Frequently Asked Questions

Is this the same as traditional therapy?

Core Energetics is a body-centered, therapeutic process originally conceived by psychiatrist John Pierrakos, M.D. It draws on the framework of psychology while using somatic methods to explore what talk alone often can’t reach. I am a Certified Core Energetics Practitioner, not a licensed mental health clinician. I do not diagnose, prescribe medication, or provide medical treatment plans. For those services, a licensed mental health or medical professional is the appropriate resource.

I've already done years of therapy. Why would this be different?

You may already understand your patterns, where they come from, and why you respond the way you do. This is an important part of the process, but insight alone doesn’t always create lasting change. Core Energetics offers a way to work with those patterns on a deeper, more experiential level. We look at how your lived experiences show up in your body and bring awareness to the ways you protect yourself, hold yourself back, or move through the world, and we create space to explore new ways of responding. This process is about discovering who you are beyond the patterns you’ve developed to protect yourself, and finding a fuller, more authentic expression of who you are and how you want to be in the world. If you’ve already done a lot of therapy, you don’t necessarily need to start over. Core Energetics is another layer of exploration to move from understanding yourself to experiencing yourself in a different way.

What does a session actually involve?

This is active work, and you're in it with me the whole way through. We work with the body, breath, movement, and expression. You're not lying back while something is done to you; you're taking part in your own change.

Typically, an in-person session follows this structure:

1. Arrive & Attune: We begin by slowing down and noticing what is present for you. We may pay attention to your breath, physical sensations, energy, or emotional state to help you become more connected to your body.

2. Choose a Focus: Together, we identify what you want to work with that day. This might be a relationship, an emotion, a recurring pattern, a thought, or something you are physically experiencing.

3. Explore: We spend some time talking about what is happening and noticing how it shows up in your body. I may invite you to bring your attention to a particular sensation, posture, breath pattern, or impulse.

4. Work With the Body: This is where Core Energetics becomes more experiential. I may guide you through movement, breathwork, vocal expression, or another physical intervention to help you fully explore what is arising. By moving through the experience in the body, we can begin to process what is underneath it and understand why it may still live within us. From there, we can ask whether the feeling reflects what is happening in your life now or whether it belongs to an older pattern or survival strategy that may no longer serve you.

5. Integrate: We end by reflecting on what you experienced and bringing greater consciousness to patterns that may have been operating outside of your awareness. As these patterns become more visible, you can begin to recognize where you have choice and develop greater freedom to respond in ways that are more aligned with how you want to live.

Every session is different. This structure provides a starting point, but the work follows what is present for you. We each have our own emotional needs, ways of processing, and ways of expressing ourselves, so the work naturally takes shape around the person in the room.