When understanding isn’t enough to change how you respond
You may understand why you react the way you do, yet still find yourself freezing during conflict, struggling to say no, or pulling away when you want connection.
Understanding your patterns doesn’t always change your automatic responses. Trauma Integration Protocol (TIP) is a body-based approach that works with your nervous system and the ways past experiences may still affect you today.
Through body awareness, mindfulness, and relational work, we explore these responses as they happen and build your capacity to respond with greater choice.
Is TIP Right for You?
If you understand your patterns but still find yourself responding in ways you want to change, we can start with a conversation.
A free 15-minute consultation gives us a chance to discuss what you’re looking for, answer your questions, and explore whether TIP may be a good fit and if we are an energetic match.
Sessions are available in person in Baltimore, Maryland, and online worldwide.
How a TIP Session Works
1. Notice What’s Happening in Your Body
As you talk about an experience, explore a feeling, or remember a difficult moment, I’ll invite you to notice what’s happening in your body.
You might notice tension, changes in your breathing, an urge to pull away, or feelings that are difficult to put into words. Rather than focusing only on the story, we pay attention to what’s happening in the present moment.
Mindfulness is part of this process. You learn to notice your experience as it unfolds, without immediately needing to explain it, change it, or push it away.
2. Build Capacity for Boundaries
Knowing you have a right to say no doesn’t always make it easy to do so. You might feel guilty, anxious, or frozen when you try to hold a boundary.
In TIP, we work with these responses directly. As you explore a boundary or practice expressing a need, we notice what happens in your body and work with the reactions that make it difficult.
The aim is to help you feel more able to say no, express yourself, and stay connected to what matters to you.
3. Work With the Relationship
Trauma can leave people feeling alone with their experiences. In TIP, the relationship between us is part of the work.
As we work together, feelings and familiar relationship patterns may emerge. We pay attention to what actually happens between us, rather than assuming what you should feel or what the experience means.
My role is to stay present with you as we explore what’s happening. Sometimes that means offering support; other times, it means helping you stay with a feeling or experience rather than immediately trying to make it go away.
The relationship can provide an opportunity to explore experiences that have been difficult to hold on your own and gradually develop more capacity to hold them yourself.
4. Work With Difficult Experiences/trauma in Small Steps
We don’t have to work through everything at once. We focus on manageable pieces of an experience, paying attention to your body’s responses as we go.
Sometimes we work with your eyes closed, focusing inwardly. At other times, we keep our eyes open and pay attention to what’s happening between us. At all times we will track what sensations are coming up in the body and stay with them without needing to manage them.
The goal isn’t to force a release or push for a breakthrough. We work at a pace that respects your capacity and allows us to respond to what emerges.
5. Develop New Responses
TIP isn’t only about revisiting the past. We also explore what you needed then and what choices may be available to you now.
This can include practicing mindfulness, holding boundaries, building your capacity to stay with discomfort, learning to recognize and lean into safety and staying connected without abandoning yourself.
The goal is to build more flexibility in how you respond to yourself, other people, and challenging situations—not just to understand what you might do differently, but to develop more capacity to do so.
About My Practice and Scope
I am a certified TIP Foundations practitioner offering body-based somatic support focused on nervous system awareness and trauma integration. I am not a licensed psychotherapist or medical provider, and my work does not replace medical care or mental health treatment.
You can learn more about my background and approach on the about page.
In-depth guide and questions
- Want to see how a session unfolds step by step? Read our complementary guide: What to Expect in a TIP Session.
- Have practical questions? View our complete Frequently Asked Questions covering session pacing, physical responses, and rates.
In Baltimore, MD and by zoom worldwide
Schedule a free consultation to see whether this work is a fit.