Somatic
Therapy
Work with me privately for deep transformational healing and somatic psychotherapy for working through trauma, healing the places you’re stuck, and regaining vitality to live your most aligned life.
Somatic psychotherapy is limited to clients based in California, due to requirements of my clinical license. If you are located outside of California, I offer private, somatically oriented coaching to support your transformational journey. Click the link below to learn more.
CLICK HERE for coaching
A fully expressed life emerges when you connect with your innate resilience and become who you are meant to be. You have more energy, feel inspired, connect with yourself and others more deeply, and experience the natural ebb and flow of life with greater ease.
Whether you have done psychotherapy before, or are brand new, I am here to help. I offer a beautiful, unique approach to healing, one that brings together teachings from Somatic psychotherapy, Western psychology, and Eastern wisdom traditions.
It is possible to become free from those ‘stuck’ places in life, to heal naturally and gradually, with support, guidance, and inner wisdom.
Ready to get unstuck from your most persistent patterns and cycles and create a new rhythm?
We need to work with the body to support its natural ability to heal. The mind is very helpful, in fact, it’s an essential resource that we draw upon. However, if we don’t also integrate the content and experience of life in an embodied way, by inviting flow through our physical and energetic systems, we can remain stuck, unable to be who we truly are.
Complete healing comes from mindful awareness of the whole self, and working from a place of embodied connection with our true, genuine essence. All you need to bring is your commitment and an openness to the possibility of healing your life. I will meet you there.
The secret?
LCSW, SEP
This is tender work I do. Supporting people living with anxiety, depression, grief, and unresolved trauma. It’s tender, and important. I don’t take that lightly. So, what qualifies me to support people in this way?
First and foremost, I am a highly trained mental health professional with decades of experience working with people in the painful places of their lives. I’ve helped thousands of people with their emotional health and wellbeing in a variety of settings since I graduated from college in 1990. I have been a Licensed Clinical Social Worker in California since 1998, practicing in both agency and private practice settings.
I am extensively trained in somatic therapies, with six years of certification in these modalities alone. I love this work, and it is the way that I live my life as well. Integrating and embodying this healing work in all areas of my life - work, play, relationships, spirituality. All of it. I live it.
I know how to hold the space and work with those painful places. It’s what I do. I think we have all had that experience of someone glazing over, changing the subject, or worse, when we are in pain. That’s not me. I’m not interested in getting you into the pain before it’s time. However, when it comes up, because it will come up when you do your healing work, I can be there with you.
You can read more about Karin and the details of her clinical background HERE
Meet Karin Robbins
Something in you believes that feeling better is possible...
This is not your average therapy session. Here at Our Sacred Rhythm, Karin focuses on what you want to create for your life, instead of reliving and activating where you’ve suffered in the past. In fact, we don't relive your past or intentionally activate it. Ever. That can be re-traumatizing.
Karin utilizes the past as it is relevant to your life in the present.
We work with your desires and help you create the life you were meant for. We will heal the stuck places, the painful traumas and ways of being that keep you from living fully. This work is about embodied healing and living fully into who you are.
This is what's possible for you ...
This is the kind of support that makes feeling better possible.
Reactivate the inner knowing that your life has meaning and that you matter. Sometimes we feel disconnected from what we are doing in our lives, and in our relationships. and we can forget who we really are as a result.
I'll help you with the inner healing that is needed to remember who you are and to live more aligned with your natural sense of meaning and purpose.
FIND PURPOSE & MEANING IN YOUR LIFE
Life can feel like a struggle, and let's be honest, sometimes it is. what Is often missing from other approaches to working with chronic stress and overwhelm, is an ability to work with the body.
I can support you to develop a greater felt sense of resilience so that you have the capacity to ride all the waves and struggles in life with greater ease. The world needs you resilient.
greater Ease, Less Struggle
Whether you're wanting to better a current relationship, heal your family dynamic, or call in romantic PARTNERSHIP, FRIENDS, AND COMMUNITY that are loving and lasting, this work will help you create more ease and connection with those you love in your life.
