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Somatic Psychotherapy: Trauma-Informed Therapy for Healing
Your Jungle Guide
I am a Licensed Professional Counselor and Clinical Rehabilitation Counselor in Portland, OR, with a diverse background as a professional ballet dancer in New York City and as an instructor in dance, Pilates, and Yoga. Additionally, I am a published writer. My passion for movement and living an embodied life informs my current practice as a trauma-informed therapist, specializing in psychodynamic therapy and chronic illness counseling.
As a first-generation Italian-American, I grew up integrating my parents’ Mediterranean culture and languages (Italian and French) into an American culture that often struggled to appreciate these differences. My journey back to dance after a 9-year hiatus due to an autoimmune illness inspired my commitment to the healing arts.
I believe that each of us possesses innate wisdom that guides us toward greater freedom, connection, and well-being. Living in your body and authentically expressing who you are is essential for a fulfilled, creative, and expressive life.
My specialties include chronic illness counseling, CPTSD, depression, grief, anxiety, ADHD/ASD, life transitions, creativity & identity, career empowerment, end of life, sexuality, and spirituality. I have experience working with LGBTQIA+ and poly lifestyles.
My counseling approach is rooted in an open, curiosity-driven mindset. I respect your life experiences as they intersect with your circumstances and the sociopolitical systems that influence them. I maintain a non-punitive harm reduction perspective on addictive behaviors.
What are we integrating?
At Equipoise Integral Counseling LLC, we focus on your physical experience, including sensations from within your body, in relation to your thoughts, emotions, and spirit. I define spirit as your will to be YOU and your drive to make something of your life. It takes energy, desire, and will to exist, even if you’ve often contemplated or even attempted to end your life. This essence is what many spiritual practices refer to as the 'Soul'.
In our practice, we offer chronic illness counseling alongside evidence-based interventions such as CBT (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy), ACT (Acceptance & Commitment Therapy), and DBT (Dialectical Behavior Therapy) through a trauma-informed therapy approach. This means we prioritize understanding and addressing the impact of trauma on your neurobiology, which significantly affects your mental health.
Psychodynamic = relational therapy
We pay attention to what's happening between you and me as we explore your life, concerns, and history through a lens of psychodynamic therapy. How you relate with me reveals a lot about how you relate to others and the world, which is particularly important in chronic illness counseling. We'll use this understanding to examine how your attachment style influences your patterns of communicating and connecting. For example, you may not have been able to stand up for yourself in your family of origin. You may have had to please and appease, rage or flee, and you continue to do this with others even though you’re an adult. It is likely that you will do it with me. Together, we'll reflect on our dynamics in the 'here and now' to figure out: Is it still working for you, or would another way of responding, informed by trauma-informed therapy, work better?
About Equipoise Integral Counseling LLC
My Approach
Heart and Soul
Body and Mind
My approach is holistic, recognizing how culture, identities, lifestyle, sleep, nutrition, movement, and hormonal cycles affect wellbeing or exacerbate symptoms. Our chronic illness counseling sessions focus on identifying values & strengths, engaging creativity, investigating your coping style, building resilience, and reducing stress. This process improves quality of life and enhances the management of chronic illnesses and disabilities through psychodynamic therapy and trauma-informed therapy techniques.
(Photo: Lavinia lMagliocco, LPC, CRC, Somatic therapist in Portland, bald with a bold head tattoo.)
Body and Mind
Heart and Soul
Body and Mind
How you feel in your body affects how you are in the world. Loss, illness, trauma—before you know it, you've lost your way and the path isn't clear. Chronic illness counseling can help bridge the gaps between where you are and where you'd like to be. I am here to assist you in finding your home in yourself, your body, and in the world through psychodynamic therapy and trauma-informed therapy.
The mystic Ram Dass said, "We're all just walking each other home."
Let's walk together.
(Photo: moon bridge reflection ~ metaphor for balance & healing)
Heart and Soul
Heart and Soul
Heart and Soul
C.G. Jung wrote, "The privilege of a lifetime is to become who you truly are." To achieve this, we must confront our deepest fears and embrace our true powers. In the realm of chronic illness counseling, for instance, your treasure often lies in the places you fear the most. I invite you to explore how the ways you were not held may be where you hold yourself back, especially through psychodynamic therapy or trauma-informed therapy. Like the lotus, we too have the ability to rise from the mud, bloom out of darkness, and radiate into the world.
(photo: white lotus symbolizing resilience & transformation)