Safe, healing touch
Human beings need touch.
Touch is our first language, and it’s essential for healthy development and healing. In my work, I offer a blend of traditional talk therapy and gentle, relational touch therapy, grounded in research on developmental and relational trauma.
What is touch therapy?
Touch therapy is mindful, hands-on support. This can help your nervous system unwind, your emotions soften, and your sense of safety deepen - all within a warm, affirming therapeutic space. My approach is spiritual, relational, embodied, and rooted in care.
Why touch matters
Many people don’t realize how subtly - and powerfully - early experiences shape our inner world. Research shows that a lack of safe, nurturing touch in childhood can impact emotional regulation, neurological functioning, relational connection, and overall well-being. Talk therapy helps address verbal, cognitive, and emotional layers of trauma—but some wounds are held in the body long before words were available. Touch allows us to access those preverbal, somatic layers that words often cannot reach.
Roots, training, and credibility
Relational Touch is deeply informed by the work of my teacher and mentor Shirley Dvir PhD and LMFT, founder and lead teacher of Relational Somatic Healing. This body of work includes attachment theory, EMDR, Sensorimotor Trauma Therapy, body-centered approaches (like Body Mind Centering), CranioSacral Therapy, Hakomi, plus years of teaching and clinical practice.
I work under the training and supervision of the Relational Somatic Healing teachers, and assist their trainings for therapists on using Relational Touch therapy in clinical practice.
Safety, Ethics, and What Makes This Different
This work is built on radical consent, collaboration, and clear boundaries. Some people shy away from touch in therapy because of concern about ethics and safety - but in Relational Touch, you are asked for consent, both verbally and somatically (in your body). Every aspect of touch is optional; you control pace, location, whether touch happens at all. The intent is always healing - there is no agenda or pushing beyond your comfort. I am trained and supervised to hold an awareness of privilege and power dynamics. I will always listen to you.
What to expect
Relational Touch often looks similar to CranioSacral Therapy in how it gently attends to the body, tension, and flow - but it is framed within psychotherapy. This means we explore feelings, meaning, relational history, patterns, inner life - alongside what the body has been holding.
