My practice is currently full. Please check back soon for updated availability.
Build the capacity to feel, connect, and live more fully.
Online Somatic Therapy in Florida and Illinois
A mind-body approach to working with trauma, anxiety, and the challenges that can come with midlife.
Licensed Clinical Social Worker & Somatic Therapist Florida (SW 23332) & Illinois (149026921)
I’m Amy Hagerstrom, a somatic therapist and the founder of Amy Hagerstrom Therapy PLLC in Delray Beach, Florida. I work with adults online across Florida and Illinois.
Trauma, anxiety, chronic stress, and earlier experiences can show up in ways that don’t always make sense at first. You may become more reactive than you want to be, shut down during conflict, feel tension that rarely lets up, or find yourself overwhelmed by things you think you should be able to handle.
You may understand where these patterns come from and still find that your body responds before you have a chance to think.
Somatic therapy gives us a way to work with these patterns through both mind and body.
A Brief Introduction
I help adults move through trauma, anxiety, chronic stress, and burnout with somatic and integrative therapy that works with both mind and body. In this short video, I share a bit about how I work so you can see whether it feels like a good fit for you.
You may recognize yourself in more than one of these experiences.
Many of the people I work with are thoughtful, capable, and self-aware. They’ve often spent years in therapy or personal growth and understand themselves well. Yet they still find themselves caught in familiar patterns of anxiety, overwhelm, tension, or shutdown that don’t seem to shift through insight alone.
Trauma can involve both what happened and how overwhelming the experience was for your mind and body at the time. You might notice big reactions to small things, feeling tense or guarded, stuck in numbness, or like part of you is still bracing for something bad to happen. Somatic trauma therapy gently works with these responses, helping you build more capacity, flexibility, and choice and feel more present and connected in your life.
Learn more about trauma therapy
Anxiety can show up in your thoughts and in your body, with a tight chest, trouble settling, or a sense that your body stays activated even when you want to rest. You might notice racing thoughts, difficulty sleeping, feeling easily overwhelmed, or a constant bracing for what could go wrong. With somatic therapy, we include your body in the process, working with these responses and building more capacity to stay present even in the middle of things that are stressful or hard.
Learn more about anxiety therapy
Midlife can be a time when old patterns, emotions, or questions about who you are begin to surface, even if life looks “fine” from the outside. You might feel restless, stuck, more reactive than you want to be, or aware that the ways you have gotten through life so far are no longer working as well for you. Somatic therapy offers a place to slow down, include your body in the conversation, and explore what you need and what you want the next part of your life to look like.
Learn more about Midlife therapy.Somatic Experiencing is the foundation of my work. I also draw from a developmental perspective, listening therapies, and an integrative approach when they support what you’re working toward.
This is always part of our work together. SE gives us a way to work with how stress, overwhelm, and earlier experiences are showing up in your body and nervous system in the present. I completed the full three-year Somatic Experiencing professional training through Somatic Experiencing International, and it is the foundation of how I work with nervous system responses in therapy.
Learn more about Somatic Experiencing
I pay attention to how early experiences may connect with the patterns and responses that show up in your life today. My graduate training at Erikson Institute focused on infant and early childhood mental health, which gives me a grounded way of understanding how early relational experiences can continue to influence patterns in adult life.
Safe and Sound Protocol (SSP): An optional listening therapy using specially filtered music that I may integrate alongside therapy to support nervous system regulation.
Rest and Restore Protocol (RRP): An optional listening therapy that I may integrate with therapy to support the body’s capacity for rest and regulation.
I tend to think in a whole-person way, paying attention to lifestyle factors like sleep, food, and movement alongside the therapy itself. We can do more or less of this depending on what is useful for you.
You’ve done therapy before or spent years trying to understand yourself, yet still find yourself caught in the same patterns.
You want therapy that includes your body as well as your thoughts and emotions.
You’re curious about how your nervous system and earlier experiences continue to shape the way you feel, relate, and respond today.
You want to feel safer in your body and in everyday life, while building greater resilience and capacity.
You value a therapist who is compassionate, attuned, and willing to gently challenge you when it supports your growth.
Many of the patterns that affect your life were shaped by earlier experiences or ongoing stress. This work helps you develop greater capacity and flexibility so you can respond to life with more choice and feel more like yourself.
You get to be known here as a whole person, not reduced to a diagnosis, a label, or a political side.
Your beliefs are yours. I honor that. Always. And if you ever want space to process them, question them, or even change them, that’s welcome here too.
You are a complex human, and so am I, which is part of why I don’t expect anyone’s thinking to stay still forever. Some people come to therapy wanting to sit with that complexity. Some never do, and that’s fine too. Others find that as they heal and grow, their thinking on important topics starts to shift too.
If you find yourself greatly impacted by the current polarized political climate, this can be a place to process it and build more capacity, using the mind-body work we do together.
Hi, I’m Amy, a licensed clinical social worker and Somatic Experiencing Practitioner offering online therapy to adults throughout Florida and Illinois.
My interest in somatic therapy grew out of my own experience. After many years in talk therapy, yoga helped me begin to recognize how connected my body was to my emotional experience. Later, my own experience with Somatic Experiencing showed me what it could be like to bring the body directly into therapy.