CREATE AND SUSTAIN BETTER RELATIONSHIPS
FEELING A LACK OF CLARITY, MOTIVATION OR DIRECTION CAN LEAVE YOU FEELING BURNT OUT, DEPRESSED, ANXIOUS AND MORE. YOUR DESIRES CAN BECOME HIDDEN UNDERNEATH TRAUMATIC EVENTS AND DAILY STRESSORS. IN THIS WORK, WE WILL HEAL THE WAYS THAT YOUR DESIRES HAVE BECOME OBSTRUCTED, SUPPORT YOU TO CLARIFY WHAT YOU REALLY WANT, AND SUPPORT THE EMBODIED INTEGRATION SO YOU EXPERIENCE THEM MORE IN YOUR LIFE.
FIND CLARITY AND ACCESS YOUR DESIRES
AS we do this inner healing work, it's also important to add meaning that is relevant to you. i will help you learn how the nervous system works and how it has remained stuck in outdated survival strategies from childhood, so that you also have an understanding of what contributed to the difficulties you are experiencing today. you get to live with more compassion and less judgement.
DISCOVER WHY YOU FEEL SO OUT OF ALIGNMENT
If you feel like you went missing somewhere along the way, IT IS TRUE ON ONE LEVEL. IT'S SO COMMON THAT WE, AS HUMAN BEINGS, FORGET WHO WE REALLY ARE. ESPECIALLY WHEN WE LEARN THAT WE ARE TOO MUCH OR NOT ENOUGH IN ANY WAY. I'M HERE TO REMIND YOU THAT YOUR ESSENTIAL NATURE IS STILL THERE. I HOLD THAT VERSION OF YOU AS WE DO THIS HEALING WORK. AS I SUPPORT YOU INTO AN INTEGRATED EMBODIED REALIGNMENT WITH YOURSELF.
REALIGN WITH YOURSELF AGAIN
My unique, natural approach to psychotherapy integrates all of the following modalities in varying degrees, based on each individual’s needs, interests, and circumstances.
My Approach
ABI BLAKESLEE, SEP, CMT, MFT, PhD
Bozeman, MT
Somatic Experiencing Trauma Institute Faculty
"Karin Robbins is a talented therapist, coach, and Somatic Experiencing [SE] Practitioner. Karin assists me at our Somatic Experiencing trainings. She brings a quality of healing presence, attuned skill with attending to psychophysiology, and interpersonal warmth.
I refer to her for Skype sessions regularly with our SE students. Her combination of body-based attachment, facilitation of present centered awareness, and resiliency focus helps clients reach their goals.”
What people are saying...
It is unethical to post testimonials from psychotherapy clients in CA, so here is some relevant and related feedback from others who know Karin’s work.
MAKEDA PENNYCOOKE, Charlotte, NC
Women’s Empowerment Coach at www.makedapennycooke.com
“I LOVED working with you. I knew nothing about somatic coaching before working with you but was intrigued. I appreciate so much the truth that my body is always going to give me the answers I need. I discovered how true that was and learned how to honor the messaging from my body.
I felt like I walked away with some key tools to help me when I start to spiral out of control in my mind. I still use the tools of the breath, and noticing, and the information around expanding/contracting a lot in my personal work, and occasionally even with clients.
It helps me ground back into the present moment when I find my mind chasing some story that I have made up. It has helped me push through my growth edges as an entrepreneur."
What people are saying...
SUSAN ISRAEL BENSEN Missoula, Montana
Energy and Sound Healing at www.susanbensen.com
I'm grateful to you for accepting me as I am, dark and light, bad and good, screwed up and together. I also have appreciated the broad array of skills and approaches you bring to your work, such as Enneagram and Eastern practices.
I was immediately at ease with you and your warm and accepting approach. I began to realize the power of having a skilled practitioner - you - to guide me through the process of sensing the depths of my own body and nervous system.
I immediately sensed the power of somatic work to heal a broad array of life traumas. Although I've been to lots of different types of healers and have been a healer myself for over 25 years, I found this very powerful.
What people are saying...
What people are saying...
Pillars for Healing
Somatic Experiencing® (SE)
NeuroAffective Relational Model™ (NARM)
Touch Skills for Trauma Therapists
Eastern Wisdom Traditions
EQUITY CENTERED COACHING
EMBODIMENT PRACTICES
Somatic Experiencing® (“SE”), developed by Dr. Peter Levine, is a gentle, natural approach to the resolution and healing of trauma that block one’s experience of aliveness. SE employs awareness of body sensation and scientific understanding of the nervous system to help people renegotiate experiences and heal, rather than re-live or re-enact traumatic events. SE breaks down experience into small, incremental steps, rather than evoking catharsis, which can overwhelm the nervous system.
