Pain Reprocessing Therapy at Embodied Heart Somatics

Reconnect to the inherent fluidity, flexibility, and resiliency in your nervous system and body.

A somatic, trauma-informed path to unwinding chronic pain and reclaiming your body.

Pain Reprocessing Therapy (PRT) is an evidence-based, mind–body approach that helps you retrain the brain to accurately interpret signals from the body, breaking the chronic pain cycle.


At Embodied Heart Somatics, PRT is integrated with Hakomi-informed somatic coaching, somatic trauma processing, and somatic movement exploration that forms the heart of my practice.

This is not just pain recovery.
It is a process of coming home to your body.

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Learning to Trust Your Body Again

What would it feel like to experience pain… without fear?
What if you could inhabit your body with curiosity, fluidity, and acceptance — even when it hurts?

Chronic, neuroplastic pain is the brain’s attempt to keep you safe. When the nervous system is on high alert, it can misinterpret normal bodily sensations as dangerous. PRT helps you shift this pattern by restoring a felt sense of safety in your body.

Through our sessions, you will be supported to:

  • Reorient to your symptoms with curiosity instead of fear

  • Access the wisdom of your body as a guide

  • Unravel unconscious patterns that keep the nervous system stuck

  • Explore the emotional roots that often underlie chronic pain

  • Build capacity for embodiment, presence, and self-regulation

Your body is not your enemy.
It is communicating.
Together, we learn how to listen.

Why This Work Matters

The autonomic nervous system — the body’s stress, safety, and survival system — influences nearly every organ. When it is dysregulated, chronic symptoms can emerge: pain, fatigue, digestive distress, dizziness, migraines, panic, numbness, burning sensations, heart palpitations, and more.

This approach supports people experiencing a wide range of physiological and emotional symptoms, including chronic musculoskeletal pain, tingling, tinnitus, abdominal pain, bladder and pelvic symptoms, chronic fatigue, anxiety, depression, trauma-related symptoms, and other neuroplastic experiences.

Neuroplastic pain is when the brain misinterprets normal sensory input from the body as if it’s dangerous, thus generating the experience of pain or pain-related symptoms.

In other words, it’s a false alarm.

This in not an implication that pain is all in your head or imaginary.

Brain imaging shows neural changes occur in the brain when people experience chronic pain and other chronic health symptoms. However, the root cause is from misfiring and overly-sensitized neural circuits, and not necessarily tissue damage or other physically-related issues.

This work is not about “pushing through.”
It is about bringing your system out of defense and into safety, one layer at a time.

Understanding the Roots of Chronic Pain

From a trauma-informed lens, chronic pain often develops through three overlapping tiers:

Tier 1: Adult Stress + High Alert

Acute or ongoing stress (demanding work, caretaking, relationship stress, life transitions) sensitizes the nervous system. An injury or illness during this time can cause the brain to default to pain as a protective pathway. Sometimes pain and other symptoms can seemingly come out of nowhere.

Tier 2: Earlier Emotional Experiences

Stressful or traumatic experiences in childhood, adolescence, or early adulthood can create survival patterns that linger in the body. Pain becomes one way the system expresses unprocessed emotional activation.

Tier 3: Developmental, Preverbal, and Attachment Trauma

When the nervous system never had a true “before” experience of safety, survival strategies become the default. These patterns often operate beneath conscious awareness and may require deeper somatic exploration to shift.

All three tiers are workable.
They simply require different kinds of support.

Strong Body like a Mountain

My Unique Approach: PRT + Hakomi + Somatic Trauma Therapy + Movement Repatterning

This is where my approach becomes distinctly Embodied Heart Somatics.

Pain Reprocessing Therapy

Desensitizes the brain to pain signals and helps rewire the fear-pain loop.

Hakomi-informed Somatic Coaching

Supports exploration of unconscious emotional material, early survival patterns, and the deeper layers of the psyche with gentleness and mindfulness.

Somatic Trauma Processing

Provides tools to regulate the nervous system, metabolize activation, and rebuild a felt sense of safety.

Somatic Movement Exploration

Enhances interoception, fluidity, and relationship to bodily sensation through subtle movement, embodied imagery, and gentle exploration.

My lived experience

With 15 years of chronic pain recovery, trauma healing, somatic therapy training, somatic movement education, and massage therapy I bring not only knowledge — but lived understanding.

My sessions are a blend of neuroscience, somatic therapy, compassion, and embodied wisdom.

No two sessions look the same.
Your body leads.
We follow.

What to Expect in a Session

Sessions are held on Zoom and may include:

  • Pain Reprocessing Therapy

  • Hakomi-informed somatic exploration

  • Nervous system resourcing and trauma-informed support

  • Somatic micro-movement and fluidity practices

  • Exploration of emotional patterns related to symptoms

  • Behavioral shifts and mindset work to interrupt pain cycles

  • Embodied awareness and present-moment tracking

  • Integration tools for daily life

Our work will always orient toward safety, curiosity, and compassion.

The First Session

  • A thorough intake and collaborative assessment

  • Review of your pain history and nervous system patterns

  • Pain science education to help you understand neuroplastic pain

  • Initial somatic exploration to begin mapping what your body is communicating

  • Clarifying what you need most in your healing right now

You may be asked to receive medical clearance if needed.

