Somatic Therapy in Michigan
Therapy to help you connect to the wisdom of you & your body, to find balance, security, and connection within yourself. Where over giving transforms into the balance and discernment of authentically caring for others and giving to yourself, without the doubt and guilt.
Online Somatic Therapy in Michigan — Helping You Gently Release Patterns of Over giving, Mending the Wounds of Past Hurts, Reconnecting with Your True Self & Your Own Needs.
When tending to others feels like your purpose, when coping and protecting has led to isolation,
when your worth feels tied to how much you give,
and when exhaustion feels normal.
The body does not lie. It reveals — it remembers — it reclaims.
You may have learned how to keep going, even when you feel disconnected or on edge, while parenting kids, supporting those within your community, caregiving, helping your adult parents, keeping details moving at work. You’ve learned to appear calm, smiling when others ask you how you are doing and saying “I am doing good” while your body carries a quiet tension beneath the surface. You can see the positive in situations that can be harder for others to see. Maybe you’ve always been the one other’s turn to — the dependable one, the helper, the one they call because you will have the answer. It used to be lovely to see others so comfy to reach out to you and know that you are reliable.
Lately though, you feel drained, resentful, empty or quietly disconnected from your own life. Your shoulders ache, your chest feels heavy, your back feels tight and deep down you wonder what it would be like to finally rest — not as a reward, but as your natural rhythm. There are pains and aches that you carry that seem to be unclear as to their origin, you may have said, “It's probably just stress.” and deep down, you feel like there may be something more to learn, to be uncovered within your body. You would like to discover if there is something else there that is speaking to you through the tension, clenching, aching or tightness. Maybe your sleep feels shallow, your breath catches, or your mind races while your heart longs for peace. You do your best to hold everything together, yet something within you keeps whispering that it’s time to slow down, to listen, and to heal.
In your heart, you felt that giving has come from love — a desire to nurture, to keep the peace, to be good. Over time, it feels like it has become a way of surviving. Your body has learned to stay tense and alert, your nervous system wired to care for everyone else before yourself. So natural, there are times you are not even aware you are over giving. In this moment in time, the awareness you feel around this may be liberating and frightening all at the same time. Where do you start? What would happen if you began to choose yourself? What will that feel like? Without answering these questions, pause…take a long…. slow…..deep breath…know that you are right where you need to be and have already begun this process of change through your awareness alone.
April Shackelford, Michigan Therapist Specializing in Somatic Therapy, Fun Therapy, Soul Work & Online Therapy in Michigan to treat Relational Trauma, Over giving and Body Tension.
If you are seeking an online somatic therapist to help you soften the patterns of over giving and create space for your own healing and wholeness, Sacred Surrender Healing is here to help along this journey. Begin Somatic Therapy with me, April.
Hello all, from the Body Curious, to the Body Scanners to the Body Devotees!!! As a Somatic Therapist, I can help you discover or more deeply integrate and attain clarity in the sacred communication of your body and interpreting the pain, sensations and energy that is present. I help curious, open and caring adults who have spent some serious time holding the fort down from you name it: parenting, caregiving, supporting others and working to slow down, listen to their bodies, and begin healing the pattern of over giving so they can reconnect with their own rhythm, needs, and peace. To be present to the parts of you that have felt alone here and continued to keep to to keep to themselves. I help folks reconnect with the quiet wisdom of their bodies so they can begin to live within their own wisdom and way with more presence, ease, and authenticity. To take steps forward to identify the magic that is in you that you would like to be alive in your life: identifying a pathway of change so that the same energy given to others, can be there to replenish you.
Together, we move gently and collaboratively, following what arises in the moment rather than forcing change. I support clients in learning to trust their inner guidance — to listen to the sensations, emotions, and subtle signals that show the way forward. Through this process, the body becomes an ally in healing, tension in the body can ease and be heard, helping you release patterns of tension, deepen your awareness, and feel more grounded and alive in your everyday life.
What Shifts When You Begin Somatic Therapy
Over the years, I have discovered, working with others within their body's realm of discovery and communication, many folks find that the first shift, often that happens in the gentle slowing down, is connecting to the pace in which your body is existing in and how that feels for you. The recognition of this allows the body to finally exhale after years of holding so much. It may feel awkward and uncomfortable at first, and there may be some time in which learning your own rhythm looks like somewhere in the middle of moving so very slowly and then moving like the road runner, depending on where you started from. You begin to sense that there is another rhythm possible to exist in that feels different from survival, coping or protection. Awareness can come in as this process unfolds that healing isn’t about fixing you or doing more but about allowing, being present and using the resources that already lie within you. The nervous system softens; the tension that once felt permanent begins to loosen its grip.
As this process moves, you may notice what it feels like to be in your body without needing to fix or perform. The old reflex to say yes begins to ease. Space opens, a pause happens, between the urge to care for others and the quiet recognition of your own needs. The quiet recognition of your needs and your desires that become a call to action. There is a tenderness in realizing you can honor both — that you can love and be loved without losing yourself.
In time, your breath feels fuller and there is increased knowledge of cues and signals with your body whether they are pain points, sensations or energy and what they mean for you. Moments of rest come with less guilt. The weight of responsibility begins to lift, replaced by a grounded sense of presence in your everyday life. You find yourself responding rather than reacting, feeling connected rather than depleted.
What changes through Somatic Therapy Michigan is not just the body itself, but your relationship with it. You begin to trust its wisdom, to listen to its signals, and to move in rhythm with its truth. You rediscover your capacity for joy, for stillness, and for the kind of aliveness that doesn’t need to be earned.
Coming home to your body is not the end of your journey — it’s the beginning of living from who you truly are.
How Somatic Therapy Michigan Helps You Heal
In Somatic Therapy Michigan, the work begins by slowing down and gently tuning into your body’s wisdom. Together, we’ll explore how your body holds your experiences — the tension that shows up when you feel responsible for everyone, the heaviness that comes from doing too much, the loneliness and can come from isolation & the shallow breath that whispers it’s time to rest.
Each session is presence and collaboration between you, your body, and the present moment. There’s no need to push or perform. The process moves slowly, following what feels ready to emerge.
You’ll be guided through practices such as:
Mindfulness and body awareness: learning to listen to your body’s cues with compassion and curiosity.
Breathwork and grounding: calming your nervous system and restoring a sense of internal connection & security.
Gentle movement and release: allowing you to ground into your body, giving space for your body to let go of the tension it has been carrying.
Resourcing and regulation strategies: guiding your body towards anchors to build within security, connection and openness.
Through Sacred Surrender Healing’s Somatic Therapy in Michigan, we can begin to shift long-held survival patterns — the ones that keep you over giving, overthinking, or disconnected from yourself. Bit by bit, you rediscover what it feels like to feel at home in your body, in you, to find the wisdom of your own way, to move from authenticity and discernment instead of obligation, and to experience your life with greater ease, freedom, and connection.