That experience eventually led me to train in Somatic Experiencing and make it the foundation of my practice. I wanted to offer a kind of therapy that makes room for insight and understanding while also working with what is happening in the body and nervous system.
Today, I’m especially drawn to working with thoughtful adults who have often done therapy before and understand themselves well, yet still find themselves caught in patterns of tension, anxiety, shutdown, or emotional overwhelm.
Sessions are 55 minutes and take place online, so you can join from wherever you feel most comfortable.
The first session is a chance for us to get to know each other. We’ll talk about what brings you to therapy, what’s been getting in the way, and what you’re hoping will be different. If it makes sense, we may also gently introduce some of the somatic work to help you get a feel for what it’s like to include your body in therapy.
From there, sessions unfold naturally based on what feels present for you. There’s room to talk and explore things more deeply, while also paying attention to what is happening in your body. We may slow down to notice sensations, emotions, or impulses, or bring in gentle somatic practices such as movement, grounding, or supporting your body in different ways. We move at a pace that helps you stay connected to your experience.
Most people notice some shifts within the first few months of weekly therapy, although how long therapy takes depends on what you’re working through. Some concerns may shift relatively quickly, while more complex or longstanding patterns can take a year or more. Our work can help you build greater capacity, resilience, and more choice in how you respond to what life brings.
I offer online somatic therapy to adults throughout Florida, including West Palm Beach, Delray Beach, Boca Raton, Fort Lauderdale, and nearby areas. Working online means you’re in your own space, which can make it easier to tune into what’s happening in your body and to keep showing up consistently.
I’m also licensed in Illinois and work with clients across the state, including Chicago.
These are some of the questions people often bring when they’re considering mind-body therapy.
Somatic therapy is a mind-body approach that pays attention to what is happening in your body alongside your thoughts and emotions. Many experiences, especially stress and trauma, can continue to show up in the body as automatic responses. Somatic therapy helps us notice and work with these responses in manageable ways, allowing greater capacity and flexibility to develop at a pace that feels supportive.
Every session looks a little different because everybody is different, and what feels important can shift from one session to the next. How much we talk and how much we slow down to work with what’s happening in your body can vary from session to session. Throughout our sessions, we pay attention to what you’re noticing in your body, sometimes slowing down to stay with something more closely. Sessions are experiential. I may guide you through pushing against a wall, desk, or even the air, gently squeezing your fists, grounding through your feet, self-supportive touch, or other somatic practices.
The work can help you develop more capacity to stay with sensations and emotions without becoming as overwhelmed, while having more flexibility and choice in how you respond.
Talk therapy often focuses on thoughts, emotions, behaviors, relationships, and experiences. As a somatic therapist, I include the body and nervous system in that work, paying attention to sensations, movement, impulses, and other responses that arise during a session. I’m a fully trained and certified Somatic Experiencing Practitioner (SEP), a three-year professional training I completed in addition to my clinical training and LCSW licensure.
Somatic therapy is often a good fit for people who have done therapy or personal growth work and still feel like something hasn’t fully shifted. You may understand your patterns logically but notice that your body still reacts quickly to stress, relationships, or change. Many people come to this work feeling overwhelmed, anxious, burned out, or disconnected from themselves, even while managing a great deal in their everyday lives. A willingness to slow down, notice what is happening, and include both mind and body in the work can be a good place to begin.
The first session looks a little different for everyone, but the main intention is for us to get to know each other and for me to understand what you are hoping to receive from therapy. I will ask some gentle questions about what is bringing you in now and what feels most important for us to start with.
I usually include a small amount of somatic work so you can get a sense of what it is like. This might be a simple grounding exercise I guide you through, or a brief invitation to slow down and notice what you are feeling.
Although it can be helpful to get some history in the first session, I do not prioritize gathering a detailed history. This is because going into too much detail too quickly can feel overwhelming, and many clients come to somatic therapy specifically because they want a therapist who will be mindful of this.
Yes. Somatic therapy translates well to online sessions because the work involves awareness, pacing, and attunement rather than hands-on techniques. Through video, I pay attention to your voice, facial expressions, and body language, and help you stay connected to what’s happening internally. Many people find that being in their own space actually helps them feel more grounded and stay with the work.
The timeline depends on what brings you to therapy. Some people notice shifts within the first few months of weekly therapy, while more complex or longstanding patterns often unfold over a year or more. Many of the people I work with are looking for deeper change and growth, and that kind of work takes time.
Individual sessions are $200 for 55 minutes. If we decide to include the Safe and Sound Protocol (SSP) or Rest and Restore Protocol (RRP) in your therapy, there is an additional fee. This practice is private pay, which means insurance is not billed directly. If you have out-of-network benefits, a monthly superbill can be provided for possible reimbursement through your plan. Credit and debit cards, HSA and FSA cards, and Zelle are all accepted.
Schedule a free 10-minute consultation: calendly.com/amy-amyhagerstrom/consultation
If what you’ve read here feels familiar, you’re welcome to reach out. We can talk about what brings you to therapy, what you’re looking for, and whether working together feels like a good fit.
Book a 10-Minute ConsultationExplore a few articles that dive deeper into the concerns many of my clients bring to therapy.
