
Every process, and within it every session, is unique. It is about
opening a space for you to turn your attention into your experience through your body,
your sensations and inner movements, at your own pace.
How does a session look like?
Each session starts with a conversation, in which you are welcome to bring any issue, feeling, thought that you want to share and work on. We often start by giving space to what is, in the present moment, and let topics unfold naturally throughout the process.
The session continues with
body-centered explorations, using awareness, breath, movement
and/or touch. We shift the focus and start witnessing your felt
experience: we invite sensations, emotions, and
images to flow together with feelings and thoughts.
I will be present with you and whatever is present for you. I am grief-informed and can hold space for whatever you need to feel. However, as much as they are absolutely welcome, painful or unpleasant experiences do not have to be the focus of the session. We work just as much with sensations linked to safety, with feelings of joy or relief, with pleasure. Working with what is present, we can also invite discomfort, awkwardness, playfulness. Generally, we follow your curiosity.
Consent and boundary setting are central in the sessions – including in relation to touch, which is always optional.
What can we work on?
Anything can be an entry point for a session or a process.
Including the body is especially relevant to address our feelings of stress and anxiety, our sensations of being stuck or overwhelmed, but also our relationship issues. In the past I have worked extensively with the effects of sexual trauma and attachment wounds, and of minority stress and systemic oppression. Patterns of physical pain, chronic fatigue and burn-out, and panic attacks were also frequent.
A process however cannot be reduced to "tackling an issue", and the way we "heal" and manage to transform these experiences has a lot to do with finding how to expand, getting to know our own resources and how to invite change and movement.
Why the body?
The principle behind every process is that our experience also lives and moves in our body. By increasing our ability to feel, and to make sense of what we feel, we develop new abilities to perceive and hold space for our (physical, psychological and/or relational) struggles.
More broadly, we meet our inner world. We build bridges between our thoughts and our sensations, emotions, and imagination. On the way, we discover parts of us that are less present in our everyday life. When we learn to connect with them and trust them, they help us create new paths, new responses in place of the ones we are most familiar with. This makes space for transformation that feels both deep and subtle at the same time. It translates in both physical and emotional well-being.
My role is to support you in this creative process of inviting inner and outer movement.
Process and regularity
My work is process-oriented, but there is no
need to commit to a long process from the beginning.
The first session is longer (1.30-2 hours) because we take the time to get to know you each other. You decide if you feel like you want to continue after this initial session, and we assess together what the directions of the process are. I welcome conversations about this all along the process.
The recommended regularity for a process depends on each person. It is also possible to come for ad hoc sessions with a specific issue, especially if you have done somatics before. Every person is different, so come for a first session and we can talk about this!
A session lasts around 75 minutes. It might be slightly irregular from one session to the next as we follow the flow together and try not to interrupt anything abruptly.
Price and conditions
As part of a regular process, the cost of a session is 80€ (I charge the same for the first, longer session). This is the real cost of a session. Right now I work with a sliding scale, which means that people living in financial precariousness, especially those experiencing structural discrimination on the labor market (i.e. BIPOC, trans* people, young people under 25, people with disabilities), can pay 70€ for a session. I might however have to limit the number of slots I offer at this rate every week. People who earn more than 2500€ monthly are invited to pay the solidarity fee of 90€ so that the system evens out. It also allows me to offer a few pro bono sessions to people who need it most.
It is possible to plan longer, one-off sessions for people who wish to come with a specific topic or to go through grief at a specific time for example. In this case we schedule a two-hours session and the cost is 120€.
Cancellation policy: please inform me at least two working days before our appointment. In case you fail to do so, I will have to charge you for the session.
Unfortunately, I am currently not able to accept German health insurance.
Accessibility
The studio is on the ground floor, with one
step to get in. However there are 3 steps to access the bathroom. If this is an
obstacle for you, please let me know. In some cases, we can organize
sessions at your home. Online sessions are also possible. If you have any other
accessibility needs, please contact me and I will try to respond to them to the
best of my ability.
I recognize that the COVID-19 pandemic is ongoing and the current situation excludes many people from essential social spaces. If you need to work with FFP2 masks, it is very welcome for me. Just let me know in advance and I will take all necessary measures.
If you have flu or cold-like symptoms, or feel you may be contagiously ill, COVID or otherwise, please contact me as early as possible. Depending on the situation, we can discuss re-scheduling the session, working with masks or moving the session online.
Ethics
Consent is central to my approach. You can always (and are welcome to!) stop what is going on during a session, just as you can always decide to interrupt your process. In both cases, I believe it is interesting to look at what happened that made you want to stop. I will thus usually propose to have a conversation to explore your thoughts and feelings about it. You are, of course, free to refuse this invitation.
If you want to file a complaint, please inform me as soon as possible. I am not currently part of a professional association that could take charge of such process, but I am looking for such a membership.
Confidentiality is important to me. Whatever you will share with me during your process will be kept between us. I avoid working with people I know from friendly or other circles, so that we both can have more freedom to work with whatever comes up in your process, without interference of information and interaction happening outside of the workroom. The possible intersections of our social worlds are something we can always freely speak about.
Please read before starting a process
I am not a psychologist nor
a medical professional. Somatic counseling is not a medical therapy, nor can it be used as a substitute for any kind of necessary medical treatment. I do not offer medical diagnoses, or treatments for physical or psychiatric conditions. My work neither seeks to replace appropriate professional guidance, nor does it make any healing promises.
If there is any doubt about your health or emotional condition, or whether this somatic approach is suitable for you, it is your responsibility to consult with your medical advisor to clarify the situation. In general,
I always encourage you to pursue medical support parallel to our process.
Please let me know of any pre-existing
physical or psychiatric condition (or if you are diagnosed with one during our
process). Similarly, you should consult with your physician should you wish to change any medication you might be taking and/or if you notice any changes in your health during the process. It is also important to let me know of these changes.