From the SE perspective, the blocks are not in the actual event, but in the way that one responds to an event and how it is stored in the nervous system. The stuckness we experience in our nervous system can lead to a variety of physical and emotional problems, like anxiety, panic, and depression. Working with the body’s natural protective and defensive responses (i.e. fight, flight, freeze, appease), SE supports the release and integration of energy that is stuck in the body. SE has proven to be a life changing method of healing for many, including myself, as it reconnects people to their true essence and natural resilience.
For more information about SE and Dr. Levine’s work, please refer to the Somatic Experiencing Trauma Institute website, www.traumahealing.org.
SOMATIC EXPERIENCING® (SE)
Developed by Dr. Laurence Heller, the NeuroAffective Relational Model™ (“NARM”), is a somatic therapy supporting the restoration of connection and aliveness that is at the very core of human experience and emotional health. As children we all have a need for connection with ourselves, attunement from our caregivers, safety and trust in dependence on others, and our own independence, in order to experience a healthy heart based love and sexuality.
In their groundbreaking 2012 book, Healing Developmental Trauma, Dr. Heller and Dr. Aline LaPierre, describe that many symptoms, such as depression, meaninglessness, shame, and low self-esteem, are the result of disconnection from one’s essential life force, one’s feeling of aliveness. Drs. Heller and LaPierre state, “NARM holds psychodynamic, nervous system-based, and Eastern healing traditions as equally important and complementary.” Through a fundamental shift in thinking, and utilizing SE®, somatic mindfulness, and psychodynamic psychotherapies, the NARM approach offers a comprehensive “bottom up”, nervous system based, and “top down”, meaning based, modality for healing. For more information on the NARM model, please refer to the NARM Training Institute website, www.narmtraining.com.
NEUROAFFECTIVE RELATIONAL MODEL™ (NARM)
Based on the work of SE Faculty, Kathy Kain, Touch Skills for Trauma Therapists provides another modality within which to support the body and nervous system in the release and integration of stuck life force energy. Touch work is not a form of massage or body work, and may be offered to support grounding, containment, movement, and building of resilience. In my experience working with people, touch facilitates a deep settling of the nervous system and a more embodied connection with oneself.
For more information about Touch Skills for Trauma Therapists, please refer to Kathy Kain’s website, www.somaticpractice.net.
TOUCH SKILLS FOR TRAUMA THERAPISTS
I want to begin by naming that any use of practices from any culture that is not my own, comes with utmost respect to the teachings as transmitted to me by authorized teachers in specific lineage traditions in order to honor the origins and roots of this ancient wisdom and indigenous communities. This includes my studies of mindfulness Vipassana meditation, yoga, Ayurveda, and traditional tantric lineage practices.
Mindful awareness is central to all aspects of my work in Somatic Therapy and Eastern Wisdom Traditions; and, as such, it is truly the foundation that underlies everything I do and is the bridge between modern healing and timeless wisdom. Mindfulness is a 2500 year old practice from the teachings of the Buddha; a practice that nurtures present moment awareness and the qualities we want to cultivate to support that awareness. Qualities such as lovingkindness, compassion, joy, and even handed awareness, called equanimity. In order to support mindful awareness, and to incline our hearts and our minds toward acceptance of what is, rather than judging what is, we invite these qualities into our experience. Mindfulness is always a practice, the orientation is always toward opening to our experience, with curiosity and kindness; it is never the intention to get anywhere or to force a particular experience. We simply invite and allow and notice the unfolding of whatever emerges in the present moment. And, while mindful awareness is a simple concept, it is not an easy practice. Mindfulness combines beautifully with somatic therapy. The first foundation of mindfulness is the body, and it allows us to experience healing in a grounded, integrated way.
MINDFULNESS &
EASTERN WISDOM
The Enneagram is a dynamic psycho-spiritual personality typing system that supports transformational work.
It helps you see blind spots in the way that you show up in the world, and reveals particular ways you hold yourself back through survival strategies known as “type”.
The Enneagram also helps you understand why everyone doesn’t see the world the same way you do. There are 9 different types, and many nuances, layers, and depth within those 9 types and in each person’s individual dynamic within the system.
Unlike many personality systems, the Enneagram has a built in arc of transformation. That means the gifts and talents that are unique to your type can be enhanced to support you. This allows me to help you in the blind spots AND to develop your gifts and talents at the same time. I’ve found it to be a very efficient and effective map to support inner healing and personal transformation.
