Leigh Witzling
Therapy · Healing · Somatics
Psychotherapy
I offer warm, person-centered psychotherapy for teens and adults in Vermont, emphasizing politicized healing and somatic practices in my work. I accompany you through self-exploration, unraveling and unlearning oppressive forces that have been embedded in you for years or even generations. I support you with gentle guidance by holding the heavy parts, witnessing you in your process, and offering new tools for resilience to replace ones that no longer serve you.
Politicized Healing
Politicized healing means doing away with cookie-cutter wellness tactics developed under oppressive regimes and breathing new life into care by imagining a liberated future for you and with you. It means that I don’t try to “fix” you.
Politicized healing means working collaboratively to develop a care plan that aligns with your values, meets your needs, and is accessible to you without relying on police, psychiatric institutions, or other carceral systems.
Politicized healing doesn’t mean ignoring research or traditional therapeutic techniques that work. I am fascinated by and rely on neuroscience, epigenetics, and the biology of trauma. It means recognizing that even science is not unbiased, and that stories, spirituality, relationships, and intuition are just as valuable sources of healing.
Somatic Practices
Somatics, while often used as a buzzword to describe any body-related practice, is an entire theory of change related to the way humans individually and collectively embody experiences, ways of being, and worldviews and transform them into habits and norms. To practice somatics is to bring our bodies, thought patterns, actions, and values closer into alignment.
Practicing somatics in a session means that your body is not an afterthought, but is central to your healing work. Your body is a deep well of knowledge that offers as much insight into your lived experience as your mind.
I will accompany you as we learn together what your body already knows, not only by tracking your physical bodily experiences, but also by paying attention to how your whole being can relate to others and shape your environment.