What Is Emotional Release Therapy?
A somatic practice for the emotions your body never got to finish expressing.
Emotional Release Therapy is a body-based practice that helps you release emotions that were never fully expressed and have stayed stored in your body ever since.
The session takes place on a massage table, but it is not massage therapy.
During the session, you'll be gently guided to connect with your body through your breath and simple, supportive prompts. As your nervous system begins to settle, the practitioner uses techniques to help release areas of chronic tension and protection where the body commonly stores stress and emotion.
As these areas begin to soften, emotions, sensations, memories, or insights may naturally arise. Rather than forcing a release, we create a safe space for your body to complete what it has been holding, at its own pace.
To see what this process looks like, watch the demonstration video below.
Will it hurt?
The goal of Emotional Release Bodywork is not to create pain. However, some areas of the body may feel tender or uncomfortable, especially if they have been holding chronic tension or protective patterns for a long time. That discomfort can sometimes reflect just how much your body has been carrying.
Your comfort and sense of safety are always the priority. You are in control of the session at all times. If anything feels too intense, you would like less pressure, or you simply need to pause, let me know. I will adjust immediately. This work is most effective when your body feels safe enough to guide the process.
While this is a deeper bodywork modality, the experience is always collaborative and tailored to your comfort level.
It was developed by Pat Jackman, who I trained with in California. I've been practicing since 2018.
Our bodies remember. Deep in our tissues, in our cells, our bodies hold what happened to us — often long after the mind has made its peace with it, and sometimes when the mind doesn't remember at all.
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.
Our bodies are remarkably wise. When something feels too overwhelming, too frightening, or too lonely to experience in the moment, our nervous system does what it was designed to do—it protects us. Sometimes that means setting those emotions aside until there is enough safety to return to them.
The feelings don't disappear.
Your body simply keeps holding them.
Not because it's broken.
Because it's been protecting you.
What if your body isn't working against you?
Emotional Release Therapy is a body-centered approach that listens to what your nervous system has been trying to communicate all along.
Rather than beginning with the story of what happened, we begin with what is happening right now.
Together, we'll notice the sensations, emotions, impulses, or places of tension your body is holding. We move slowly, with curiosity and compassion, never forcing your experience or pushing beyond what feels safe.
Sometimes your body has been waiting years to finish a protective response that was interrupted.
A breath.
A cry.
A trembling.
A movement.
A deep exhale.
As your nervous system discovers that it is finally safe enough to complete what it couldn't complete before, something often begins to soften.
Not because you're forcing yourself to let go.
Because your body no longer has to carry it alone.
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.
Every session is guided by you.
No two nervous systems are the same, and no two healing journeys are the same.
Some days that may look like Emotional Release Therapy.
Other days we may integrate Internal Family Systems (IFS) or creative, sensory-based art processes.
The approach is always shaped by what your body needs most in that moment.
Because healing isn't about following a protocol.
It's about creating enough safety for your nervous system to discover that it doesn't have to stay in survival.
Imagine if...
Imagine no longer feeling like you're carrying something you can't explain.
Imagine trusting your body instead of fearing it.
Imagine discovering that the sensations you've been fighting have been trying to tell you something all along.
Imagine responding with greater calm, presence, and freedom—not because you forced yourself to change, but because your body finally experienced what it had been needing for a very long time.
Healing isn't about becoming someone new.
It's about helping your nervous system discover that it's finally safe enough to return to the person you've always been.
To come home to yourself.
What I'm doing while you do that.
My role is to hold a safe, caring space and to bear witness. To notice, to encourage, to stay with you when it gets hard. You do the actual work. I make sure you're not alone in it.
Who is this work for?
People come to me when the talking has taken them as far as it can. Often that looks like:
- •You've done years of therapy, you understand your history well, and your body still hasn't caught up
- •You live with complex trauma or CPTSD
- •You have body memories or physical flashbacks — the feeling of it happening again, without pictures or words
- •You have sensations you can't name, and no vocabulary to describe them to anyone
- •There's a frenetic energy vibrating in you that won't settle
- •You've been managing well on the outside for a long time and are tired of managing
You don't need a diagnosis to come. You don't need to have identified your trauma. You don't even need to be able to explain what's wrong.
How is this different from massage or talk therapy?
It isn't a massage. In a massage, you're passive and something is done to you. Here, you're an active participant the entire time. Each session is a journey, and you're the one traveling.
It isn't talk therapy. We're not building understanding through conversation. You never have to narrate what happened to you, but you are welcome to share if that feels right. We follow what's happening in your body right now.
If you've done talk therapy, that work isn't wasted here. It's often what makes someone ready for this.
What this work can and can't do.
I want to be straight with you, because I think overpromising does real harm.
This work will not erase your history. My grief isn't gone. My fear isn't gone. What changed for me was my relationship to them — I can turn toward them now instead of running, and I'm no longer stuck in my own body.
Most people find this is an ongoing practice rather than a fix. Each layer that releases leaves you a little less armored. Life keeps offering challenges, and we keep having emotional responses to them. We do this work to stay free of what accumulates, and so that what we feel doesn't come out sideways at the people we love.