Somatic Therapy in Saint Louis for Neurodivergent Clients
My practice provides trauma therapy for neurodivergent clients while also supporting them with understanding their sensory needs, helping with pacing/burnout issues, communication differences, etc. Neurodivergent clients with complex trauma often had to grow up learning to ignore their body’s signals. High-masking individuals especially would have needed ways to filter out the pain and distress of trauma, sensory overwhelm, the multitude of experiences of rejection, and a lifetime of feeling different or like an outsider. As a result, these clients are left with dysregulated nervous systems that over time exacerbate symptoms of depression, anxiety, PTSD, pain, autoimmune conditions, etc.
Often times these clients have tried traditional talk therapy and not found much benefit. This is because speaking at the narrative level of our experience often does little to change what is happening at the nervous system level of our experience. That’s why people can know the story of their lives, understand it, but still feel no different as a result. For neurodivergent clients especially, working directly with the nervous system to become more calm and connected to their bodies is imperative for them to be able to actually feel different. ‘Bottom-up’ approaches like somatic therapies are incredibly well suited to neurodivergent clients for this reason.
“The impulse to heal is real and powerful, and lies within the client. Our job is to evoke that healing power, to meet its tests and needs and to support it in its expression and development. We are not healers. We are the context in which healing is inspired.”
Ron Kurtz, Body-Centered Psychotherapy
Typical Client Issues…
Clients who are used to masking all the time but on the inside are struggling with burnout, depression, despair, intense anxiety, struggling to keep it together. They’ve spent their entire lives masking and the toll it has taken on their nervous system has left them feeling broken and despondent.
Clients struggling with navigating relationship issues. Wanting to feel understood but often met with rejection or blame, struggles with intimacy, finding it hard to take in feedback from their partners or family because it triggers intense shame and anger. Clients who struggle to feel confident, have self-esteem, or take in the positive regard of others.
Clients who struggle with being flexible or going with the flow and who would like to be more spontaneous and playful. Clients who struggle with social anxiety, or who tend to focus on others needs more than their own.
Clients who fear being rejected by others, who’d rather tell themselves they are fine being alone than face the struggles that come with trying to find connection.
Clients struggling with OCD, unable to stop their brain from replaying a moment where they made some small social mistake, or thinking endlessly about some problem that feels impossible to solve.
Clients who feel disillusioned by politics and the state of the world. Clients feeling the impacts of discrimination, trauma, violence, neglect. Clients feeling like they have no place in the world or that their entire life has felt like trying to swim upstream.
Contact Dave
Interested in working together? Fill out some info and I’ll be in touch with you shortly! I can’t wait to hear from you!