Gabriela Gomez, Somatic Experiencing Practitioner, Counselor, Master's Educational Psychology

Gabriela Gomez, Somatic Counselor Hola, I'm Gabriela, a community facilitator and counselor in online private practice based in Tiohtià:ke Montreal. In my therapeutic approach, I combine narrative counseling techniques with somatic exploration to meet your whole system with care and curiosity. I completed my master’s in Educational Psychology from McGill University and am a registered Somatic Experiencing Practitioner. Wherever you may be in your journey, I offer support with goal-setting, cultivating self-compassion, building resiliency to meet grief, exploring and remedying the impacts of trauma in the body and spirit, encountering challenging patterns and expressing authentic desires. My work is grounded in harm reduction and anti-oppression and informed by animist principles of relating (in which all beings are alive and available for connection and support). I am here to meet you with compassion and non-judgment, to hold space for what is challenging and support you in accessing your inner resources. I have particular expertise in the immigrant experience, intergenerational and developmental trauma, gender identity development and diverse sexuality. My career has taken place largely on the ground in community settings that center youth, emerging adults, and the lived experiences of LGBTQ+ and BIPOC communities. Centering my work around those most impacted by systemic oppression, my approach always strives to support the healing and support the wisdom and brilliance that lives in the bodies and hearts of all those who’ve experienced the world this way. I am consistently amazed and inspired by the wisdom and intelligence of the body and nervous system, and deeply honored to guide my clients in becoming more aware of their innate capacities and gifts through the process of somatic counseling. When I’m not supporting clients or working on community projects, I love to indulge my creativity - writing, painting, singing and playing my guitar and dancing. To learn more, check out gabrielagomez.ca.

WHAT IS SOMATIC EXPERIENCING? Somatic Experiencing is a body-oriented approach to healing trauma. The Somatic Experiencing approach works to support the completion of self-protective responses (such as fightflightfreeze) that were interrupted at traumatic moments and may continue to live as stuck energy bound in the body. In using this approach, I can guide you to become aware of your bodily sensations, increase tolerance for difficult sensations and connect to enjoyable sensations associated with emotional, material or spiritual resources. This approach is both gentle and deep, and encourages you to practice bodily awareness both in and outside of sessions with the goal of providing relief from trauma symptoms and renegotiating the ways that trauma lives in the physical body. If you are interested in practicing this approach, I will provide you with a demonstration to introduce you to the practice and teach you how to track and recognize the various sensations and felt sense experiences in your body and nervous system. Together, we can access the wisdom that lives there and move towards growth, change, curiosity and healing.