"The paradox of trauma is that it has both the power to destroy and the power to transform and resurrect"
Peter A. Levine
Jessica Stuart, MS, LCPC, SEP
406-548-5908
stuart.maitri@yahoo.com
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I work diligently to help clients find the change and connections they seek through a somatic lens. Increasing the felt sense of safety, connection, and emotional regulation can be a real game changer for people. Another important piece is working to renegotiate imprints of overwhelming past experiences and traumas in the here and now.
Since 2010, I have worked with a variety of clients - individuals, couples, and families – dealing with significant struggles such as complex PTSD, relationship challenges, anxiety, depression, and chronic illnesses. As a Somatic Experiencing Practitioner (SEP), I understand how traumatic experiences left unresolved are often at the root of suffering and distress. I am also trained in Natural Processing (Somatic EMDR), Psychobiological Approach to Couples Therapy (PACT), and Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT) details of each modality follows below. Most of these approaches include expressive arts and mindfulness-based approaches .
An Experience of Connection
I believe that healing comes from a holistic approach that considers mind, body, and spirit. I focus on a collaborative relationship where we prioritize safety and trust. A metaphor that helps to encapsulate this process is that you have the map, and I have the flashlight. While you control where we go, I will help you to explore and go deeper into your internal world so we can better understand your experiences. By understanding and connecting to our internal world we are better equipped to make decisions about our external world. I help facilitate this process through a down-to-earth approach and a focus on mind-body connection.
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I work primarily from an attachment and somatic perspective. I focus on understanding how our relationships help to shape our worldviews and how mindfulness can support body and nervous system regulation. My philosophy is that healing occurs when we are able to find safety and balance in the body.
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I have experience working with individuals, couples, and families. My goal is to create an accepting and non-judgmental environment. I aim to understand each individual to better support the process of healing and exploring. I am accepting new clients for in-person and tele-health sessions. If you feel drawn to work with me please reach out.
Abby Sophir, MS, PCLC
406-285-8524
abby@sophircounseling.com
A Compassionate Space for Change
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We live in a world that tells us to figure it all out on our own— asking for help takes courage. I am passionate about working with individuals and couples who are feeling stuck, frustrated, burned out, lonely, or disconnected. Giving voice to your suffering can be scary, but it can also be deeply healing. With a focus on embodiment and Somatic Experiencing, I aim to help you find a greater sense of ease, clarity, and fulfillment in your everyday life.
I believe that you are the expert of yourself and that healing happens in the context of a safe therapeutic relationship. Together, we will explore your strengths and struggles. We will pay attention to your experience in the present moment, practice regulation, and work with old coping strategies which may no longer be serving you— creating opportunities to move beyond automatic patterns and engage with life in new ways.
My counseling style is down-to-earth, transparent, and compassionate. While we will spend time talking, we will also engage in activities such as movement, mindfulness, sand tray, or art. I use a holistic, strengths-based approach focusing on your here-and-now experience to help you feel empowered, safe, and understood, while gently challenging you to move towards difficult things and connect with your most authentic, compassionate self. It is a privilege to get to know my clients and do this work.
Services
Connected Every Step of the Way
Couple Therapy
A Happier, Healthier Relationship
You know those same fights that keep coming up about the kids, sex, money, and the house are rarely actually about the logistics of the issue? If they were actually about logistics they would likely have been solved already.
Often these difficulties stem from old unresolved patterns that keep coming up in the here and now of relationships. To better work with couples as they move through relationship, Jessica Stuart has been trained in a program called PACT, developed by Dr. Stan Tatkin. This work bridges an understanding of attachment style, neuroscience, and nervous system arousal. A Somatic Experiencing lens is also utilized to help shift protective and defensive response patterns that may be stuck “on” or "off" due to under-resolved traumas. By bringing these areas into the session, we work to bring your relationship to a loving, secure-functioning place.
Individual Therapy
Here For You
Interpersonal, mindful, and somatic approaches influence our work. Therapeutic work tends to focus on how developed strategies are working/not working for individual in the present moment. Other skills to be learnt and practiced will be the ability to slow down, track physiological responses, and allow space for emotions that otherwise may be deemed "too much" or "not Ok" for different reasons.
