You've Done the Work. Your Body Still Won't Let Go.
Emotional Release Therapy in Houston, TX and Shuswap Lake, BC — unhurried somatic sessions for what talking couldn't reach.
Book My Free ConsultationYou know your story by heart. That's part of what's so confusing.
You've understood it for years. You can name the pattern, trace where it started, explain the whole thing to a new therapist in about four minutes.
And still, your body holds on.
There's the tightening that shows up before you know why. The energy that hums through you at two in the morning with nowhere to put it. Sensations you can't name — not memories exactly, not thoughts, just something moving in you that you have no words for. Feelings that land in your body like it's happening again right now.
Maybe you stopped bringing it up. Maybe it started to feel like you were the one who wasn't doing it right.
I want to say this gently, because I lived it for a long time: nothing is wrong with you. You've been working from the neck up, and what you're carrying was never stored there.
Emotional Release Therapy
Sometimes your body carries things that words were never able to express.
Maybe there were tears that didn't feel safe to cry.
Anger that had nowhere to go.
Fear that had to be swallowed because getting through the day mattered more than feeling what was happening inside.
It makes sense.
You don't have to tell the whole story.
One of the beautiful things about Emotional Release Therapy is that you don't have to put everything into words.
You don't have to relive painful memories.
You don't have to explain every detail.
Your body already knows where to begin.
We'll simply listen.
And together, we'll follow its lead.
Two ways we can work together.
Sessions
Regular sessions, at whatever pace feels right to you. Some people come weekly at first and move to something looser later. Some come when something surfaces and they want company for it. You're the one who knows — I won't ever prescribe a number of sessions.
- 60 minutes$150
- 90 minutes$220
- 120 minutes$270
Intensives
Three hours together, for when you're ready to go into something bigger and don't want to stop at the hour mark just as it's opening. My approach in intensives is informed by Internal Family Systems and sensory-based art processes alongside ERT.
- 3-hour intensive$650
Includes a 50-minute conversation beforehand and a 50-minute integration session afterward, so you're not walking in cold or leaving without landing.
I came to this work as a client first.
For decades I couldn't cry. I carried grief from childhood and couldn't shed a single tear, no matter how well I understood where it came from.
I tried so much. Cognitive behavioural therapy, EMDR, inner child work, process art, yoga, mindfulness, drumming, tapping, craniosacral therapy, meditation. Every one of them gave me something real. And my body still needed more. I was living with body memories and physical flashbacks, and quietly afraid that meant I was going crazy.
Then I had my first ERT session, and I knew I'd found it.
My grief isn't gone. I can turn toward it now instead of running from it. My fear isn't gone either — but I can hold it, learn from it, let it move through me. What changed is that I'm no longer stuck inside my own body.
Sweet release. Profound freedom. And sorrowful joy — it's a thing.
There's nothing about you that needs fixing.
You learned to hold it. At the time, that was the wisest thing available to you — often the only thing.
What kept you safe then is costing you something now. That isn't a failure on your part. It's just what happens, and it happens to nearly everyone who had to get through something alone.
You stay in charge here. You decide how far into your body you go, and when you'd like to stop. This isn't a massage — I'm not doing something to you while you lie there. You're doing the work, at your own speed. I'm here so that you're not doing it by yourself this time.
In their words.
"I've spent years trying to think my way through my healing, but something still felt stuck. Working with Jonita helped me realize that my body had been carrying what my words couldn't express. I finally experienced a sense of peace that I hadn't been able to reach through talking alone."
— Kennedy S.
"I came in thinking I needed to 'fix' myself. Instead, Jonita gently helped me understand that my nervous system had been protecting me for years. Emotional Release Therapy gave me an experience I can't quite put into words—it felt like my body finall..."
"I came in thinking I needed to 'fix' myself. Instead, Jonita gently helped me understand that my nervous system had been protecting me for years. Emotional Release Therapy gave me an experience I can't quite put into words—it felt like my body finally exhaled. I left feeling more connected to myself than I have in a long time."
— Kim C.
"For the first time, I didn't feel like I had to explain everything that happened to me. Jonita helped me listen to what my body had been trying to say all along. I left feeling lighter, calmer, and with a deeper sense that I wasn't broken after all."
— Jake L.
What people usually want to know first.
I've already spent years and a lot of money on therapy. Why would this be any different?
Because it doesn't work through language. Talk therapy asks you to understand what happened. This asks you to feel it in your body and let it finish. Most people who come to me have done a great deal of work already — that work isn't wasted. It's often exactly what makes someone ready for this.
What does a release actually look like? I'm nervous about losing control.
It looks like whatever it needs to look like for you. Sometimes crying or shaking, sometimes rage or coughing, sometimes something so quiet from the outside that you'd hardly notice. Nothing is forced, ever. You set the pace, and you can stop whenever you want to. Anything that keeps us both safe is welcome here without judgment.
Do I have to tell you what happened to me?
No. Not ever, unless you want to. We follow sensation, not story.
Will it hurt?
It shouldn't. A place you've been guarding for years can feel tender when you finally go there — that part is real. But as the holding releases, that place softens, and there's less pain rather than more.
Let's just talk first. No charge, and no pressure to book anything.
Tell me a little about what's been happening in your body. I'll be honest with you about whether I think this work is a fit — and if it isn't, I'll say so and help you find something that is.
I'm in Houston, TX from September through May, and at Shuswap Lake, BC from June through August.
Book My Free Consultation