My work is Strengths Based and rooted in two primary healing frameworks: Somatic Experiencing® and Attachment Repatterning. Together, they create a space where the body and nervous system can gently unwind old survival responses, while the heart begins to trust safe connection again.
Dynamic Attachment Repatterning Experience (DARe)
Exploring connection, boundaries, and relational safety
DARe is an attachment-focused, body-aware approach that helps you understand what happens inside you when relationships feel tense, uncertain, or emotionally charged.
Many people I work with are thoughtful, capable, and deeply committed to their relationships. Yet, connection can feel complicated especially when old patterns get activated.
In DARe, we pay attention to the ways your nervous system responds to closeness, distance, conflict, and repair. The goal isn’t to “perform” a better relationship—it’s to build a steadier internal experience of safety and self-trust, so connection can feel more possible.
What We Explore in Attachment Work
DARe gently brings awareness to the ways we learned to relate—or protect ourselves—in early life, and how those patterns still show up today.
- Where connection felt safe…and where it didn’t
- How your system responds to closeness, need, conflict, or repair
- What healthy boundaries and attunement feel like in real time
- How to reconnect with parts of yourself that got set aside in order to stay loved or safe
Whether we’re working somatically, relationally, or creatively, the thread is consistent: returning to your body, returning to your truth, and returning to a sense of belonging—starting with yourself.
You care deeply about your relationships.
And you may notice parts of you that still feel protective, cautious, or unsure.
We can work with those responses—at a pace your nervous system can trust.
Somatic and Attachment Work Together
Attachment patterns don’t live only in thoughts. They live in the body—in breathing, tension, collapse, urgency, numbness, and the pull to protect.
This is why our work includes both attachment understanding and somatic support. We focus on what your system is doing in the moment, and we build your capacity to stay present with yourself and with others—without forcing, overriding, or rushing.
Over time, this creates more choice. Not “perfect” responses—real, workable choice.
Pacing, Safety, and Integration
This work is paced to you. We use principles like titration—doing the right amount at a time—so your system can integrate rather than feel overwhelmed.
We prioritize stability, resourcing, and real-time support, especially when working with relational material. Safety isn’t an idea here—it’s something we build, moment by moment, through how we work together.
For many clients, the process also mirrors creativity: nonlinear, layered, and full of discovery. Whether or not you make art, I hold space for the kind of internal creativity that supports lasting change.
This isn’t goal-driven therapy. It’s presence-driven—guided by your nervous system, your pace, and your growing sense of self-trust.
How This Work Helps
As your nervous system becomes more resourced and supported, the places that used to feel automatic can start to feel more workable.
- Staying present during emotional intensity
- Recovering more quickly after conflict or disconnection
- Feeling clearer about boundaries and needs
- Building steadier self-trust in relationships
The shift isn’t about trying harder. It’s about your system learning, through experience, that connection can be navigated with more steadiness and support.
What Sessions Are Like
Sessions are collaborative and responsive. We work with what is most alive in the moment—sensations, emotions, impulses, images, and relational patterns—without forcing a script.
Some sessions are more verbal. Others are quieter and more embodied. What matters is that we stay oriented toward building internal safety and increasing your capacity to meet yourself with clarity and care.
This work is non-pathologizing. You are not a diagnosis. You are a person with a nervous system that has learned how to adapt—and it can learn new ways of being supported in connection.
A Different Experience of Connection
With time and practice, many clients notice a steadier internal foundation in relationships.
- Conflict feels less defining
- Repair feels more accessible
- Moments of distance feel less threatening
- Closeness feels more possible, without bracing
- Self-trust grows—especially in emotionally charged moments
Secure attachment isn’t about never struggling. It’s about having more steadiness, more support, and more ability to come back—within yourself and with others.
Session Details:
Sessions are 55 minutes and take place online via secure video platform.
At this time, I work with adult individuals only — not couples or families.
I am currently licensed to work with people in the state of North Carolina
Session Fee: $200
I am a private pay provider, though I will continue to see people with BCBS through 2026.
I can provide a superbill upon request if you wish to seek out-of-network reimbursement.
If you have questions about fit, a free consultation is available.
Getting Started
If something in you is saying “this might be the kind of support I’ve been needing” I invite you to reach out.
I offer a free 20-minute consultation so we can get a sense of whether we’re a good fit.
This is a chance for you to ask questions, share a bit about what’s bringing you here, and feel into the space we might create together.
You don’t have to figure it all out first. Just begin.
There’s no obligation — just a chance to see if this feels right.
Frequently Asked Questions About Somatic Attachment Therapy
Talk therapy can offer insight—but insight alone doesn’t rewire a nervous system. When your body keeps reacting like love = danger, we need to work somatically.
Somatic Attachment Therapy uses body-based tools and nervous system attunement to gently shift old patterns into new, secure ones. It’s deeper—and often, more effective for relational healing.
DARe stands for Dynamic Attachment Re-patterning experience, a powerful model developed by Diane Poole Heller. It blends attachment science, body-based therapy, and nervous system healing to help you experience what secure attachment feels like—not just talk about it.
Nope. We may touch on the past, but we stay rooted in the present moment. You don’t need to relive anything—we focus on what’s happening in your body now, and gently support it toward safety and connection.
100%. Many of my clients are in couples therapy and realize they also need individual work to untangle their own inner blocks. This work helps you show up more securely in your partnership—and makes your couples therapy more effective.
Everyone’s process is different, but clients often begin to feel internal shifts early on. This isn’t about pushing for results—it’s about creating lasting change by working with your system at its own pace.
That’s so normal—and it makes sense. Many clients come to me feeling embarrassed or confused by their reactions. But those responses are not who you are—they’re what you learned. And they can change.
You’re not broken. You’re beautifully adaptive. And you’re ready for something different.