HOLISTIC THERAPIST IN PASADENA & CALIFORNIA
THERAPEUTIC TOUCH & REIKI ENERGY HEALING IN THERAPY
Gentle additions to complement psychotherapy.
Trauma is stored in the body—our muscles, tissues (fascia), and nervous system hold the memories of stress, past overwhelm, and the struggle to find safety. That’s why supporting the body physically and energetically can play a crucial role in a holistic approach to healing trauma. By providing gentle physical support to different parts of the body and utilizing energy practices like Reiki, we can help release stored tensions and patterns, allowing deeper, more lasting, and sometimes rapid healing to occur.
Therapeutic Touch for Trauma Healing
In our sessions, I may use gentle touch as a supportive tool to help with emotional healing and releasing trauma. This can include methods from Somatic Experiencing® (SE) touch work, Kathy Kain’s Touch Skills, NeuroAffective Touch® (NAT), Bioenergetics, and elements of John Barnes’ Myofascial Release. These approaches are all about helping your body complete trauma responses that never got the chance to fully unfold—such as fight, flight, or freeze. When these responses remain incomplete, they can become trapped as energy in the body, manifesting as symptoms like anxiety, depression, tension, or chronic pain. Touch can help you reconnect with your body’s natural impulses to find safety, making it easier to manage stress and discover new ways of responding. It can also help you experience nonverbal sensations of connection and support that may have been missing earlier in life and can support healing for trauma that occurred during pre-verbal developmental periods in infancy. Through this work, we focus on connecting physical sensations to emotional well-being, helping you feel more alive and present in your body.
This option becomes available once we’ve built a strong, trusting, and communicative relationship. If touch becomes part of our work together, sessions may begin with us talking briefly and evolve as needed—we might move around the room, or you may use the bodywork table, depending on the focus of our work.
I am a certified trauma-informed yoga instructor and have received training in trauma-informed touch through that certification and others. Additionally, I am continuously expanding my knowledge of these approaches through ongoing training, certification, and supervision with Leah Smith, who is certified in NeuroAffective Touch® and Somatic Experiencing® and has studied techniques from John Barnes’ myofascial release approach. My own therapist is certified in Somatic Experiencing®, Bioenergetics, and Kathy Kain’s Touch Skills, allowing me to bring a wealth of both personal and professional knowledge to my touch work with clients.
Reiki: A Gentle Addition to Therapy
Reiki is a calming energy practice that can help you feel more relaxed and centered. It’s based on the idea that energy flows through all of us, supporting our emotional and physical well-being.
As an intuitive and practitioner of Reiki and other energetic healing modalities, these practices allow me to see where you may hold physical, emotional, and energetic blockages—insights that inform the way I approach our therapy sessions. Reiki specifically involves channeling energy through light touch or simply holding my hands near your body—whatever feels right for you. I can also offer Reiki virtually.
While many people find Reiki deeply relaxing, it’s important to note that it is considered an alternative approach and is not recognized by major scientific bodies or therapeutic boards as having proven efficacy for healing. It is intended to complement—not replace—the evidence-based therapeutic interventions that I also provide. If you’re interested, I’m happy to integrate Reiki into our sessions to enhance your healing process, always with your consent. It’s a gentle way to deepen your connection to your body and support your overall sense of well-being.
Including Reiki in our work is entirely up to you, and you can opt in or out at any time. It’s just one more option for supporting your healing journey, and I’m here to answer any questions or concerns you might have.
PHYSICAL BOUNDARIES & THE IMPORTANCE OF CONSENT IN THERAPY
It is important to clarify that therapy sessions will never include any form of sexual activity or sexual touch. More broadly, therapy and trauma healing of any kind between a client/patient and a licensed professional never involves sexual activity or sexual touch. The therapeutic relationship is built on trust, respect, and professional boundaries, and any violation of this is illegal, unethical, and absolutely unacceptable. If you have ever experienced a violation of your physical boundaries or have been made to feel uncomfortable by not being able to give consent, we will take the time to process this thoroughly before introducing any kind of touch or alternative therapy modalities.
IN-PERSON THERAPY IN PASADENA | ONLINE THERAPY IN CALIFORNIA
Somatic Therapy in California • Trauma Therapy in California
Holistic Therapy in California • Psychedelic Therapy in California
TERMS | DISCLAIMER | PRIVACY POLICY | Site credits | © 2024 Clara Ure Mackinlay