About Me
My name is Rachel Staley, LCSW, and I'm a Somatic Experiencing® Practitioner specializing in attachment trauma healing.
I'm also a wife and mother to a beautiful daughter!
My journey to where I am today has been deeply personal. It began with my own experience of navigating attachment in relationships, dealing with anxiety, and healing from being a parentified child. Growing up, I never learned what I needed to feel secure, leading to patterns of people-pleasing and disconnection from my body's wisdom.
When I became a mother, everything changed. Motherhood cracked me wide open, revealing layers of generational patterns I hadn't fully seen before. I made a vow to provide my daughter with the secure attachment I never experienced, breaking cycles by staying present with her authentic expressions—from joy to frustration—without shame or judgment.
Throughout my healing journey, I discovered that trauma isn't just stored in our minds but in our nervous systems. This understanding transformed not only my personal life but inspired my professional mission: to help others break cycles of generational trauma by healing attachment wounds, reclaiming boundaries, and fostering healthy nervous system regulation.
Growing up as a dancer, I felt deeply connected to my body, yet paradoxically developed poor body image and relationship insecurities. This experience fueled my passion to understand somatic healing. I discovered my own transformation by returning to my body's wisdom during moments of activation and learning what my nervous system truly needed to feel safe in connection.
I have a Master's in Clinical Social Work and over 12 years of experience in the mental health field, including community-based mental health, independent practice, and mental health startups.
My Approach:
Body-Centered Healing
Traditional therapy often focuses on changing thoughts and behaviors, but leaves the nervous system's protective patterns untouched. My somatic approach addresses trauma and attachment wounds where they actually live—in your body.
When we experience overwhelming events or relational disruptions, especially in childhood, our nervous systems create intelligent adaptations to help us survive. These patterns become stored in our bodies as tension, bracing, disconnection, or hypervigilance that persist long after the original situations have passed.
Rather than just talking about these patterns, we work directly with them through:
Nervous System Regulation: Learning to recognize and shift between states of activation and calm, gradually expanding your capacity to remain present during challenges.
Embodied Awareness: Developing a nuanced relationship with physical sensations as messengers rather than enemies to be avoided.
Completion of Survival Responses: Allowing your body to discharge energy from incomplete fight, flight, or freeze responses that remain trapped in your system.
Resource Building: Discovering and strengthening internal and external sources of safety, pleasure, and connection that support your healing journey.
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For in-person clients, I incorporate Somatic Experiencing® touch work—gentle, non-invasive contact that helps regulate your nervous system and release deeply held patterns without retraumatizing.
Virtual clients benefit from guided somatic awareness practices and specific techniques that create regulation and release using virtual touch.
Unlike approaches that require revisiting painful memories in detail, somatic work creates change by building capacity and resources first, ensuring we work at a pace your system can integrate.​
Therapeutic Approaches:
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Somatic Experiencing® (SE): The foundation of my practice, SE is a powerful approach to healing trauma and dysregulation at the nervous system level. Rather than requiring you to retell or relive difficult experiences, SE works with your body's natural capacity for healing through guided tracking of physical sensations and pendulation between activation and regulation.
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Somatic Touch for Trauma Resolution: For in-person clients, I offer specialized touch work that addresses how trauma is held in the body's tissues and fascial system. This gentle, non-invasive approach helps release patterns that talk therapy alone cannot access, creating profound shifts in how your nervous system organizes itself.
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Dynamic Attachment Repatterning Experience (DARe): This attachment-focused approach helps rewire early relationship templates that influence your adult connections. By identifying your specific attachment style and its physical manifestations, we create new, embodied experiences of security and trust.
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Polyvagal-Informed Therapy: Understanding the vagus nerve's role in your stress responses allows us to precisely target interventions that shift your nervous system from states of shutdown or hyperarousal into social engagement and connection.
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Parts Work Integration: I incorporate internal family systems concepts to help you identify and heal fragmented aspects of self that developed as protection during overwhelming experiences. This approach honors all parts of your experience while fostering greater internal harmony.
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Birth Trauma Resolution: For mothers who experienced traumatic births, I offer specialized protocols that address both the physical and emotional impacts, helping restore regulation and repair bonding disruptions.
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Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT): Complementing our somatic work, ACT helps you clarify your values and take purposeful action aligned with your authentic self, developing psychological flexibility to respond effectively to challenges.
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Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) Skills: I integrate specific DBT techniques to enhance emotion regulation, distress tolerance, and interpersonal effectiveness, supporting your nervous system regulation in triggering situations.
Each approach is tailored to your unique needs and integrated seamlessly into our sessions. The common thread throughout my work is a deep respect for your body's wisdom and your innate capacity for healing..
