Psychotherapy & Somatic Guidance

Two Distinct Paths,

One Unified Approach

Whether you're seeking clinical psychotherapy or non-clinical somatic guidance, my approach remains consistent: relational, integrative, embodied, and grounded in a Catholic framework. Both paths honor the whole person—body, mind, and spirit—facilitating transformation through presence, safety, and attunement.

How I Practice

A Christ-Centered, Somatically-Informed Approach to Healing

My Philosophy of Care

My approach flows with—rather than fights against—our God-given design to move toward integration, connection, and healing. I believe that transformation happens best within safety, relationship, and sacred timing. Just as the nervous system requires conditions of felt safety to come out of survival mode, the soul, too, needs gentleness and grace to unfold.

In our work together, we co-create a relational field where your body doesn’t need to brace or perform. This is where healing begins: not through force, but through attunement. By honoring the pace of your nervous system, the presence of the Holy Spirit, and the protective parts that show up along the way, we move gently toward the deeper truths within you.

This work is:

Trauma-attuned: grounded in an understanding of how the body holds memory, defense, and longing

Polyvagal-informed: centered on supporting nervous system regulation and re-patterning through co-regulation, breath, voice, and movement

Parts-aware: honoring the adaptive roles of inner parts while fostering integration and healing

Faith-rooted: trusting that Christ, the Wounded Healer, is present in every layer of our process

I’m rooted in the body because the body is not separate from the soul—it’s the place where God dwells with us.
I’m centered in Christ because His Presence is the source of all true healing.
I uphold the primacy of presence because connection is what makes healing possible.

This is the ground I stand on.
This is the invitation: to come as you are and to let your healing unfold with the care, safety, and sacredness it deserves.

A Humanizing, Depathologizing Lens

I often challenge modern and cultural assumptions—gently, respectfully, and creatively—as a mindful Catholic committed to restoring dignity to our healing journeys. I bring a pioneering, trauma-informed, and deeply humanizing stance that does not reduce people to symptoms but honors the full story of their nervous systems, attachments, wounds, longings, and desires.

What Sessions Often Include

  • Body-based grounding and resourcing — practices like breathwork, orienting, or gentle movement to help your nervous system settle and build internal safety

  • Bilateral stimulation — such as tapping or rhythmic movement, to support integration and regulation across brain and body

  • Creative expression — like non-dominant hand drawing or image-making, to access deeper parts of your story beyond words

  • Inner healing prayer (when invited) — gently welcoming Jesus into painful or fragmented places through presence-based, Spirit-led prayer

  • Imaginative prayer and theological reflection — to help you reconnect spiritually and make meaning through the lens of your faith

  • Between-session practices — simple invitations to help you integrate insights, regulate your system, and practice new ways of being

Throughout our work, we move with titration (one small step at a time) and pendulation (gently shifting between areas of difficulty and safety), so that your healing can unfold at the pace your body, story, and spirit are ready for.

Which Path is Right for You?

Psychotherapy

(for California Residents)

As a therapist, I offer more than treatment—I offer accompaniment through the terrain of trauma, mental health, and emotional suffering. My clinical work is grounded in relational depth, spiritual attunement, and a body-centered awareness that unfolds slowly, safely, and in God’s time.

Psychotherapy is appropriate if you’re seeking formal support for symptoms related to:

PTSD or Complex Trauma

Anxiety or Depression

Dissociation or Attachment Wounds

Addictions or Unwanted Behaviors

Emotional Dysregulation or Chronic Stress

In this space, I provide diagnosis, treatment planning, and documentation as a registered Associate Professional Clinical Counselor and Associate Marriage & Family Therapist, under the supervision of Dr. Sean Tobin, PsyD (#33387). While clinical, this work is far from cold or formulaic. My approach is one of reverence: to witness, honor, and gently guide the process of restoration within your mind, body, and spirit.

Just like in my guidance work, we move slowly. We listen deeply. And we tend to your story with gentleness, curiosity, and prayerful presence. The difference lies not in the heart of the work—but in the scope, responsibility, and structure of psychotherapy as a licensed mental health service.

Somatic Guidance

(for Worldwide Clients)

For those outside California or not seeking clinical treatment, I offer non-clinical spiritual & somatic guidance focused on:

Somatic Awareness & Inner Healing

Somatic & Parts Integration

Embodied Spiritual Practices

Restoration of the whole person

Like therapy, guidance is a place of sacred listening and presence. But unlike therapy, guidance is not clinical: there is no diagnosis, treatment plan, or medical record. Instead, this is a relational, somatic, and faith-informed space for discerning, integrating, and reconnecting to what’s stirring within you.

Guidance may be a better fit if:

You are not seeking treatment for a mental health diagnosis

You want to explore your faith, embodiment, and life transitions outside a clinical frame

You’re looking for a space that honors your story with spiritual and somatic care

You need accompaniment that is relational, restorative, and rooted in Christ, but outside the medical model

Here, I’m not your therapist—I’m your guide. We walk together with compassion, humility, and a listening ear for both the nervous system and the whisper of the Holy Spirit. The process remains slow, sacred, and safe—just as it is in therapy—but the container is different.

In Summary

Both offerings share:

A deep respect for your story, symptoms, and Catholic spirituality

Somatic, parts-based, and trauma-aware practices

A slow, sacred pace of unfolding—not fixing

Integration of Catholic theology, prayer, and nervous system science

A commitment to presence over pressure

The main distinction is in the scope and intent:

Psychotherapy offers clinical treatment for mental health challenges and includes formal assessment, diagnosis, and progress planning.