ENNEAGRAM
Ayurveda is a comprehensive natural health care system, dating back more than 5,000 years to the sages of ancient India. Ayurveda is usually translated as “the science of life”, coming from two Sanscrit words, “Ayu,” meaning “life,” and “Veda”, meaning “science” or “knowledge”. “Knowledge of life” seems like a beautiful translation to me, as Ayurvedic healing considers all aspects of our lives; physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual. Ayurveda is a natural medicine, a science, steeped in the wisdom of nature. While there are many therapeutic treatments to heal imbalances and disease, true healing begins when the “disease” and “imbalance” is resolved. Ayurveda is a lifestyle, a way of being, that emerges out of deep connection with nature’s wisdom. By understanding each person’s unique individual constitution, and the cycles and rhythms of nature, Ayurveda allows a person to return to a natural state of vitality, aliveness, and balance. As a Yoga and Ayurveda Specialist, I weave the natural wisdom from Ayurveda into my work on a regular basis. I bring in practical Ayurvedic recommendations, based on each individual’s needs, and the season, to enhance and support a holistic healing process.
Lastly, I want to name that any use of practices from any culture that is not my own, comes with utmost respect to the teachings as transmitted to me by authorized teachers in specific lineage traditions in order to honor the origins and roots of this ancient wisdom and indigenous communities. This includes my studies of mindfulness Vipassana meditation, yoga, Ayurveda, and traditional tantric lineage practices.
AYURVEDA
& EASTERN WISDOM
This is for you if...
You value feeling healthy, vibrant, and connected in all areas of your life and you're willing to do the deeper inner work that is needed to heal and change the areas of your life that are no longer working for you.
You desire true healing and an embodied methodology that creates lasting change.
You believe in the capacity for healing through the body's wisdom.
You are willing, open, and curious about the power of inner work for personal and professional transformation. You're not someone who thinks they have all the answers. You love to learn more about yourself and open up to new ways of seeing the world around you and within you.
You're willing to do the, often painful, work in order to heal, and you're willing to be gentle with yourself as you rediscover who you are in this moment. Strength and tenderness are both essential aspects of your power and authentic expression. Your full humanity is needed to access them.
You want a different experience of life and relationships than what you have now.
You’re willing to be collaborative when it comes to your own healing process. You are the expert in your own life after all. I am not the therapist for you if you want me to do all of the work for you. This is a collaborative process where I guide and you lead.
There is no standard timeframe for psychotherapy work. I know it’s hard to hear that. The truth is that every person is different. During our initial consultation, we'll create a treatment plan that fits your needs and your goals, and we will revisit these on a regular basis to adjust and shift as needed. I promise to keep an open dialogue about your trajectory. You can always ask for an update as well. I welcome a collaborative treatment planning process.
TIMEFRAME
I am licensed to practice in the state of California. I have offices in the East San Francisco Bay Area (Oakland) and in Los Angeles (by request only). I also maintain a virtual TeleHealth practice if you prefer to work remotely.
NOTE COVID-19 update: Currently all sessions are provided online via HIPAA compliant TeleHealth video conferencing or telephone.
Virtual & In Person Sessions in California
Your journey is as unique as you are. We’ll start by understanding your history in the context of your current symptoms and life circumstances. We will not go through every nook and cranny of your life, that can be re-traumatizing. This is about understanding what has you stuck and what you would like to shift so that you can live your most optimal life. My focus is on the present moment and your current experience of yourself and your life. I want to know what is most important to you and we bring in somatic practice right away. My approach is gentle, grounded, warm and effective.
PRIVATE & CUSTOMIZED TO YOU
Some details for you...
While I don't take insurance, I am able to provide a super bill that you can submit to your insurance for reimbursement. Please ask your health care provider if you have coverage for an “out of network” provider.
Our Sacred Rhythm and Karin Robbins are firmly committed to the practice of anti-racism and welcome your inquiries into our practices and commitments.
CA License 18692 – Karin C. Robbins, Licensed Clinical Social Worker, Inc.
INSURANCE
ANTI-RACISM
Receive support and guidance on whether or not somatic psychotherapy is right for you during this complementary 20 minute consultation.
Meet With Karin
A 20 min consultation is complementary. Use the form below to apply and book your private 1:1 consultation with Karin.
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