Hello, I'm Emily.

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I’m a Somatic Experiencing® Practitioner (SEP), trauma-informed yoga teacher, educator, and author of Somatic Healing: Soothe Your Nervous System with Body-First Therapy (DK, 2026).

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For nearly two decades, my work has explored a question that continues to fascinate me: How can we use the body as an ally in healing?

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I work with clients and students to understand the language of their nervous systems, resolve patterns of trauma and chronic stress, reconnect with sensation and emotion, and develop a greater capacity for presence, connection, and aliveness.

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I also share this work through my YouTube channel, Somatic Skills with Emily, where I teach practical, accessible tools for nervous system regulation and somatic healing.

 

Why somatic healing?

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I have a deep love for body-based practices like Somatic Experiencing® and yoga because they create a bridge between modern neuroscience and ancient wisdom. They recognize that mind and body are not separate, and that healing rarely unfolds in a straight line.

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My work treats the body as a source of information, rather than something to overcome or control. Sensations, movements, emotions, impulses, and even protective responses all contain information. When we learn how to listen, the body can become an incredible resource for healing.

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My approach is empowerment-based, relational, and trauma-informed. I create spaces where people have choice and agency over their own experience and enough safety to explore, experiment, and get curious.

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I would describe my therapeutic and teaching style as playful, sensitive, creative, and real.

 

My book

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I'm the author of Somatic Healing: Soothe Your Nervous System with Body-First Therapy, published by DK. It's 100% human-written and human-illustrated (no AI). You can read more about it here.

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My background and training

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I am a Somatic Experiencing® Practitioner through Somatic Experiencing International and serve on the SEI Teaching Assistant team. My additional training includes Trauma-Informed Expressive Arts Therapy, Dynamic Attachment Repatterning experience (DARe) with Dr. Diane Poole Heller, healing sexual trauma with Ariel Giarretto, and touch and early trauma work with Dr. Kathy Kain and Steve Terrell. My yoga background includes thousands of hours of teaching and training.

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I have designed and facilitated trainings in Embodiment, Regulation, and Resiliency for first responders, mental health professionals, healthcare workers, and yoga teachers.

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In 2013, I co-founded Firefly Yoga International, one of the first nonprofits in the United States to use trauma-informed yoga as a public health intervention. Through Firefly, we delivered trauma-informed yoga programs and professional trainings across the country.

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Before entering the somatic healing field, I received my Master of Public Health from Boston University School of Public Health. My work included public health programming in humanitarian disasters in the United States and internationally, as well as several years directing programs at a wilderness adventure and survival skills camp for children experiencing homelessness.

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A little more about me

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For the first 18 years of my life, my family lived off-grid and close to the land. That upbringing shaped a lifelong relationship with the natural world and continues to influence how I understand embodiment, creativity, and healing.

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The rugged mountains of Lake Tahoe were my home for more than a decade before I relocated to the Finger Lakes region of New York in 2023.

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Outside of my professional work, I am an artist and lifelong maker. I love exploring the places where somatics, movement, nature, visual art, and creative expression meet, and finding new ways to make the often-invisible experience of being in a body something we can see, feel, play with, and understand.​