Decolonizing Somatic Therapy
Hello, my name is Nima Saalabi (they/them).
I am a QTBIPOC somatic therapist practicing on the unceded Miwok & Pomo in Sebastopol, CA
My practice centers decolonizing, sex-positive, & somatic approach to healing with Queer, Trans, Ethically Non-Monogamous, Polyamorous, Kinky, BIPOC folx.
Certifications: Buddhist Psychology (2011), Somatic Resourcing (2013) Somatic Experiencing Intermediate (2023)
Education: M.A. Somatic Counseling Psychology from California Institute of Integral Studies (2014), Licensed MFT (2018)
What Cultural Somatic Therapy Can Help You With
Find Home in Yourself & Re-Author Your Story
Get to know yourself from “the ground up”- through direct, visceral, awareness of bodily experience, connect with your your real truths, values, feelings, sensations, needs, boundaries, desires, impulses, & instincts
Find your ground, base, power, center, & core to better withstand emotional and relational storms
Mobilize & express your energy, move into healthy action & out of states of feeling frozen, terrified, immobilized
Interrupt cycles of overthinking, rumination, & future tripping, ground your mind into your bodily experience so you can have greater mental and physical ease in comfort
Build Supportive Relationships & Healthy Boundaries
Healthy boundaries, finding & setting your “yes” and “no”
Both/and relationships: both people are allowed to have needs!
Communicating your truths more clearly and effectively
Cultural context: how do your cultural contexts inform the ways you connect, disconnect, say yes or no, express yourself.
Navigate Issues of Identity, Race, Culture, Ancestry, Immigration
Code-switching, stereotype threat, imposter syndrome
Perfectionism, high performers, & cultural pressures to succeed
People-pleasing, caregiving, &/or putting yourself last, how to balance your relationship with yourself and your relationship with others in collectivistic and/or individualistic cultural contexts
Navigating BIPOC identity in cross-cultural & intergenerational contexts
Navigating pressures to adjust-adapt to whiteness & white spaces & structures
Immigration, Emigration, & Diaspora experiences across multiple generations
Dismantle internalized oppression & patterns of internalized blame, abuse, self-doubt, self-gaslighting, second-guessing yourself
Tapping into cultural & ancestral healing & wisdom practices to build deep & grounded sources of resiliency, resource, & connection
Develop a Kinder Relationship to Yourself
Unpacking shame-based patterns of self-criticism, self-denial, & self-neglect,
Building a kinder internal voice
Relating to yourself with more love, compassion, & understanding
Reframing & exploring issues of despair, meaningless, grief, loss, & emptiness as reflective of existential questions in life that are calling your attention
Trusting your feelings, sensations, impulses, & instincts
Explore tensions between competing responsibilities, needs, values
Build acceptance of all aspects of yourself, give voice to all your parts
Navigating burnout & stress
Heal From Childhood & Adult Trauma
Intersectional oppression at locations of race, class, culture, ethnicity, gender, religion, ancestry, body size, & sexual orientation.
Adult intimate partner violence
Accidents, injuries, medical trauma
Police, state, or political oppression, incarceration, & persecution
Collective cultural-historical traumas of marginalization & oppression
Use tools to manage stress, anxiety, fear, panic, worry, & emotions
Understand trauma survival responses of fight, flight, freeze, feign, & fawn
Build creative resources to more flexibly respond to trauma triggers
Build a Life Aligned With Your Values
Constructing life & community deeply aligned with your needs & values
Take action in the face of self-doubt, stress, anxiety, second-guessing
Therapy is About Relationship
I believe therapy is ultimately about co-creating a safe, culturally responsive, compassionate, & trusting therapeutic relationship
You deserve therapy in which you are seen, heard, validated, & supported for who you are in all your social, spiritual, cultural contexts
You deserve to build an abiding sense of home in your feelings, body, mind, heart, ancestry, & community
I will support you to build new ways of being in the world with authenticity, solidarity, love, freedom, & self-determination
I look forward to hearing from you
“It is the ability to make meaning of our difficulties, pain, suffering, and trauma which allows us to transform it into healing”
— Eduardo Duran
What Brings Folks to Therapy
Life holds many challenges. At times our lives fill with heartache, longing, fear, and grief. Childhood wounds reopen, requiring tenderness and care. Our cultures and communities can fragment under the weight of trauma & oppression. Our bodies may feel foreign, chaotic, scary, or overwhelming.
