Healing doesn’t just happen in the mind - it happens in the body, too.
Holistic Therapy for Trauma, Anxiety & Burnout in New York City
When overthinking, people pleasing, burnout, or emotional numbness take over - your body might be asking for a different kind of nervous system holistic healing.
What is Holistic Therapy?
Holistic therapy is a whole-person approach to healing that recognizes your mind, body, emotions, and nervous system are deeply interconnected. Rather than focusing only on insight or coping strategies, this work supports real, embodied change by helping your system feel safe enough to shift patterns at their root.
We blend traditional talk therapy with body-based, trauma-informed, and mindfulness-based practices, so you’re not just understanding your patterns intellectually - you’re learning how to integrate the insight in your body and make changes in your relationships outside of the therapy room.
At the core of my work, we don’t just ask what is happening - we explore why these patterns developed, what they’ve protected you from, and what your system needs now to move forward with more ease, self-trust, and intention.
In our work together, I weave in:
Somatic therapy exercises - We gently tune into your body’s sensations, signals, and cues to understand how emotions and past experiences are stored - helping you build awareness, regulation, and a felt sense of safety rather than staying stuck in your head. Somatic therapy 101 here.
Mindfulness, acceptance, & self-compassion practices - You’ll learn how to relate to your thoughts and emotions with less judgment and more curiosity, so difficult feelings don’t automatically hijack you - and you can respond instead of react. I also offer tangible ways to give yourself more self-compassion.
EMDR therapy - We use EMDR to help reprocess unresolved trauma and stuck emotional patterns, so past experiences lose their emotional charge and stop showing up as anxiety, people-pleasing, hypervigilance, or self-doubt in the present.
Nervous system regulation & polyvagal theory - You’ll learn how your nervous system responds to stress (fight, flight, freeze, or fawn) and how to gently shift out of survival mode - creating more calm, clarity, and emotional steadiness in daily life and relationships.
Inner child and IFS parts work - We explore the younger or protective parts of you that learned to adapt, over-function, or stay guarded - helping you heal old wounds without shame and develop a more compassionate relationship with yourself.
Holistic self care - We look at the full picture of your life - including sleep, movement, boundaries, relationships, nourishment, and environment - because healing doesn’t happen in isolation from how you actually live. And yes, I will ask about hormone/gut health (and recommend work with doctors if necessary)
Reflective journaling & integration - You may receive personalized prompts to help you process sessions, deepen insight, and integrate what we’re working on into your real-world experiences between sessions IF you want.
Basically, you won’t be rushed, pathologized, or expected to "push through." We’ll go at your pace and prioritize safety and trust - starting with the relationship you have with yourself.
Holistic and somatic therapy can help you:
Feel less stuck, frozen, or emotionally numb
Understand and regulate your nervous system responses (like fight, flight, freeze, or fawn)
Quiet the inner critic and soften perfectionism and self-expectations
Reconnect with your body and actually feel your emotions - safely
Heal the root causes of anxiety, trauma, burnout, people-pleasing patterns, and functional freeze
Build a more compassionate, secure relationship with yourself
Learn mindfulness and somatic tools that support real, lasting change
Let go of intellectualizing and analyzing your feelings and finally fully processing them
Is this fit right for you?
Holistic Therapy is right for you if…
You feel stuck in overthinking, over-functioning, or emotional numbness
You’ve tried talk therapy but still feel disconnected or frozen
You struggle with chronic anxiety and overwhelm, people pleasing, burnout, depression, codependency, or perfectionism
You have a history of trauma, attachment wounds, or people-pleasing patterns
You want to feel more at home in your body and in your life
You find yourself to be over-analyzing, intellectualizing, or avoiding your emotions and want to truly feel them
You have really big feelings and find yourself to “crash out” frequently and want to learn whats behind that and how to regulate them
Hi, I’m Alyssa - a holistic therapist offering nervous system-informed care.
I help insightful adults who are fine on the outside, but overwhelmed on the inside who feel stuck in survival mode - whether that’s anxiety, trauma, people-pleasing, burn out, perfectionism, or emotional numbness.
As a licensed therapist serving adults in New York, Washington DC, New Jersey, and Maryland, I specialize in a holistic, somatic approach to therapy that blends nervous system regulation, mindfulness, EMDR, and self-compassion work.
I believe healing happens not just through insight, but through safety, connection, and learning how to feel at home in your body again. In our work together, we’ll move gently - at your pace - to help you reconnect with yourself, release old patterns, and feel more grounded, whole, and empowered.
In work together, we will focus on…
Nervous System Regulation
Understanding your fight/flight/freeze/fawn responses and learning how to regulate your system so you can feel more grounded, less reactive, and emotionally safe.
Mind-Body Reconnection
Learning how to notice, listen to, and care for your body’s signals - so you don’t just intellectualize healing, you actually experience it.
Mindfulness & Self-Compassion Tools
We’ll bring in gentle, evidence-based practices like mindful self-awareness, guided grounding skills, and mindful self-compassion to help you soften the inner critic, stay present with difficult emotions, and begin responding to yourself with more kindness. These tools support nervous system regulation and help you build a more grounded, trusting relationship with yourself - one that isn’t rooted in shame, urgency, or perfectionism.
Holistic Therapy with me is…
Rooted in the nervous system, not just surface-level coping skills
Personalized to your needs, pace, and lived experience
A space to feel seen, not judged or rushed
A deeper path to healing for those who’ve outgrown quick fixes
Holistic Therapy with me is not…
Just talk therapy - we bring the body into the process
One-size-fits-all approach
A place for toxic positivity or pressure to “move on”
About managing symptoms without understanding the root
At the end of the day, I want you to know:
You’re not broken. The ways you’ve coped - shutting down, pushing through, people-pleasing, disconnecting - were all adaptive. Holistic therapy helps you understand why those patterns developed and how to start feeling safe enough to choose something different.
Questions?
FAQs: Holistic & Somatic Therapy
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Traditional talk therapy focuses on thoughts and behaviors. Holistic therapy integrates the body, nervous system, and emotions - helping you process trauma and stress in a deeper, more sustainable way. I often ask about your self care like movement, sleep, nutrition, hormone health, and who you surround yourself with as well.
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Absolutely. Chronic anxiety, functional freeze, and burnout are often signs of nervous system dysregulation. A holistic approach can help your system feel safe enough to soften and recalibrate.
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Not at all. I’ll guide you through it gently, step by step. You don’t need any experience - just curiosity and openness.
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The word somatic comes from the Greek word soma, meaning body.
In therapy, it refers to approaches that help you tune into your body’s signals, regulate your nervous system, and process emotions through body-based awareness - not just talk.
It’s especially helpful for trauma, anxiety, and chronic stress.
I have a whole blog if you’d like to understand some somatic approaches that get used in therapy!
Let’s connect!