Melanie in an alpine meadow with her dog

Somatic Coaching & Body-Led Healing

Return to
your body.
Come home.

Somatic coaching that guides you back to the wisdom, safety, and aliveness already living within you.

Nervous System

Gently expanding your capacity to feel safe, regulated, and present in your own body.

Somatic Awareness

Learning to listen to the intelligence already alive within your body. Your most honest guide.

Deep Healing

Moving through the patterns that keep you stuck and into the life your body is already calling you toward.

Client Voices

What people say

There's a certain kind of material that usually makes a therapist subtly reach for the rudder. You can feel it, the small tightening, the redirect, the move toward something more workable. Melanie doesn't do that. I've brought her things I had been carrying carefully, alone, for a long time, and what struck me was that she didn't tense around any of it. She didn't try to reframe or reassure. She didn't soften the edges. She just stayed with what was actually there, including the parts that weren't pretty or moving in a hopeful direction. Because of that I've ended up bringing her things I hadn't planned to bring. I trust what she can hold, and that trust changes what's possible in the work. Whatever I come in with is allowed to be in the room with us. That is rare, and I don't take it lightly.

— Sarah M.

When I started working with Melanie, I had reached the edge of what my mind could do with what I was carrying. I needed someone who could sit with me in what I wasn't yet able to speak. Our sessions have been some of the most grounded work I've done. Melanie has a quality of presence that's hard to describe. She's attentive without hovering. She seems to know exactly when to say something and when to let silence do the work. What I've come to appreciate is how safe she makes the slowness feel. In other kinds of work I've always felt a subtle pressure to get somewhere. With her, there's never anywhere to go except where I actually am. I feel like I'm finding my way back to myself, piece by piece. I trust the work we're doing, and more than that, I trust her.

— Rachel T.

Melanie creates a deeply safe, intuitive space where your body can finally process what your mind alone couldn't, leading to real, lasting growth.

— Chris O.

My Approach

Your body holds
the answers.

My work is rooted in the understanding that the body is not a problem to be solved, but a landscape to be explored. Through somatic awareness, nervous system regulation, and compassionate inquiry, we move through what has kept you stuck and toward the life your body intuitively knows how to call in.

At the heart of this work are the principles of Hakomi, a mindful somatic approach that treats the body as a direct doorway to the unconscious patterns shaping how we live, love, and relate.

The Hakomi Principles

These five principles guide every session, not as techniques, but as a way of being with you and your experience.

Mindfulness

Real change comes through awareness, not effort. By slowing down and turning attention inward, we access the unconscious material that drives our patterns, material that conversation alone rarely reaches.

Nonviolence

We work with what arises, not against it. Defenses and protective parts are honored as wisdom, not obstacles. Nothing is forced; everything is invited.

Organicity

Each person carries their own unique blueprint for healing. My role is to follow your inner wisdom, trusting that your system knows what it needs and will move toward wholeness when given the right conditions.

Unity

We are not separate from our environment, our relationships, or each other. Healing happens in connection, and the therapeutic relationship itself becomes a container for new experience.

Mind-Body Holism

The body and mind are not separate systems. They are one. Beliefs, memories, and emotions live in the body as posture, breath, sensation, and movement. Working somatically means working with the whole person.

IFS — Internal Family Systems

Alongside Hakomi, I draw on Internal Family Systems (IFS), a powerful framework for understanding the many "parts" that live within us — the inner critic, the people-pleaser, the protector, the wounded child. Rather than silencing or overriding these parts, IFS invites us to turn toward them with curiosity and compassion. Each one carries a positive intention, even when its methods cause us pain.

Together, Hakomi and IFS create a deeply complementary approach: Hakomi brings us into the body to feel and sense what is present. IFS gives language and relationship to the parts we discover there.

Safety is not the absence of threat; it is the presence of connection. — Gabor Maté

Ways to Work Together

Offerings

Each offering is crafted to meet you exactly where you are — whether you're beginning your journey inward or deepening an existing practice.

01

1:1 Somatic Coaching

Private, deeply personal sessions tailored to your body, story, and nervous system. We work at your pace, tracking sensation, building safety, and expanding your capacity to feel, heal, and thrive. Sessions offered virtually.

02

Workshops & Retreats

Introductory and seasonal gatherings exploring somatic practices, body literacy, and nervous system awareness. A beautiful entry point for this work, or a complement to ongoing sessions.

Not sure which offering is right for you? Reach out. I'd love to find the right fit together.

About Melanie

My work is grounded in deep trust of the body's wisdom: how it carries what we haven't yet been able to say, how it knows before we do, and how it heals when given the right conditions.

My approach weaves somatic counseling, parts work, contemplative practice, and embodied movement, all anchored in gentle support of the nervous system and its activation pathways.

For years I tried to think my way through traumatic memories, pain, anxiety, and disconnection. What I eventually discovered is that the answers weren't in my head. They lived in the felt sense of my body, in the patterns my nervous system had been carrying for years, in a kind of knowing that sits below thought. That's where I found my voice, a sense of empowerment, and what I now understand as true Self-leadership.

That experience shapes how I work now. We pay attention to what your body is saying in real time. We notice breath, sensation, posture, and the subtle signals of your nervous system. We make space for the different parts of you that show up, the ones that protect and the ones that have been hurting. Over time, change tends to show up in the body first. A longer exhale. Less tension in the jaw. The ability to sit with something difficult without getting pulled under.

I hold space for people navigating anxiety, burnout, relational wounds, and life transitions. I also offer integration support for those carrying altered or expanded experiences, whether from ceremony, practice, or a significant life opening. My approach is warm, trauma-informed, and attuned to your unique nervous system needs. I believe healing can be gentle. It can feel like a long exhale, a moment of unexpected safety or a quiet coming home.

I would be honored to walk alongside you.

Training & Background

Hakomi Somatic Psychotherapy — Comprehensive & Skills Training, Two-Year Program

Trauma-Informed & Nervous System Focused

IFS-Informed Parts Work

200-Hour Yoga Teacher Training

A Decade of Ceremonial Work with Cofán and Asháninka Shamanic Traditions

Reach Out

Ready to begin?

I'd love to hear from you. Whether you're ready to start, have questions, or simply feel a pull toward this work, reach out. There are no wrong reasons to begin.

I typically respond within 2–3 business days. All inquiries are held with care and confidentiality.

Based in the San Francisco Bay Area

Virtual sessions available worldwide

melaniesitara@gmail.com

Return toyour body.Come home.