Trauma Work and EMDR
Trauma work is SOMA’s clinical heart. Our trauma-focused care draws on the most well-researched modalities in the field, with Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) at the center. EMDR-certified clinicians use the full eight-phase protocol, beginning with thorough preparation and nervous system stabilization before any memory work begins. Care addresses single-incident trauma, complex developmental trauma, and chronic relational harm, with the body and the nervous system held as central to every phase of recovery.
Core Focus Areas
EMDR therapy (full eight-phase protocol)
Complex trauma and PTSD treatment
Trauma-informed care across the entire therapeutic relationship
Nervous system stabilization and resourcing
Emotional integration and memory processing
Recovery from single-incident, developmental, and chronic relational trauma
Nervous System Regulation
Nervous system regulation is the through-line of all trauma recovery. This pillar translates the science of polyvagal theory, heart rate variability, and autonomic regulation into accessible clinical practice. Clients learn to recognize and shift their own nervous system states, building the capacity to move out of chronic dysregulation and into resilience. Where the somatic and mind-body pillars address the body's wisdom and offer practices, this pillar focuses on understanding and tracking the autonomic nervous system itself.
Core Focus Areas
Polyvagal-informed clinical care
Heart rate variability awareness and self-monitoring
Autonomic state tracking and shifting
Co-regulation within the therapeutic relationship
Psychoeducation on the nervous system and trauma physiology
Building long-term resilience and adaptive capacity
Somatic Therapy and Embodiment
Somatic therapy reaches the parts of trauma that talk therapy alone cannot. Our somatic work draws on the principle that the body holds and metabolizes what the mind cannot always articulate. Through breath, awareness, gentle movement, and felt-sense work, clients learn to track and regulate their own nervous system experience. This pillar is informed by the work of Peter Levine on Somatic Experiencing, Eugene Gendlin on Focusing and the felt-sense, and Stephen Porges on polyvagal theory. It is delivered virtually through guided practices, body awareness work, and nervous system tracking, and is integrated with EMDR and trauma-focused care.
Core Focus Areas
Body-based and somatically integrated therapy
Felt-sense and focusing practices
Polyvagal-informed nervous system work
Embodiment, grounding, and orientation practices
Trauma release through nervous system awareness and tracking
Restoration of a felt sense of safety, choice, and aliveness
Mind-Body Practices and Breathwork
Mind-body practices give clients tools they can carry between sessions and into the rest of their lives. Grounded in Dr. Aday's E-RYT 500 yoga and meditation training, this pillar integrates evidence-based contemplative and somatic practices into clinical care. Breath becomes a tool for nervous system regulation, movement becomes a path to embodiment, and stillness becomes a doorway to integration. These practices are also offered periodically as guided meditation and breathwork groups.
Core Focus Areas
Conscious breathwork for autonomic regulation
Yoga nidra and guided relaxation practices
Somatic movement and gentle mindful movement
Mindfulness meditation tailored to trauma recovery
Body awareness and grounding techniques
Integration of contemplative practice with clinical care
Relational Restoration
Trauma rarely happens in isolation, and it rarely heals there either. Much of what we carry was shaped in relationship, through attachment ruptures, developmental neglect, betrayal, and relational harm, and the nervous system learns its expectations of others from those experiences. Relational restoration is the work of rebuilding the capacity for safe connection: repairing attachment patterns, learning co-regulation, and experiencing the therapeutic relationship itself as a corrective, trustworthy bond. This pillar also holds parts-based work through Internal Family Systems, helping clients meet and integrate the protective parts of themselves that relationships once required.
Core Focus Areas
Attachment-informed care for relational and developmental trauma
Co-regulation and the therapeutic relationship as a healing agent
Internal Family Systems (IFS) and parts work
Repair of trust, boundaries, and safe connection
Recovery from betrayal, neglect, and relational rupture
Rebuilding the capacity for secure, reciprocal relationships
Emotional Sovereignty and Decentering
This pillar represents the integration of Dr. Aday’s original theoretical contributions to the field. Emotional Colonization is her framework for understanding systematic psychological subjugation in narcissistic abuse, coercive control, and institutional harm. Decentering and Emotional Sovereignty is the recovery path: a neuroscience-informed approach that moves beyond traditional boundary-setting into the deeper work of reclaiming psychological autonomy and the center of one’s own emotional life.
Core Focus Areas
Narcissistic abuse and coercive control recovery
Emotional Colonization framework (theoretical and clinical applications)
Decentering practices and Emotional Sovereignty work
Reclamation of identity, choice, and inner authority
Recovery from religious, institutional, and relational coercion
Restoration of psychological autonomy and self-trust
Integrative Mental Health
Integrative mental health is SOMA's foundational philosophy: care that engages the whole person, not just the verbal mind. Traditional talk therapy remains a powerful tool, but human suffering does not live in one channel, and healing cannot either. Our integrative approach combines verbal processing with Internal Family Systems, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, mindfulness, expressive practices, somatic awareness, and neuro-informed interventions. It is less a separate service than the orientation that runs through all of SOMA's clinical work.
Core Focus Areas
Whole-person assessment and treatment planning
Internal Family Systems (IFS) and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) integrated with trauma-focused care
Neuro-informed therapy approaches grounded in current trauma and attachment science
Mindfulness-based interventions for anxiety, depression, and emotional regulation
Expressive and creative modalities for clients whose stories reach beyond words
Integration of evidence-based and integrative practices
Post-Traumatic Growth
Healing is not only the absence of symptoms. For many people, moving through trauma can open into something more: a changed relationship with themselves, clearer values, deeper relationships, and a renewed sense of meaning and possibility. Post-traumatic growth names this arc. It is not about minimizing what happened or rushing toward a silver lining. It is the integration phase of recovery, where the work of stabilization, processing, and reconnection settles into a more grounded, more authored life. SOMA holds this as the horizon of care: not just relief, but growth.
Core Focus Areas
Meaning-making and integration after trauma processing
Reconnection with values, identity, and purpose
Strengthening of relationships and self-trust
Building resilience and adaptive capacity for the future
Honoring change without minimizing what was endured
Consolidating gains into a sustainable, authored life
Integration
How the Pillars Intersect
The 8 Pillars are not delivered as a checklist or a fixed sequence. Each client's care plan draws from the pillars in the proportion and order that fits their nervous system, their history, and their goals.
Trauma work informs nervous system regulation. Somatic practices support EMDR processing. Nervous system regulation makes relational connection feel safe, and relational restoration deepens the capacity to stay regulated with others. Emotional sovereignty work builds on every pillar before it, and post-traumatic growth is where the whole arc integrates. The pillars are interdependent, and the integration is the medicine.
This is what distinguishes integrative care from eclectic care. Eclectic care borrows techniques. Integrative care coordinates dimensions of healing into a coherent whole. The 8 Pillars framework is built to do exactly that.
Your Personalized Pathway
Care that evolves with you.
Care at SOMA begins with a comprehensive intake that assesses your history, presenting concerns, nervous system patterns, and goals. From there, your clinician designs a personalized treatment plan that integrates the pillars most relevant to your healing. As you progress, the plan evolves with you.
No two clients receive the same plan, and no plan stays static. The pillars are a framework for clinical thinking, not a menu of fixed packages.