Who This Is For

This work is ideal for you if:

  • You have experienced chronic pain for 3+ months

  • You are open to a somatic and mind-body approach

  • You are willing to explore emotional patterns and nervous system responses

  • You are ready to engage in daily practice outside sessions

  • You want a compassionate, slow-paced, body-led approach

It may still support you if you have a structural diagnosis or autoimmune condition — by reducing fear, calming the system, and decreasing secondary pain.

My Commitment to You

I know this terrain intimately — personally and professionally.
Chronic pain does not have to be a life sentence.

I believe in your capacity to heal, to experience ease, and to inhabit your body in a way that feels grounded, empowered, and alive.
I’m here to walk with you as you rediscover your body’s innate intelligence.

You deserve support.
I’m glad you’re here.

 

This work is not appropriate for crisis situations or severe psychiatric distress. If you are experiencing suicidal ideation or acute mental health symptoms, please seek support from a licensed mental health provider or crisis hotline.

FAQ

  • Yes — PRT and somatic therapy can still help reduce secondary pain, fear, and nervous system hyperarousal even if you have a structural or autoimmune diagnosis. This approach never dismisses your symptoms; instead, it supports your mind-body connection, helping your brain interpret sensations with less fear and tension.

  • PRT and somatic therapy may support:

    • Chronic back, neck, shoulder, or joint pain

    • Pelvic pain, bladder symptoms, vulvodynia, prostatitis

    • Headaches, migraines, TMJ

    • IBS, abdominal pain, digestive symptoms

    • Fibromyalgia-type symptoms

    • Numbness, tingling, burning sensations

    • Chronic fatigue

    • Dizziness and tinnitus

    • Stress-related pain

    • Anxiety, trauma-related symptoms, and somatic distress

    These methods address the mind-body patterns that keep the nervous system stuck in protection mode.

  • No. There are no guarantees. Everyone’s experience of chronic pain is incredibly unique, and everyone is in a different stage of their process.

    This means that some people may make strides with this approach while others may take baby steps. There is no right or wrong, and speed of recovery is definitely not a measure of success.

    The healing process is anything but linear, and there is a chance that you may even experience a flare-up of symptoms during our time together. Sometimes, but not always, recovery means getting worse before you get better.

    Usually, the more outcome independent you are, the likelier you are to experience a reduction in symptoms.

    I encourage you to cultivate an attitude of patience and compassion toward yourself during this process, and focus on how you can cultivate a sense of safety and ease just for today.

  • Many clients begin noticing shifts within 3–6 sessions, although every nervous system is unique. Chronic pain healing is a process, and consistency matters. Clients who engage with daily practices outside of sessions often see the most significant results.

    Paradoxically, the less attached you are to seeing results and getting out of pain, the more likely you are to feel ease in your body sooner.

  • Some of the signs that your pain is neuroplastic are symptoms that are inconsistent, move around the body, flare during stress, or persist after medical healing. This is not the comprehensive list.

    People with chronic back pain, tension headaches, pelvic pain, fibromyalgia-type symptoms, IBS, dizziness, fatigue, or medically unexplained symptoms often benefit from mind-body approaches.


    A thorough intake together helps determine whether PRT or somatic chronic pain therapy is an appropriate fit.

    It may be required that you go to a doctor and for a routine checkup to make sure that there isn’t a major medical issue prior to us working together.

  • Many clients come to me after years of medical appointments, physical therapy, or unsuccessful treatments.

    Because this approach addresses the root causes—neural pathways, emotional patterns, and nervous system dysregulation—it often helps people who have not found relief elsewhere.

  • Yes — research strongly supports somatic therapy and mind-body approaches for chronic pain. Somatic therapy works by calming the autonomic nervous system, increasing body awareness, and gently processing stored emotional patterns that contribute to pain. Combining somatic therapy with PRT offers a powerful path for lasting chronic pain relief.

  • Traditional talk therapy focuses on thoughts and emotions, while PRT is a mind-body chronic pain approach that works with the brain’s predictive processing, the nervous system, and your relationship with physical sensations.

    In my practice, PRT is combined with somatic trauma therapy, which goes far deeper than cognitive techniques alone.

  • Somatic coaching focuses on present-moment awareness, nervous system support, and body-based exploration. It does not diagnose or treat mental health conditions.

    My work is deeply informed by Hakomi Somatic Psychotherapy and trauma-informed training, but it is offered as somatic coaching unless you are working with me as part of a licensure pathway in the future.

  • Yes. All sessions are offered virtually on Zoom, making chronic pain therapy, somatic trauma work, and nervous system coaching accessible no matter where you live. Many clients find that remote somatic work is equally or more effective than in-person sessions.

  • You can begin by scheduling a 45-minute low-cost consultation to discuss your chronic pain history, goals, and whether this somatic approach is a good match for your needs.


    You can also schedule a single session or a package to dive into this work at your own pace.

Curious if this approach might help you?

Let’s get to know each other.

Book a 45 Minute Low-Cost Consultation.