Embodied
Healing

Please reach out to me on my contact page with a little bit about you and a few times you are available to have a free half hour phone consultation.

I will reply as soon as I am able to and we will take it from there!

Sessions vary widely based on clients’ differing needs. Touch most often happens on the massage table (and sometimes while sitting in a chair).

Rosen Method Bodywork typically uses a gentle, listening, non-manipulative touch that prioritizes connection. The touch can focus on what it’s like to be touched and it can also meet chronic threads of tension, supporting you in growing embodied awareness and letting go from the inside out.

As bodies soften, emotions, sensations, and memories often arise to be felt and explored. We use words carefully and compassionately, supporting you to stay IN the sensing.

When we’re not using touch, we explore emotion and sensation through counseling, as well as through self-touch, movement, and guided somatic experiences. No matter what tools we use, there will be a focus on building trust and safety in the therapeutic relationship.

Rosen Method Bodywork is touch that reaches for the person. Not every body part will be touched in a session. The touch is often gentle, with lots of holding. Sometimes the touch can feel deep or firm, but it does not push away the muscle tension in the way that massage often does. Rather, we are being with the tension and supporting you to grow awareness of it.

This awareness is embodied, not just in your mind, but through your felt sense. The growing of embodied awareness is the key to how we make change in Rosen Method. You have an active role on the table—noticing, feeling, sensing, and speaking to what is true so that you can bring it into your conscious awareness.

This work can be especially supportive for those experiencing trauma symptoms in their bodies, psychosomatic concerns (meaning a condition that affects both the emotions and the body), chronic pain, chronic tension, or for those who want a body-based approach to healing.

I love working with adults of all genders who want to learn how to feel into themselves and be in their bodies more. I also enjoy working with people who are growing their self-love and relational skills.

In many cases it can be of great benefit to pair this work with ongoing talk therapy from a different provider to create a robust team approach. I am always happy to provide referrals.

Because Rosen Method Bodywork can sometimes bring up traumatic emotions, body states, and memories, it is important that clients are stable and well supported in their lives. This work is contraindicated for those who are dealing with instability, psychosis, early sobriety, suicidality, and homicidality.

I am a somatic specialist and I do not do stability or crisis work. If I am concerned about your well-being and think you need a higher level of care, I will refer you to a more suitable practitioner.

For some clients, touch is loaded and it’s a big deal to be touched, especially by a stranger. Sometimes it takes a while for a client to be ready for touch and this sets the stage for very rich work.

It is also ok if we never use touch in sessions. Additional tools include counseling, self-touch, movement, and guided somatic experiences.

Please talk to me about your questions and concerns about beginning touch work. Our choices will depend on your needs and what you are focusing on in your personal growth and healing work.

When using touch, there are some different priorities to consider in choosing what to wear. The first priority is your comfort. Please wear what makes you the most comfortable. Loose, comfortable clothing works well. Jeans can be a bit too restrictive.

Some clients find great benefit in being touched directly on their skin, as it enhances sensation. These clients may choose to disrobe down to undergarments. If you’d like to try skin to skin but also want to feel covered up, consider trying a tank top and shorts. Whatever makes you the most comfortable will be best for our work together.

Rosen Method Bodywork is a dry technique, meaning there are no oils or lotions used.

In-person work can include touch and of course virtual work cannot. They both can include counseling, self touch, movement, and guided somatic experiences. I find virtual sessions to be supportive when clients live far away from Montpelier, but I find the work is most powerful in person.

For this reason, I don’t prefer to work exclusively virtually. In both virtual and in-person work, we use the immediacy of the emotions and sensations in the moment, inviting you to turn inward and sense your self.

I am currently a Rosen Method Bodywork Intern and I am accruing clinical hours toward certification. My rate is currently $130. This pays for either a 60-minute virtual session or a 90-minute in-person session in Montpelier, VT.

While I am working toward certification, I am including a free half-hour of touch for those who come in person. Sliding scale is also available. If you are able, and would like to pay it forward and support lower income clients accessing this valuable service, I encourage you to pay a higher rate.

I no longer offer traditional psychotherapy and insurance has a limited definition of the services that they cover. Insurance certainly does not cover integrative touch work.

I used to take insurance and work more traditionally, but I’ve found that, unfortunately, health insurance in this country is exploitative for both clients and practitioners. It simply wasn’t working for me. I believe that healthcare is a human right and I offer a sliding scale to those who need it.

Yes! The building has an elevator and an accessible bathroom on the first floor. The massage table is wide.

We will chat about your masking and accessibility needs in our initial phone consultation. Please let me know about your needs and preferences and I will do my best to meet them.

I have an air purifier in the studio as well as in the waiting room, both from the brand Blue Air. I use a KN95 mask when I work at a client’s head and I am happy to wear a mask for the duration if that is your preference.

I do not require you to wear a mask, as it is important for me to see your facial expressions. If you are sick, please reschedule your appointment and I will do the same.

Marion Rosen [1914-2012], founder of Rosen Method bodywork, was “Born…in Germany and was of Jewish origin, (although she was unaware of this until the persecution of the Jews began).”(1)

“In 1936, when Marion was 22 years old, she began studying touch therapy with Lucy Heyer in Munich. Lucy Heyer was trained by Elsa Gindler, one of the leading innovators in body-oriented therapies in Europe. Lucy was also the wife of Gustav Heyer, a physician in the circle of Sigmund Freud, Karl Jung, Wilhelm Reich, and other leaders in the budding field of psychotherapy. During her apprenticeship, Marion worked with many patients undergoing psychoanalysis and drew on touch therapy as a way to access unconscious memory, feelings, and past events that had been forgotten or suppressed. This early experience would later inform her unique forms of bodywork and movement.

Marion eventually left Germany in the late 1930s, landing in California after a stay in Sweden. While in Sweden, she studied physiotherapy and continued that study in the U.S., becoming eventually licensed as a physical therapist.” (2)

“She developed the Rosen Method through many years of experience in her private practice of physical therapy. She developed a reputation amongst physicians and others of being someone who could help those who were not improving through traditional means. She began to teach others her method in 1977; currently there are training centers in Europe, Australia, Russia, Israel, Canada, and the United States.” (3)

I believe embodiment work is critical to our collective success as we work in diverse ways toward sustainability and justice. Embodiment work connects us with ourselves, each other, and the earth. Our bodies are nature. And it is through our bodies that we have all of our experiences and relate to all things. 

Our culture is sick—asking us to separate mind and body, to work past burnout, and to exploit ourselves, each other, and the earth. This oppression is experienced by most of us as traumatic, even if unconsciously so. To listen to our bodies inevitably invites us toward rest and healing. It invites us to have space for the ebbs and flows of our natural rhythms. It asks us to own and feel our truths.

Unlearning this oppressive enculturation in an embodied and relational way can support us, both personally and collectively, toward peace, justice, connection, and sustainability.