FOR WOMEN | ONLINE ACROSS CALIFORNIA
Somatic Therapy
You’re Ready For Therapy To Feel Different.
If you’re considering somatic therapy, this is where the differences between approaches begin to matter.
YOU’VE SPENT TIME TRYING TO UNDERSTAND YOURSELF. YOU’VE READ, REFLECTED, MAYBE EVEN TALKED THINGS THROUGH WITH OTHERS.
Intellectually, things make sense. You experienced some hard things growing up and likely your family wasn’t able to meet you where you needed it most emotionally. And that can have an impact on how you relate to others today—you get that. But understanding something in your mind hasn’t quieted the tension that still lives in your body. For many people, this is connected to particular experiences—sometimes traumatic—that left a lasting imprint on the nervous system.
Ly Franshaua Pipkins, Psy.D., specializes in body-based therapies across California through her online therapy practice, using nervous system-based approaches to get to the root of what’s keeping you unsettled.
Somatic Therapies go beyond insight, so your system can finally settle.
YOU’RE READY TO:
Shift not just in how you understand things—but in how you actually feel and respond.
Loosen patterns that once felt automatic.
Feel less activated in challenging situations. Stop pushing past your body’s signals.
Gain access to a different kind of life.
Move through the world with less urgency and more clarity.
Reconnect with a sense of internal safety, and build spaciousness.
Trust your body's signals rather than overriding them or trying to think your way through every experience.
Feel like the real you — not the version shaped by pressure, but the one rooted in presence, intuition, and steadiness.
Expand your capacity for joy, creativity, play, and connection
Paying attention to both mind and body can bring lasting change.
HOW IT WORKS
Together, we move at a pace that feels manageable and supportive—allowing your nervous system to process without needing to force or explain everything in words.
Instead of bracing against your feelings or getting frustrated for being overwhelmed, we slow things down together. We notice what’s happening in your body — the tight chest, the sinking stomach, the racing thoughts — and we identify which part of you is speaking. Often, it’s the parts shaped by external expectations: family pressure, cultural roles, community standards, or years of needing to perform strength, success, or emotional control.
I’ll guide you step-by-step in meeting these parts with compassion, not judgment. Using eye placement, breath and intuitive movement — the work becomes clear and accessible. And slowly, things begin to shift.
Your self-critical part softens.
Your guilt eases.
Your body feels less tight.
There is no one-size-fits-all protocol in this work.
Each person's nervous system has adapted to a unique set of experiences, relationships, and expectations. Because of that, we build our approach together rather than following a rigid predetermined sequence of steps. Some sessions may focus on processing challenging experiences that continue to feel unresolved, while others may intentionally create opportunities for new, positive experiences to emerge.
I bring clinical precision to support you.
Imagine not only reducing distress but also expanding your capacity to experience moments that feel nourishing, meaningful, and true. Over time, your system begins to recognize that life can contain steadiness, enjoyment, curiosity, and ease—not as rare exceptions, but as experiences that are increasingly available to you.
My services are available online across CA, making it convenient for you to access care no matter your situation.
Bring your whole self to a place of healing and expansion.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Traditional talk therapy and somatic therapy both support healing, and both involve nervous system processing. The difference is where they place their emphasis.
Talk therapy often relies heavily on reflection, insight, and language to help you understand your experiences. While this can be incredibly valuable, it can sometimes overactivate the thinking parts of the brain—particularly the prefrontal cortex—causing you to analyze an experience rather than fully feel it. For some people, this can unintentionally create distance from the body's sensory experience.
Somatic therapy takes a different approach. Rather than focusing primarily on understanding why something is happening, we also pay attention to how it is happening in your body in real time.
This might include noticing your breathing, muscle tension, impulses to move away from a feeling, or subtle shifts in your level of activation. By working with these bodily experiences, your nervous system has an opportunity to process experiences differently instead of repeatedly revisiting them through thought alone.
The goal is not to stop talking. Rather, it is to integrate thinking, feeling, and sensing so that lasting change can occur throughout the entire system.
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Somatic therapy is a nervous system–based approach that recognizes that many experiences are stored not only as memories or thoughts, but also as patterns within the body.
Together, we pay attention to how your body responds to stress, anxiety, overwhelm, or difficult emotions in the present moment. By working with these responses gently and intentionally, your system can begin to develop new ways of responding over time.
Somatic therapy is not about forcing emotions to surface or reliving painful experiences. Instead, it helps create enough safety for your mind and body to process experiences at a pace that feels manageable.
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Somatic therapy may be helpful for a variety of concerns, including:
Anxiety and chronic worry
Overthinking and perfectionism
Trauma and post-traumatic stress
Burnout and emotional exhaustion
Hypervigilance or feeling constantly "on"
Difficult life transitions
Relationship patterns that feel hard to change
Persistent feelings of being stuck despite years of personal growth
It can be particularly helpful for people who feel intellectually aware of their patterns but continue to experience them physically.
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No.
You are never required to recount every detail of a difficult experience.
In many cases, your nervous system can begin processing an experience without needing to revisit every aspect of the story. We work at a pace that allows you to remain present and connected rather than overwhelmed.
The goal is not repeated exposure to painful memories. It is to help your system develop a different relationship to those experiences over time.
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Each session is collaborative and paced to your comfort level.
In addition to conversation, I may invite you to notice what is happening in your body in real time. This could include paying attention to your breathing, muscle tension, energy levels, sensations of heaviness or lightness, or subtle impulses that arise during our work together.
There is no right way to do this.
Some sessions involve more conversation, while others spend more time noticing and working with present-moment experiences. We adjust our approach based on what feels most supportive for you that day.
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No.
Somatic therapy is a form of psychotherapy, not bodywork or massage therapy.
Sessions are conducted through conversation and guided awareness. The focus is on helping you build a greater understanding of how your nervous system responds to stress and supporting your system in developing new patterns over time.
No physical touch is required.
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Everyone's experience is different.
Some people notice small shifts within a few sessions, such as feeling less reactive, sleeping more easily, or experiencing greater moments of calm. For others, change happens more gradually.
The goal is not to eliminate every difficult feeling. Instead, we work toward increasing your flexibility, resilience, and capacity to move through experiences that once felt overwhelming.
Over time, many people describe feeling less stuck in old patterns and more connected to themselves and their daily lives.