Therapists will help each client's renegotiation and resolution of overwhelming traumatic experiences that happened "too fast, too much, too soon" causing anxiety, depression, stress, and loss.
Supervisor Services
Quality Support for Licensure Candidates - Jessica Stuart
Providing supervision and her role in supporting a new therapist’s growth are important to her. Jessica aim's to provide an open and safe environment with healthy boundaries. Her primary role will be to support you in finding your own path and becoming the therapist you want to be. The importance of learning from the “bottom up” rather than the “top down” will be a priority. She has been trained in a number of modalities such as Interpersonal therapy, EMDR, EFT, PACT, SE, and Mindfulness-based approaches, but a somatic/nervous system lens will be used within supervision feedback.
Common Queries
Do you offer sliding scale rates?
Yes, we are able to offer a sliding fee scale. Please feel free to contact us to ask about details.
How long does each therapy session take?
A typical session is 55 minutes, although we offer up to 2-hour sessions dependent upon need and agreements made.
Are you a Somatic Experiencing Practitioner?
Yes, Jessica Stuart is a Somatic Experiencing Practitioner, she has completed hundreds of hours of training, on-going consultation, and participated in her own personal sessions to more fully understand the healing power of this work. She also assist new students in their learning of Somatic Experiencing at professional trainings and by offering internship positions.
What is the fee rate for a 55 session?
Fee rates are typically set by insurance companies and range between 155$-185$. We charge 165 for those paying out of pocket.
Primary Modalities
Somatic Experiencing
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Somatic Experiencing® is a gentle, body-oriented approach to healing trauma and the lasting impacts of stress. Somatic Experiencing® views trauma as the body’s overwhelming response to perceived life threat. Trauma can result from a single event like a car accident, injury, assault or from the cumulative stress of experiences such as neglect, chronic abuse, loss, and systemic oppression. Symptoms of trauma can manifest in many ways including anxiety, depression, disconnection, interpersonal struggles, and isolation. When working somatically, we work slowly and break experience into small, manageable steps that do not overwhelm the nervous system. We track imagery, body sensation, movement, emotion and beliefs to help you move through energy in the body that has becomes stuck from traumatic events. In finding resolution to past stressors, we can find greater well-being and more resiliency to not only deal with future stressors but also to live more fully in the present moment.
To learn more about Somatic Experiencing Please visit: traumahealing.org
Psychobiological Approach to Couples Therapy (PACT)
What is PACT? Psychobiological Approach to Couples Therapy, PACT, was designed by Dr. Stan Tatkin, a neuropsychologist and attachment therapist. His best-selling books Wired for Love, Wired for Dating, and Your Brain on Love talk about how we relate to one another on a deeper level, motivated by love rather than distress. We each develop a style of attachment from a very young age, and this style impacts how we related to ourselves, the world around us, and most importantly, our partners. There is no style that is necessarily good or bad, yet conflict can arise when we are trying to meet our own needs and each others needs in a way that is "pro-self" rather than "pro-relationship." Please view Stan's video introduction to PACT therapy to learn more.
What happens in a PACT Session?
In a PACT therapy session, my role is to support both members of the couple by paying very close attention to how they are responding to one another. Often when we are in distress we can give off cues to our needs of needing comfort, space, and understanding, but if our partner is also in distress they can miss these opportunities for support. I aid in helping both partners see what is happening for one another so that they can choose to support one another and reinforce the loving couple-bubble so they can then focus on the external stressors that partners often fight about - work, sex, money, kids, time, and mess.
​How is PACT Therapy different that other couple's therapy?
The PACT model is unique in that it allows us to drop deep into the areas of the brain where early mis-attunements, trauma, and thought distortions about the self and others are stored. By accessing these areas as they are showing up in your relationship today we can allow the pattern to shift, to do something different, and move toward secure-functioning. In doing this, the feelings of threat and distress can decrease, working to resolve patterns that existed long before your partner came into your life.
