My specialties include:

• Healing chronic/persistent pain, especially mystery pain (not just managing)
  
• Nervous system regulation and integration: building capacity to relax, calm, and ground, and better be able to handle stress
  
• Pain/Symptom Reprocessing Therapy: combining pain science, nervous system education and brain retraining
  
• Neck, back, jaw, spine and shoulder issues
  
• Injury, accident, trauma, and surgery recovery (release protective holding to help restore full, pain-free range of motion)

All genders, stripes, colors, bodies, identities, orientations and backgrounds are welcome here.

Recovering people pleasers, perfectionists, A-types, c'mon down. I love working with high/over-functioning, highly sensitive or sensitized people to connect with and befriend their bodies. Research shows that people who tend to be more self-critical, put a lot of pressure on themselves, or tend towards hypervigilance to be more likely to develop persistent/mystery pain and symptoms. I know a lot about that from my personal journey (more below).

Hi, I'm Alex (aka Alexa, she/her)

My own healing journey with chronic pain, tension, anxiety, and heightened sensitivity first brought me to mind-bodywork over 15 years aog, and I've been doing personal growth work, mentorship, coaching, conscious movement, and bodywork since.

I've come through 30+ years of sometimes debilitating pain and symptoms, ranging from migraines/headaches that started in middle and high school, plantar fasciitis, Irritable Bowel Syndrom, back spasms, neck pain, hip pain, shoulder pain, carpal tunnel/wrist pain, foot pain/neuralgia, leg pain that prevented me from walking/hiking/dancing/yoga (all my favorite ways of exercising), TMJ and night clenching, tinnitus, crazy sensitive teeth, as well as anxiety and depression.

I no longer struggle with any of these.

I understand what it's like to feel debilitated, hopeless, broken, excruciatingly uncomfortable and in pain. I also understand that healing is multi-fasceted. I am not here to fix or save anyone, but I hope my experience can serve and guide along the path. Check out my Free Resources page and Blog articles to learn more.

I tried everything I could. I kept looking for answers, I stayed curious and open, and I learned a lot. It wasn't until I found my way to the nervous system, to current pain neurscience, and Pain Reprocessing Therapy, that the dots finally started to connect and I started to see big shifts.

I realized I wasn't broken, my nervous system was just stuck in an "on" position. An "on" nervous system, which can stem from mental/emotional "on" patterns such as perfectionism, anxiety, and hypervigilance, has all sorts of "on" physical effects, such as increased muscle tension and heart rate, and decreased digestive function, circulation to limbs, and shallower breath—and increased pain sensitivity (sometimes increased everything sensitivity, as in my experience - smells, sounds, etc).

Plus, because pain is inherently scary (it hurts, it can be debilitating, it can signal something is wrong, or that we did something wrong), we can get stuck in an anxiety-pain loop. See the "Start Here" section of my Resources page to learn more, or read on below.

I discovered craniosacral therapy largely out of my own need and deep cravings for gentleness, quitetude and nervous system healing, though I didn't know how to define that at the time. It was the only thing that didn't feel like it was stirring more things up. It actually helped me deeply relax and unwind in ways I didn't know I could.

I'd been a deep-tissue massage junkie for years, but I'd often feel just as bad or worse after. It hurt "so good" and felt so important, but I realized I could feel my body tightening up and guarding to protect itself from the intensity of the pressure. Turns out, we don't unwind intensity with intensity. You don't give a freaked out cat a deep tissue massage to help it relax, you sit with it, you offer touch gently, so that it feels safe enough to relax on its own.

I started my current bodywork practice in 2019, resourced from 15+ years of trainings, personal and professional work. I am a Certified Massage Therapist, CACMT #81617, focusing the core of my studies in Craniosacral Therapy and nervous system-informed techniques. I'm also a Certified Holistic Heath Counselor, trained in Pain Reprocessing Therapy and Anusara Yoga. I have a long history practicing meditation/mindfulness, ritual, consciousness and parts work, embodiment practices, and nervous system regulation. View my educational and training background here.