Somatic Trauma Therapy for individuals in California
Helping high-functioning adults heal trauma, reconnect with their bodies, and build more authentic relationships.
Is somatic trauma therapy right for me?
Many of the people I work with are thoughtful, self-aware adults who have done a lot of personal growth already. They may be high achievers, healers, or deeply feeling people who carry trauma histories that still shape how they relate to themselves and others.
They might look like they have it together on the outside, but internally they feel overwhelmed, disconnected, or stuck in patterns they can’t quite shift.
Individual therapy may be a good fit if you:
feel stuck in patterns of anxiety, perfectionism, or burnout
struggle with boundaries or people-pleasing
carry unresolved childhood trauma or attachment wounds
feel disconnected from your body or emotions
want deeper healing than talk therapy alone
Somatic Therapies I use to treat trauma:
My work is grounded in the body, which means we pay attention not only to thoughts and stories, but also to the language of the nervous system: sensations, images, behaviors, affect, and meaning (SIBAM). In practice, this often looks like less talking and more noticing, feeling, and staying present with what is arising, with a lot of curiosity guiding the process.
Trauma is not just something we remember. It is something the body continues to hold until it has enough safety and space to release it. When we work somatically, we create the conditions for the nervous system to gently unwind survival patterns and move toward regulation, choice, and deeper connection.
Each session is tailored to the pace and capacity of your nervous system and may include a blend of:
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Somatic Experiencing focuses on how trauma lives in the body and nervous system rather than only in memories or thoughts. By gently tracking sensations and survival responses, we help the nervous system release stuck activation (essentially extinguishing triggers) and restore a sense of safety and regulation.
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EMDR helps the brain reprocess traumatic memories that remain stuck in the nervous system. As memories integrate, the emotional charge softens and the past begins to feel like something that happened rather than something still happening. We’re not changing memories, we’re changing the way we feel and react to our memories.
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Parts work helps us understand the different “parts” of you that formed to protect, manage, or survive difficult experiences. Instead of fighting those parts, we build curiosity and compassion so they can relax their roles and integrate into a more cohesive sense of self.
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These practices help you recognize when your nervous system is moving into fight, flight, freeze, or shutdown. Together we develop simple, body-based tools that help your system return to steadiness, presence, and choice.
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Many of our patterns in relationships are shaped by early attachment experiences. Therapy helps bring awareness to these dynamics so you can build relationships that feel safer, more authentic, and more secure.
Trauma-Related Issues I Specialize In
I’m not a generalist therapist who treats everything and everyone. I work with what I know. The areas I specialize in are informed not only by extensive professional training, but by my own lived experience of healing through those issues. When you’re navigating the complexities of trauma and transformation, you deserve to sit with someone who understands that terrain from the inside.
complex trauma
If you feel constantly on edge, stuck in survival mode, or shaped by a past that still lives in your body, therapy helps unwind those patterns so safety and choice become possible again.
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sexual abuse + CSA
If shame, disconnection, or loss of control still linger after sexual trauma, therapy focuses on restoring safety, agency, and trust in your body.
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psychedelic experiences
If a psychedelic experience left you with powerful insights, confusion, or unresolved material, therapy helps integrate what surfaced so it becomes real, grounded change.
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attachment wounds and relationship patterns
If you keep repeating the same painful relationship dynamics, therapy helps uncover the attachment patterns driving them so connection can begin to feel safer and more secure.
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high achiever burnout and perfectionism
If you look successful on the outside but feel exhausted, anxious, or never “enough,” therapy helps loosen the grip of perfectionism and reconnect you with a life that actually feels good to live.
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identity and purpose for healers and helpers
If you are always the one holding space for others but feel lost or depleted yourself, therapy gives you a place to step out of that role and reconnect with who you are and what you want.
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Ways to Work Together
In Person Sessions
50 and 75 minutes
in Long Beach, CA
Virtual Sessions
50 and 75 minutes
for California Residents
Therapy Intensives
Half-Day or Full-Day
Virtually or in Long Beach
Meet your trauma therapist,
Clara Mackinlay
I’m a somatic trauma therapist who knows healing from both sides of the couch. My own trauma healing journey has been holistic, weaving together Western somatic therapy, psychedelic medicine, Eastern practices, nature and nutrition, solo work, and deep relational work. Because of this, my approach to therapy is integrative and whole-person focused.
Therapy with me is collaborative, honest, and deeply relational. My style is warm, direct, and grounded, and I show up authentically so you can too. I cuss a lot, sometimes I’m in sweatpants, and I’m always barefoot. I believe therapy is important work, but it doesn’t have to be super serious.
Before becoming a therapist, I built and led businesses across multiple industries in New York City and Los Angeles. My background includes nonprofit leadership, high-level business coaching, hospitality and event production, professional organizing, and digital design. I also spent six years working as the Business Operations Manager for trauma therapist Dr. Nadine Macaluso, widely known for her public story as the former spouse of Jordan Belfort (The Wolf of Wall Street).
As the daughter of two immigrant parents from Argentina, I speak Spanish fluently and am proud to be descended from South American Indigenous lineage. When I’m not working, you can usually find me sitting ceremony, traveling to Peru, Mexico, or Costa Rica, cooking, or dancing to the Grateful Dead, or spending time with my long-time partner and our two cats.