We may feel unsure of our worth, ourselves, or our place in the world, longing for a sense of home, purpose, and belonging. Perhaps we face childhood adversity and traumas of emotionally immature parenting, neglect, criticism, invalidation, abandonment, chaos, violence, or abuse.
We may feel unseen & alone, stuck in painful patterns, struggling with fear, anxiety, shame, stress, trauma, isolation, overwhelm, & self-doubt.
Whatever brings you to therapy. You are not alone. Healing is possible. Liberation is possible. You deserve a life with creativity, aliveness, meaning, & connection.
Every step you take on the road to healing is worthwhile.
By building a healthier relationship with yourself you interrupt trauma-based patterns of invalidation, abuse, oppression, & injustice, extending a bridge of wellness towards our collective futures, that generations to come may inherit a healthier more just society.
Decolonized Somatic Therapy is Embodied, Cultural, and Relational
My practice is Decolonized Somatic Therapy for cultural healing and embodied decolonization. Therapy that invisibly centers dominant modes of oppression has resulted in much harm to many, but particularly to BIPOC, Immigrant, & 2SLGBTQIA+ folks. Decolonized Somatic Therapy aims instead to support you in connecting to YOUR truth in YOUR socio-cultural-historical context in a safe, culturally responsive, transparent, and supportive therapeutic relationship.
Decolonized Somatic Therapy means I as your therapist commit to my own cultural healing and education.
I am thus an active participant in multiple supportive BIPOC groups that center decolonization as a core value.
I regularly attend BIPOC group therapy, BIPOC culturally responsive clinical consultation, & BIPOC traditional healing groups. This grounds me in traditional and contemporary BIPOC models of health, relationship, wisdom, and wellness.
Our histories, stories, & ancestral lineages inform our ways of breathing, sensing, feeling, acting, moving, & connecting. Cultural, developmental, historical, & intergenerational legacies of trauma, colonization, & oppression shape our hearts, minds, bodies, & relationships.
In response we constrict our body, cut off our emotional aliveness, believe false stories of our lack of personal or cultural worth, & disconnect from our worth.
These patterns of feeling, sensing, acting, relating, thinking, & embodying help us survive trauma. But over time they become habits. As we mature, parts of ourselves adjust to the shifting demands of life. However, other “trauma-holding” parts of ourselves get left behind, frozen in time, stuck in habitual trauma patterns that continues to send us signals of danger and tell us stories of our lack of worth.
At one time, these patterns helped us survive unimaginable trauma that overwhelmed our capacity to cope. However, over time, they become highly limiting, and no longer fully serve us.
Therapy is an invitation to explore, unravel, and shift what no longer fully serves, and develop creative, flexible, culturally and personally affirming ways of being in the world that helps us more fully embodying ourselves, our values, histories, cultures, and legacies.
Through connecting with feeling, breath, movement, sensation, posture, gesture, connection, & expression within a culturally affirming therapeutic relationship, you can develop a deep well of internal and relational resource. Therapy is a re-envisioning of cultural forms of embodiment towards radical aliveness, rootedness, vitality, creativity, meaning, connection, solidarity, & liberation.
The wounds in our society are collective, systemic, cultural, social, and intergenerational. The traumas of systemic oppression are pervasive and ever-present. So too then must be our healing modalities. I strive to work collaboratively to help you connect with broader social supports, access traditional healing, build beloved community, find your people, and walk the path of trauma recovery and embodied decolonization.
Reasons for Hope
Although we have legacies of colonization & trauma in our bodies & communities, we are not doomed to re-enact them.
Every moment we draw breath is a chance to interrupt multigenerational cycles of trauma, shame, anxiety, fear, isolation, powerlessness, addiction, violence, suffering, & oppression.
Just as trauma can be communal & intergenerational, so too can healing. Each person’s liberation is tied to each other’s.
Your liberation now draws on ancestral courage & is tied to the liberation the present and future of you, your culture(s), your communities.
Though many toil in isolation, we are all nonetheless fundamentally interconnected with all beings past, present, & future
How Do I Start Therapy?
Explore the Website
Email me at Nima@somatictherapynorthbay.com or call me at 707 732 425 to schedule your intro consultation
Attend your free 15 minute consultation
After the consultation if it seems like we’re a good fit we will schedule your first session
I will email you intake paperwork through the Simple Practice client portal
Complete intake paperwork electronically prior to first session
If using insurance, prior to your first session your insurance information needs to be electronically verified
At the time of your session login to Simple Practice secure video portal and begin your first session
Text/Call: 707 732 4525 or Email: Nima@somatictherapynorthbay.com