Guidance offers non-clinical accompaniment for those seeking integration, clarity, or spiritual support outside the medical model.

If you have questions, feel free to reach out for a 15-minute clarity call or send me a message.

Who I work well with

You might not have the perfect words for what’s wrong—but you know something’s hurting, stuck, or longing to be met.

I work well with people who are:

  • Healing from PTSD, Complex PTSD, trauma-related anxiety, depression, compulsive behaviors, and addictions

  • Trapped in cycles of overthinking, perfectionism, or self-abandonment

  • Feeling too much or nothing at all

  • Craving connection, but unsure how to stay in it without fear or shame

  • Sitting in pews or far from them, aching for more of God but unsure how to reach Him

  • Polished on the outside, but carrying wounds that feel unmet, unseen, or unbearable

  • Deeply empathic, often caring for everyone but themselves

  • Torn between longing for home and longing to escape

  • Frozen in fear of being fully themselves—yet yearning to breathe freely, to be loved as they are

I hold space for the disillusioned, the devoted, the curious, the burned-out, and the brokenhearted—because I’ve been there, too. And because I believe healing is possible, and belonging is your birthright.

Client Testimonies

“My time with Kolbe has given me additional tools to practice life not in my head but in my body. The different ways I've coped with trauma have been survival tools. Kolbe's therapy  has helped me understand that those parts of me have messages for my growth and awareness. Connecting with them helps me to step away from living in my head. With his suggestion to sit still so I can feel physically where the  blockage is in my body has and continues to help me to take the emotional steps to place my hand on my throat, heart, or stomach and first talk about how I'm physically affected. From there, I'm more able to say the feeling out loud. I'm more aware of how I avoid feelings and I'm less afraid to take the steps to listen to what is stored inside of me. Kolbe's gentleness and trustful professionalism has deepened my healing journey. I’m grateful for my time and growth with Kolbe.”

“I’m deeply grateful for the profound impact Kolbe had on my life. His true presence during a particularly challenging time brought much-needed insight and guidance. His empathetic ear and insightful advice helped me navigate darkness and anger, and his encouragement empowered me to reclaim my life. Our sessions not only shifted my perspective but also instilled a sense of resilience and hope. I feel blessed to have had the opportunity to work with a therapist as exceptional as Kolbe.”

My Education

Master of Science in Clinical Mental Health Counseling, Divine Mercy University

Bachelor of Arts in Humanities and Catholic Culture, Franciscan University of Steubenville

Certified Domestic Violence Counselor Training

Certified Sexual Assault Counselor Training

Treating Complex PTSD with Internal Family Systems Training by Frank Anderson, MD

Nurturing the Heart with the Brain in Mind: A Year with Bonnie Badenoch Training

Treating Trauma & Addiction with the Felt Sense Polyvagal Model Training by Jan Winhall

The Power of Polyvagal Training by Deb Dana

Modalities I draw from

Personalism

Person-Centered Therapy

Interpersonal Neurobiology

Polyvagal Theory

Focusing Psychotherapy

Internal Family Systems

Existential Psychotherapy

Sensorimotor Psychotherapy

Somatic Psychology

Baars-Terruwe Method

Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavior Therapy

Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy

Gottman Theory

Emotionally Focused Therapy

What Grounds My Work

I believe each person is fundamentally good—made in the image and likeness of God.

I believe we all encounter suffering and fragmentation—through original, personal, generational, and collective trauma and sin.

I believe God, in His mercy, permits even these wounds to become the very terrain where we encounter His healing love.

I believe Jesus—bloodied, beaten, and crucified—was present with me in my pain.

And I believe He was present for yours.

I believe trauma and disconnection invite us—slowly, tenderly—back into deeper communion with God, ourselves, and others.

I believe this sacred return often begins with the smallest yes: to presence, to truth, to support.

I believe healing takes work—sometimes quiet and unseen—and always shaped by safety and relationship.

I believe that when healing feels stuck, it's often an invitation from God to pause, to turn inward toward our fragility, and outward toward someone safe.

I believe this work is not linear—and no two journeys are the same. It’s sacred, deeply personal, and cannot be rushed.

I believe both therapy and guidance can offer a compassionate space for this unfolding.

I believe what happened to you is not your fault—and that healing begins when we rediscover our agency, dignity, and voice.

I believe your story is worthy of reclamation—and that God’s story is being written in and through your own.

I believe healing isn’t just a goal—it’s a becoming. A re-membering of your whole self.

I believe the language of the body—through movement, stillness, art, and prayer—can open doors where words fall short.

I believe we are not meant to heal alone. Integration happens in relationship—with God, with ourselves, and with attuned others.

I believe that whether I am offering therapy or non-clinical guidance, the core remains: to show up with integrity, presence, and reverence for your process.

I believe my Catholic lens helps me practice with rootedness and compassion—while honoring the dignity, agency, and spiritual freedom of every person I accompany, regardless of their faith, culture, background, status, gender or sexual identity, or any other part of their humanity.

Wondering how we might work together?

If you’d like to explore psychotherapy, collaborate on an offering, or inquire for more information, please fill out this form, or reach out by phone or email, and I can be in touch with you soon.