Helen Star, LMFT
Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist
San Francisco CA
I work with the nervous system to help it unwind from traumatic holding in the body. I encourage the system to be more resilient, having a greater capasity to move from activated to rest. My work with clients is specific to each person as I attempt to “meet you where you are at” using the felt experience as our guide. I inquire regularly as to what is being experienced now and let the body lead the way. I encourage the use of imagery, sensations, thoughts and memories to help in the unfolding.
I am trained as a somatic psychotherapist, working with the body as a primary source of understanding the challenges that the individual is facing. I first became interested in this mode of healing after having incurred a traumatic injury to my cervical spine in my early 20s. I was left broken and needed to heal. My inner voice awoke during this time and first led me to massage and bodywork training and then to somatic psychotherapy. I also studied yoga extensively, along with dance and movement therapies.
My greatest interest lies in working with anxiety and trauma responses as well as chronic pain and problematic substance use. I combine somatic psychotherapy with cognitive behavioral techniques, mindfulness practices, and insight-oriented therapy. I am greatly interested identifying complementary practices including spiritual, nutritional and lifestyle development as an adjunct to support the process of psychotherapy. I have great trust in the material that “non ordinary” experiences including psychedelic experiences provides the individual and have followed my own trail through the Archetypal landscape throughout my life. I have a great interest in symbol systems and use those systems in integrative sessions. I am a long time student of Tarot, Alchemy, Astrology, and Kabbalah through my work at Reseed Arts and Education.