Approach
Experiential therapy
Reporting on your week and having an experience in the room are two different activities. This work spends most of its time on the second one.
You might recognize
Some of this may sound familiar
- You give a good account of your week and leave oddly unchanged.
- You can describe the feeling but rarely have it with anyone watching.
- Your insight is excellent and your patterns are unimpressed by it.
- You would rather work on something than talk about it from a distance.
In the work
What we actually do
Following what is live
When something moves while we are talking — a flush of anger, a change in your voice, a sudden urge to switch topics — we stop there. That moment is worth more than a careful account of last Tuesday. It is also the part many of us are trained to step over.
Interrupting the narration
I will sometimes cut in, kindly, and ask what just happened in you or between us. The first few times that can feel abrupt. The abruptness is the point: it catches the thing while it is still moving.
Letting something finish
Feelings that get half-managed tend to stay on the books. We give them room to move and to land, at a speed your system can take. Nothing here asks you to perform an emotion you are not having. Therapy outcomes are not guaranteed.
“Trauma-informed pacing isn't caution for its own sake.”
FAQ
Questions people ask
Does this mean role-play or exercises?
Not as a fixed routine. Sometimes we will try something: saying a sentence out loud, staying with an image, noticing what happens when you look away. You can decline any of it and there will still be plenty to work with.
What if I do not get emotional easily?
Then we do not chase it. Holding back is usually a skill you needed at some point, and it gets respect here rather than pressure. A great deal can happen in an hour with no tears in it.
Can I see you if I have moved out of state?
Not for therapy. Weekly therapy takes place via telehealth. I am licensed in New York and can only offer psychotherapy services to people who reside in New York State. The requirement is about where you are sitting at the time of the session, not only where your mail goes.
Is this the same thing as somatic therapy?
They overlap and I use them together. Somatic work leads with sensation. Experiential work leads with whatever is happening right now, which is as often relational as it is physical.
How would I start?
Start with the free consultation: 15 to 20 minutes, video or phone, nothing owed either way. Booking runs through Carepatron, and you can also write to melanie@embodiedwithmelanie.com.
Start with a free consultation
A short conversation to see whether we would be a good fit for working together. Weekly therapy takes place via telehealth. I am licensed in New York and can only offer psychotherapy services to people who reside in New York State.