Hi, I'm Janell.

Soma speaks to the body, to the deep intelligence held within your physical form and the somatic practices that help you build a relationship and care for your body.

Shen is a Taoist and Traditional Chinese Medicine concept that refers to the radiance of your spirit. It is said to be the part of you that comes from the divine, lives in the heart, and shines brightly through your eyes in moments when you feel fully alive, connected to yourself, and in radiant harmony with the world around you.

Soma and Shen is about the homecoming to wholeness, both of the body and the spirit. It is a blended approach rooted in the two modalities that personally helped me find solid and safe grounding when distress felt like the only way I knew how to exist. 

When the body is out of harmony, that sense of radiant aliveness can feel distant or dimmed. Through a fusion of specialized practices and skill building, grounded in innovative body-based healing and ancient Eastern wisdom, we create the space to invite that twinkle in your eyes gently back home into your own body, allowing you to move through life with more presence, peace, flow, and aliveness.

In my Intermediate level Qigong classes, I start guiding students in how to sense and work directly with their own Shen, although the foundational skills begin developing in the beginner level classes. 

Somatic healing can refer to any healing modality that works with the body. 

More specifically, Somatic Experiencing® is a body-centered approach to healing trauma developed by Dr. Peter Levine PhD. It helps individuals reconnect with the wisdom of their felt sensations, emotions, and bodily energy. By gently exploring the body’s signals, it fosters deep awareness, release, and integration, promoting lasting balance and well-being.

For example: In contrast to a traditional talk-based session, a somatic-focused session might involve exploring a specific sensation, such as cold tightness in your chest. Through gentle guidance, you would be invited to tune into that sensation with curiosity, noticing its qualities - such as color, texture, memories, movement, or any meanings that arise with it. Together, we observe how it shifts as you bring awareness to it and develop a relationship with it. We will then see what that sensation needs in order to complete it's goal. Often these sensations are here to tell us something, to protect us, or keep our body  safe in someway. I will support you in only feeling as much of a stressful sensation as is comfortable for you to work with, using a variety of somatic processes to support the body in finding a healthier pattern to feel safe, and often to release and integrate the energy what was stuck.

These areas of tension, blocked energy, pain, and discomfort often hold tremendous healing potential on the other side of them. Before diving into challenging sensations, we begin by building your ability to be with more pleasant sensations - such as noticing a warm, spacious feeling that comes with being seen, cared for, and understood,  then working on moving back and forth between stressful and pleasant experiences in the body to increase the flexibility of the nervous system so we don't re-traumatize the body. If you are new to working with sensation, do not worry. I've got you, and we will build this skill steadily and comfortably together.

Training to become a Somatic Experiencing Practitioner is a three-year professional training intensive, designed for licensed mental health professionals, healthcare providers such as doctors and nurses, bodyworkers, and others in related fields.

I have completed Beginning I, II, and III, as well as Intermediate I and II, under the guidance of esteemed Senior and Legacy Teacher Dr. Abi Blakeslee, SEP, CMT, MFT, PhD - one of Dr. Peter Levine’s earliest mentees in this profound work.

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Qigong (pronounced "chee-gong") is the practice of working with qi, the body's vital energy. Rooted in ancient Chinese traditions with shamanic origins, it has evolved into the modern movement, breath, and energetic branch of Traditional Chinese Medicine. Also spelled chi gong or chi kung, this practice combines gentle movement, breath, and intention to cultivate, gather, and balance the body’s energy - restoring a fresh essence of harmonious aliveness. 

I primarily teach and study Medical Qigong, a style focused on healing and supporting the wellness of the physical, energetic, and spiritual bodies. This has been a deep and ongoing journey for me, and I have spent several years immersed in dedicated study and practice.

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While somatic coaching and qigong can be healing and therapeutic, it is not therapy and is not a replacement for it. Therapy often includes a psychological assessment, diagnosis, treatment planning, case management, psychoanalysis, and sometimes the prescription of medication. In contrast, coaching does not involve diagnosing mental health disorders, offering clinical advice, or treating psychiatric conditions.

I am not a therapist nor am I currently working as a medical provider. I am a somatic practitioner and Qigong teacher. I support people though getting to know their bodies, energy, and spirit, and improving the relationship they have with each. In this space, I offer a coaching and embodiment-based experience that supports you in developing greater self-awareness, emotional regulation, and personal growth through body-based and/or qigong practices.

This kind of work has both its strengths and its limitations compared to therapy. What can feel broken inside of us is often a body that has experienced a history of overwhelming stress, the work I share brings those fragmented pieces back together cohesively, gently, and on your body’s terms. It can be a beautiful complement to therapy or after inner work. Many people find that this kind of work helps them integrate what they are discovering cognitively in therapy by offering a space to feel into it more deeply.

While this work is powerful, my offerings on their own are not able to support certain crises, significant distress, or those needing clinical support.

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