Somatic - IFS - Attachment Psychotherapy is about tending to the Whole Person - Mind, Body and Spirit.
It means fusing concepts and tools experientially to support the unique needs of the individual and relationship.
The benefits of
SOMATICS
Increased ability to confidently self soothe and co-regulate in a variety of settings.
Increased ability to consciously and intentionally mask or unmask safely.
More frequent and full experiences of joy.
Increased balance, strength, flexibility and intimacy in all areas of life.
IFS
A stronger sense of Authentic Self.
Increased clarity of your automatic thoughts, behaviors and beliefs.
Increased confidence in working with survival parts as a cohesive team.
Greater access day-to-day of creativity, compassion, courage, and overall congruence internally.
ATTACHMENT
A deeper understanding of the impacts of your family of origin on your current relationships.
Increased satisfaction in relationships.
Increased confidence in setting and holding boundaries.
Increased capacity for conflict resolution, communicating your needs and receiving others.
A more developed ability to discern what is you, what is someone else, what is the bigger societal context, and how to make use of it all.
All of these changes together results in a fortified intuition to guide you each and every moment, as well as a release of the shame keeping you small, afraid, defeated, and isolated.
Fusing Somatic, IFS and Attachment Psychotherapies are especially helpful for treating…
The many expressions of trauma such as, but not limited to anxiety, depression, dissociation, disordered eating, perfectionism, workaholism and people pleasing.
It is here for anyone with the courage to reconnect with the felt senses of the body and the desire to live a fully expressed life.
It is not a quick fix, a one-size-fits-all procedure, or a coach telling you exactly what you should or shouldn’t do.
It is an experimental laboratory where your therapist contains you, guides you, and affirms you as you make embodied contact with your innate inner knowing.
Through the sacred safety of the therapeutic relationship, you will learn to trust yourself, love yourself, and enjoy your body, life and world you inhabit.
Step by Step.
Day by Day.
Breath by Breath.
Take a deep dive into the power of Somatic Psychology
Meet Your Right-Fit Therapist
Solasta McIntyre (he/they)
Licensed Marriage & Family Therapist #138467
Master’s in Somatic & Counseling Psychology from CIIS
Certified Autism Spectrum Disorder Clinical Specialist
My Journey
I grew up in a family that didn’t believe in therapy. Generations really. So my life up until therapy, was a game of survival: avoiding feelings, masking pain, and trying at all costs to be “normal.”
There’s a picture of me at my college graduation from the University of Vermont. I have a giant smile, multiple ropes and ribbons and things that are meant to validate achievement and giftedness. If a neurotypical or my parents looked at the photo, they might feel happiness or pride. But when I look at it I feel deep sadness for my younger self. Huge bags under the eyes signaling my soon-to-be Autistic Burnout breakdown, and a facial expression I recognize now as my Mask. As pretending.
A year or so after graduating was when I reached my initiatory “rock bottom.” Like so many Neurodivergent folks, I was suffering from co-occurring diagnoses and ultimately, the results of unresolved compounded trauma from birth, from family, from school and peers and society.
While that first session was so outside my comfort zone, I immediately began to feel hope again. To see a pathway forward. And since, have made healing my life’s work.
Part of my rock bottom story is professional dancing, disordered eating and exercise, gender dysphoria mistook for body shame, and insecure attachment. After choosing to recover, I developed a special interest in embodiment and began my Master’s in Counseling Psychology at the renowned California Institute of Integral Studies’ Somatic Psychology program. One of the few in the world. My thesis, “Tilling the Garden” was on treating eating disorders and developmental trauma with somatic psychology and energy healing.
I completed my 3,000 clinical associate hours at The Center for Somatic Psychology in San Francisco, Seeds of Awareness in Marin County, The Lotus Collaborative Recovery Center in San Francisco, Respire Therapy in San Francisco, and The Grateful Heart Holistic Therapy Center in Oakland.
I’ve trained with leading clinicians like Dr. Gabor Maté, Janina Fisher, Peter A. Levine, and the Couples Center Co-Founder: Gal Szekely.
Today I am proud Bigender-Lesbian-Polyam-AuDHD Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist practicing somatics, parts work and attachment therapies specialized in supporting neurodivergent individuals and couples who deserve quality care, and a chance to thrive.
Pictured: The Autistic Joy of shaking it out with clients in sessions. Co-regulating is the best. Even on Telehealth!
What is a Right - Fit Therapist?
The most important factor in effective therapy is the therapeutic alliance.
Therapy is a powerful and vulnerable journey that necessitates trust with the practitioner. If you experience your therapy sessions as just the same old same old from a neurotypical, allistic world, how can you ever feel safe enough to share authentically and heal?
Co-occurring diagnosis are also common for Neurodivergent folks, but many practitioners are ill-equipped to support “complex” cases.
With so much marketing about evidence-based treatment, what’s often not mentioned is how the research shows time and time again the importance of finding a quality therapist for you.
How I Work
Through collaboration and intuition to center your needs and make therapy approachable, inspiring, and engaging. I help you arrive to session, tend to what’s on the surface, deepen into larger themes and pervasive patterns, and contain difficult emotions and memories before you have to shift back into the “real world.”
We'll investigate your core beliefs, heal chronic stress and break ongoing patterns. We'll restore your MindBody connection so you can move beyond surviving to thriving.
Through practice you'll transform.
True healing is non-linear, but you will experience small shifts immediately due to the power of working somatically: with the MindBody connection.
By working from the bottom-up: sensations, emotions, then thoughts, you'll access a well of information about yourself and foster compassion for your survival defenses, known as "parts" causing your inner conflict and outward distress.
You'll learn to trust yourself again.
Why I Serve
I believe choosing to heal ourselves is essential for building a world that centers equity, inclusivity and connection. I believe humans are inherently good, but are so injured and trapped by our conditioned survival responses we forget how to access joy, authentic relationships or embrace change. Helping fellow humans heal gives me great satisfaction and hope for a brighter future our world so desperately needs.