We are thrilled to introduce Carissa Lane, MA, AMFT (#144999), as both a new therapist at Paradigm Wellness Collective and a guest contributor to our Substack community.

Carissa is a trauma-informed Associate Marriage and Family Therapist whose integrative, soul-centered approach is rooted in her own profound healing journey. Having navigated addiction and a traumatic brain injury, she brings deep empathy and lived experience to her work, guiding clients through trauma, grief, addiction recovery, and life transitions.

Her therapeutic style blends modern neuroscience with ancient healing traditions. Carissa weaves together Somatic Experiencing® (currently in advanced training), Internal Family Systems (IFS), Polyvagal Theory, mindfulness, energy medicine, and Equine-Assisted Psychotherapy through Natural Lifemanship. She also draws from over six years of training in the shamanic arts. Through this multidimensional lens, she helps clients reconnect with their bodies, regulate their nervous systems, and rediscover their inner wisdom.

In this guest post, Carissa will share insights on healing trauma through embodied presence and the sacred connection between nature and nervous system regulation. Her writing invites us to explore the deeper layers of ourselves and the world around us.

Dear Reader,

There was a time in my life when I believed healing meant pushing through. If I could just talk it out or figure it out, I would feel better. I lived mostly in my head, trying to make sense of things that didn’t want to be understood with logic.

But my body was telling a different story.

I didn’t realize how much I had disconnected from my physical self until I began to reconnect. The anxiety, the numbness, the shutdowns, the overreactions—these weren’t flaws or failures. They were signs that my nervous system was still trying to protect me.

What I’ve learned through Somatic Experiencing® is that trauma lives in the body. It stays held in our breath, in our posture, in the way we freeze before speaking or flinch when we feel seen. And it doesn’t begin to shift through force. It begins with listening.

What Is Somatic Experiencing?

Somatic Experiencing, or SE, is a body-based approach to trauma healing developed by Dr. Peter Levine. It supports the nervous system in completing what we call the “threat response cycle,” which is often interrupted during overwhelming or traumatic experiences.

Dr. Levine asked a powerful question:

Why don’t animals in the wild get PTSD, even though they regularly face life-threatening situations?

What he found was this. When a wild animal escapes danger, it shakes. That trembling response allows the survival energy to move through the body and release. Once it’s complete, the animal returns to a calm, regulated state. No trauma. No lingering tension.

Humans, on the other hand, often override those impulses. We suppress, dissociate, or freeze. We don’t get the chance to complete the cycle. So the energy gets stuck, and our systems stay activated. That stuck energy becomes what we experience as trauma.

SE gives us a way to finish what the body never got to finish. It helps us return to safety, one sensation at a time.

Bottom-Up Healing

In traditional therapy, we often start with the mind. We talk. We analyze. That approach can be powerful, but it doesn’t always reach the parts of us that are still holding trauma in the body.

Somatic Experiencing works from the bottom up. It begins with the body. With sensation. With noticing. With slowing down enough to feel the tension in your shoulders or the pressure in your chest.

Trauma is stored not just in our thoughts, but in our physiology. Healing happens when we learn to track what we feel and begin to move gently between places of discomfort and places of safety. In SE, this rhythm is called pendulation, and it helps reintroduce flow and flexibility to the nervous system.

We also work in small, manageable doses. This is called titration. Instead of diving into overwhelm, we take one small step. Then we come back. Then we take another. Over time, the system builds more capacity to feel without shutting down.

Resourcing: The Ground Beneath the Work

Before we ever approach traumatic material, we begin by building resources.

A resource is anything that brings a felt sense of steadiness, ease, or connection. It might be the warmth of your hands. The memory of someone who made you feel safe. The sound of birds in the morning. Your breath. Your body’s contact with the chair beneath you.

These resources help regulate the nervous system and give us anchors to return to when things feel too much. They create a container for the deeper healing work to unfold.

What Trauma Healing Can Look Like

Healing through SE isn’t about dramatic breakthroughs. It’s often quiet. Subtle. Slow. But deeply transformative.

It might be the first time someone takes a full breath after years of shallow breathing.

Or a spontaneous exhale after realizing they’ve been holding their jaw tight all day.

It could be the sense of being in their body for the first time in what feels like forever.

The body begins to trust itself again. The nervous system remembers how to come home.

An Invitation to Go Deeper

If any of this speaks to you, I’d love to invite you into a deeper experience.

I’m offering a live, one-hour online workshop called:

Reclaiming the Body: An Introduction to Somatic Experiencing and Trauma Healing

In this space, I’ll share the foundational principles of SE, how trauma impacts the nervous system, and how we can begin to support healing through bottom-up regulation and resourcing.

This workshop is gentle, experiential, and open to all. You don’t need to be a therapist or have any experience with somatic work. Just curiosity and a willingness to slow down.

You’ll walk away with a deeper understanding of your nervous system and a few practical tools you can start using right away.

→ Click here to book a free call with me.

At Paradigm Wellness Collective, Carissa offers both in-person and telehealth sessions, as well as nature-based therapy, retreats, and sacred ceremonies. She is supervised by Chrissy Powers, LMFT (#84340), and is currently accepting new clients.

Thank you for reading and healing yourself.

Let’s human better together,

Chrissy and Carissa