A Holistic, Mind-Body Approach to Trauma, Emotional Reactivity, and building Lasting Resilience
Somatic Therapy in Florida for Navigating Overwhelm and Trauma
Online Support for Adults in Florida and Illinois
Do you ever have a big reaction to something small—a comment, an inconvenience, a moment of conflict—and wonder why it felt so intense?
Or maybe you find yourself shutting down completely when things feel too overwhelming, checking out or avoiding what needs your attention.
It’s frustrating when your reactions don’t match the situation. You might feel guilt after snapping at someone you care about, or disappointment that you’re not handling things the way you want to.
There’s nothing wrong with your insight—you get that it’s not a big deal.
But that hasn’t stopped your body from reacting like it is.
Stress, shame, or exhaustion might be living in your body now as tension, digestive issues, fatigue, or pain—especially when life piles on.
You’ve done the work. You’ve thought it through. But something still isn’t shifting.
Somatic therapy offers a different way in.
It goes beyond talking, helping you understand what’s happening in your body and why certain reactions are showing up. These patterns often began as protection—possibly a long time ago—and your system still reacts like danger is right here, even when it’s not.
If talk therapy hasn’t been enough, and you're tired of trying to hold it all together, this approach could be the missing piece. Together, we’ll support both your mind and body—so you can move through life with more clarity, connection, and self-trust.
Somatic Therapist in Fort Lauderdale Florida
Hi, I’m Amy Hagerstrom, LCSW.
I’m really glad you’re here.
Reaching out—especially when you’ve been holding it all together for so long—can feel like a big step.
I work with people who are burned out from pushing through, frustrated by strong reactions they can’t seem to control, or exhausted from avoiding the things that feel too hard to face. Even when life looks fine on the outside, they’re overwhelmed, second-guessing themselves, or ashamed of how they’re showing up.
As a Somatic Experiencing Practitioner, I take a holistic, mind-body approach to therapy that helps you understand what’s really going on beneath the surface—and work with it, not against it.
Together, we’ll make space to untangle those patterns, build internal support, and help you move through life with more clarity, calm, and confidence in yourself.
Common Concerns That Bring People to Somatic Therapy
PTSD
Chronic Illness
Anxiety and overwhelm
Burnout and exhaustion
Family or relationship stress
Guilt, shame, or self-criticism
Feeling stuck in reactive cycles
Difficulty handling life transitions
Chronic pain or stress-related symptoms
Trauma (including childhood or relational trauma)
Substance use or other coping behaviors that no longer feel helpful.
You might already understand your stress—but that hasn’t made it any easier to change how you feel. You’ve talked it through, made sense of it, even tried to think your way into feeling better. But the tension, the spiraling, the emotional weight—they’re still there.
That’s the limitation of insight alone. Talk therapy can be supportive and clarifying, but sometimes it doesn’t reach the parts of you that still feel stuck, reactive, or numb. That’s where somatic therapy comes in.
Somatic therapy brings your body into the conversation—not just your thoughts and emotions. Instead of managing symptoms or talking through the same stories, we explore how your nervous system is reacting in real time—because that gives us important insight into what’s happening beneath the surface. You’ll begin to notice the physical signs of stress, overwhelm, or shutdown, and learn how to respond in ways that actually support you.
It’s not about pushing through or going back into everything that happened. We stay with what’s happening now, in your body, at a pace that feels right.
Why Somatic Therapy Might Be What’s Missing
Once you start approaching your body with curiosity rather than with fear, everything shifts.
— Bessel van der Kolk
What This Mind-Body Approach Can Shift
As we get to know how your body responds, we begin to shift the patterns that have kept you stuck. You might start to feel more present in moments you used to check out of. You might notice a bit more clarity where there used to be overwhelm. And slowly, those protective responses start to feel less consuming.
This kind of work helps:
Calm emotional reactivity and reduce the shame or guilt that often follows
Shift the sense that something’s wrong with you, and recognize your responses as protective—even when they no longer serve you
Support your body in recognizing when you’re safe, so you don’t stay stuck in survival mode
Grow your ability to feel joy, rest, connection, and trust in yourself—not just survive, but actually feel like yourself again
I bring warmth, clarity, and a steady presence to this work. There’s room here for the heavy stuff—and for ease, humor, and moments of lightness, too. We’ll stay curious together, without pressure or performance, and build the trust your system needs to soften and shift.
If you’re ready for support that includes your whole self—mind, body, and everything you’ve carried—this may be the piece that’s been missing.
The Somatic Therapy Approaches I Use to Help You Heal and Reconnect
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Somatic Experiencing
Somatic Experiencing (SE) is a gentle yet effective therapy that helps release stored trauma and stress from your body, calming your nervous system and restoring balance.
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Safe and Sound Protocol
Safe and Sound Protocol (SSP) uses specially filtered music to calm your nervous system, helping you sense safety and feel more grounded in your daily life.
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Rest and Restore Protocol
Rest and Restore Protocol (RRP) is a music-based support that helps ease chronic stress and tension by supporting your nervous system’s ability to settle and recharge.
What the Work Looks Like and How It Helps
Every session is a little different, depending on what’s coming up for you. Sometimes we talk. Sometimes we pause and notice what’s happening in your body. You don’t have to relive everything that’s happened—we stay with what’s showing up in the moment. That might be tension, overwhelm, shutdown, or even a flicker of ease. We follow what your system is ready for and respond with care.
