s about living life beyond surviving.
Through this work, clients often experience:
🌱 A reconnection to their body’s innate wisdom
🌱 Release of long-held tension from the nervous system
🌱 A sense of safety in slowing down and more capacity to be in the present moment
🌱 A renewed relationship with nature, one of reciprocity, not extraction
🌱 A happiness, self trust, and feeling of enough
FAQ
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IThe Sacred Virtual Space Many of my somatic sessions and Transition Rituals are offered virtually or by phone. This allows you to connect from the comfort of your own space, inviting the land where you reside to be a partner in your healing.
In-Person on Manitoulin Island Wellness in the Woods is located in the heart of Manitoulin Island and serves as a "co-therapist"
Satellite Office in Guelph: My practice originated in Guelph and will return occasionally for in person sessions and retreatstem description
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Somatic Experiencing (SE) invites the body into the healing process, not just the mind. While talking can offer meaningful insights and reflection, SE helps gently complete the body’s unresolved survival responses (like fight, flight, or freeze) that words alone may not access.
Instead of simply understanding what happened, your body is supported in resolving what it couldn’t finish, so the internal alarm can begin to quiet.
Imagine how life might feel if you weren’t constantly managing that internal alert.
What could be possible if that energy were freed up for joy, creativity, and connection? -
Each session is collaborative and guided by what feels supportive for you. It may include:
☁️ Invitations to slow down and notice body sensations, emotions, and images related to memories
🌿 Grounding practices and awareness of your environment
💬 Talking when helpful but balanced with tracking body responses
📚 Gentle education about trauma and the nervous system
🌱 A focus on soothing, stabilizing, and moving at your own paceAngela’s presence offers co-regulation, warmth, and attunement, not pressure or overwhelm.
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For various reasons, including societal conditions, familial traumas, or lack of community support, many of us have not received the attuned presence of others that create the conditions to move into living a full, authentic life.
To cope with this reality, we often have to push away our emotions, desires and interests to try to fit a mold in hopes of finding support. But instead of finding belonging, this coping further divides us from our own self and body, and creates even more isolation. We tend to then start living from our heads and believe thoughts of unworthiness, which can perpetuate experiences of anxiety and depression.
Somatic Experiencing helps us gently reconnect with our bodies so we can rediscover who we are outside of trauma and begin living with more authenticity, presence, and choice.
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These experiences often relate to a nervous system that’s been stuck in survival mode for a long time. Somatic therapy supports the body in rediscovering what it feels like to be safe, supported, and connected, without needing to stay on high alert. Over time, this creates more space for a full range of emotion, greater capacity to self-regulate, and a deeper sense of ease and resilience in everyday life.
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Talking is absolutely welcome. You’ll never be asked to “do somatic work” if it doesn’t feel right in the moment. This process is always led by you, and how we work together will be guided by your needs, your comfort, and your preferences.
While Somatic Experiencing is a powerful approach for healing trauma, many clients also find deep value in having a consistent, caring space to talk, reflect, and be heard.
Often, a natural blend emerges, where talking opens the door, and somatic awareness gently supports what’s beneath the words. Whether you want to focus more on conversation, nervous system education, or body-based healing, we’ll co-create a path that feels right for you.
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Angela integrates SE into individual therapy. She also supports SE students and assists at international SE trainings. Sessions are available for Beginner- and Intermediate-level SE students as part of their SEP requirements.
Watch a video about somatic experiencing therapy in nature
Take the First Step Toward Healing
“Trauma is not what happens to us, but what we hold inside in the absence of an empathic witness.”
— Peter Levine
Curious to see if this is the right support for you?
Let’s begin with a conversation.
I offer a free 15-minute exploration call to connect, answer your questions, and help you feel whether this path is right for you.