If you're open to it, we might include gentle practices that support what your body is already signaling it needs—like pushing against something or slowly squeezing a pillow. These aren’t about catharsis or intensity, but slow, intentional ways to meet energy that’s ready to move. In more tender moments, that support might look like nurturing self-touch—such as placing a hand on your heart or offering yourself weight or warmth.
Some clients like to stay seated and still throughout our sessions, while others feel best when there’s a little more movement or engagement. And if doing something new feels strange or vulnerable, I’ll do it with you. We figure it out together.
This work looks different for everyone, because every body is different. Some clients bring a blanket, a comfort item, or something weighted to help them feel grounded. Others prefer to have something cool or textured nearby. We get to know your nervous system together and follow what helps—not just from session to session, but moment to moment.
What stays constant is that we move at a pace that feels supportive and clear. This process can help you feel more connected to yourself and better able to handle the hard moments—without getting pulled back into the old patterns. It also helps build your capacity, support your body in renegotiating old stress responses, and teach your system how to recognize when it’s actually safe.
Working With Your Nervous System, Not Against It
A big part of this work is helping you understand your unique stress responses. Through a polyvagal-informed lens, we explore how your nervous system responds to stress—whether it’s with fight, flight, freeze, or shutdown.
Together, we start to notice what these states feel like in your body, what tends to trigger them, and what helps you return to a sense of safety. If you tend to shut down, lash out, or spin in anxiety, these patterns start to make more sense when we look at them through this lens. You’ll begin to recognize them not as personal failures—but as protective responses your body learned, possibly a long time ago.
And we go slow. The goal isn’t to get rid of these responses, but to build the capacity to be with them—without fear, without judgment.
Through practices like titration—working with just small, manageable pieces of stress at a time—we help your system stay supported and avoid overwhelm. This prevents retraumatization and supports lasting shifts in your nervous system. We also use pendulation, the gentle movement between moments of discomfort and moments of ease. This helps your body learn that it doesn’t have to stay stuck in a stress response.
You start to build more flexibility, more choice, and more trust in your system to move through challenge without shutting down or bracing.
Somatic Therapy FAQs
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Somatic therapy, like Somatic Experiencing (SE), focuses on the body’s responses to stress and trauma, rather than just talking about your thoughts and feelings. It helps you tune into what’s happening in your body, so you can release built-up tension and feel more grounded.
SE is the foundation of my approach, and even if you choose to include the Safe and Sound Protocol (SSP), our work together will still be guided by SE’s principles. You can choose to explore SE, SSP, or a combination of both, depending on what feels right for you.
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Yes, as long as you’re open to becoming more connected with your body.
I’ll be there as a supportive presence, guiding you through the process at a pace that feels right for you. Sometimes, it’s helpful to avoid tuning in too deeply at the start or to focus on noticing what feels comfortable or neutral. The most important thing is feeling safe, and that often means taking things slowly. We’ll use plenty of practices to support you along the way.
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Yes, absolutely! Many people find that somatic therapy complements traditional talk therapy. While talk therapy focuses on exploring thoughts, emotions, and past experiences through conversation, somatic therapy works directly with your body’s responses to stress and trauma. It’s not only about releasing stored stress, but also about supporting your nervous system in learning how to better differentiate between safety and danger—something that often gets confused due to past life experiences.
The two approaches—talk therapy and somatic therapy—can work together to support your overall healing. Talk therapy can help you process things on a mental level, while somatic therapy addresses the body’s role in holding onto stress and trauma. Together, they often lead to deeper, more lasting change.
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I currently offer virtual sessions only. Somatic therapy works just as well online because you’re in a space that feels familiar and safe. Being at home means you can settle into your favorite chair, have your pet nearby, or keep comforting items close, which can make you feel more at ease during our work together. Feeling safe and comfortable in your own space helps make the therapy more effective and allows us to really focus on your healing.
Plus, online sessions make life easier—you don’t have to take time off work, deal with traffic, or worry about finding parking. It’s therapy that fits into your routine, with less stress and more convenience.
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Individual 55 minute sessions are $180.
If you feel that somatic therapy could make a real difference but cost is a barrier, I offer a limited number of reduced-fee spots based on availability. Feel free to reach out and we can talk about what’s possible.
There are additional costs for those who choose to do Safe and Sound Protocol. Those will vary depending on whether or not clients listen outside of sessions. See the SSP page for a breakdown of those costs. -
For clients in Florida, therapy is private pay.
I am in-network with Aetna and Blue Cross Blue Shield (BCBS) for clients located in Illinois.
If you plan to use insurance in Illinois, I recommend contacting your provider directly to verify your mental health benefits.
If you're paying out of pocket, I can provide a monthly superbill you can submit for possible reimbursement.
Get help from a Fort Lauderdale, Florida Somatic Therapist
You’ve worked hard to build a life that looks solid from the outside—but inside, the pressure, the reactivity, and the physical symptoms that come with stress have started to take a toll. You’ve been holding it together for a long time, and something needs to shift.
You don’t have to keep pushing through.
Somatic therapy offers a different kind of support—one that helps you listen to what your body’s been trying to say and gives you more space to respond with clarity and choice. Together, we’ll work with what’s showing up, gently and at your pace.
You don’t have to keep bracing for the next wave. If you’re ready for support that helps you feel more like yourself again, I’d be glad to walk with you through the process.
Explore If We’re a Good Fit for Therapy
Click the button below to schedule a free 15-minute consultation.
If you don’t see a time that works—or if you have questions—you’re more than welcome fill out the form on the Contact page to let me know what times might work for you, and we’ll find a time together.
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