Somatic Therapy in Palm Desert for the High-Functioning Perfectionist.
Because performing "fine" is exhausting.
Therapist, mama, coffee enthusiast, and someone who knows what it’s like to carry more than you ever expected, in your mind, in your body, and in your heart.
If you’re here, you’re likely the one who holds it all together. You’re high-achieving, deeply committed, and very good at navigating the "hustle,” but lately, the internal hum of "too much" has become impossible to ignore. I call this The Buzz, and I work with people who are tired of the performance.
Parenthood doesn't move in straight lines. It’s tender, disorienting, beautiful, and brutal at the same time. And for many of us, it starts long before a baby arrives. As an IVF parent myself, I understand that the weight of the "miracle" can sometimes make it feel like you aren't allowed to be messy.
But true healing isn't about adding another "self-care" task to your list. It’s about understanding your nervous system, reclaiming your agency, and learning how to be "good enough" in a world that demands perfection.
Hi, I’m Sophie,
My Approach & Training
*
My Approach & Training *
Therapy with me blends real-life understanding with evidence-based care.
I draw from several approaches, not to overcomplicate things, but to meet you where you are and support real change in your nervous system, your relationships, and your daily life.
Here’s how the tools I use actually support you:
-
How it helps: We move beyond just “talking” to notice how your story lives in your body. It’s a way to reclaim your agency and stop the cycle of self-abandonment that leads to burnout.
Learn more about this approach here.
-
How it helps: This is the roadmap for your nervous system. We learn to identify “The Buzz” and use somatic tools to guide your body back to a state of safety and connection.
-
How it helps: We look at the patterns in your closest relationships, the ways you reach for connection or pull away, and build a secure base that feels steady and supportive.
-
Provides practical, “in-the-moment,” skills for when emotions feel too big to manage, helping you find the balance between acceptance and change.
-
How it helps: A holistic lens that honors your deeper sense of purpose and the “why” behind your healing journey, looking at the soul-level growth within your human experience.
What to Expect
Working together, therapy becomes a place where things slow down.
A place where your nervous system can settle, your thoughts can untangle, and you don’t have to carry everything on your own.
You don’t need to show up with the right words.
You don’t need to explain everything perfectly.
You don’t need to be “doing it well” to belong here.
In our work together, you can expect:
A steady, grounding pace that helps your body feel safer than it does out in the "hustle."
A no-performance zone where you can be honest about what’s hard, without judgment.
Support in understanding the 'Buzz,’ the patterns beneath anxiety, overwhelm, or feeling disconnected.
Somatic tools to help regulate your nervous system in moments that feel like "too much."
Gentle exploration of how past experiences and your own upbringing shape your present reactions.
This work isn’t about fixing you.
It’s about helping you feel more resourced, more connected, and more able to meet this season of life, whether that’s fertility treatment, the mother wound, postpartum, or the complexities of adoption, with greater clarity and compassion.
Where This Work Comes From
I didn’t become a therapist who supports fertility, pregnancy, postpartum, and parenting by accident. I came to this work through lived experience, by moving through much of this emotional terrain myself.
I know what it’s like to sit in the parking lot before an ultrasound, holding your breath.
Waiting for embryo updates.
Counting the days and wondering if hoping feels safe.
Holding grief and possibility at the same time.
I also know what early motherhood can feel like, the identity shifts, the anxiety, the exhaustion. I know how your nervous system stays on high alert, even when everything looks ‘fine’ on the outside. I understand the weight of being the one who holds it all together.
My work is rooted in these experiences, not because my story is your story, but because I understand, from the inside, how complex and tender this season can be.
And I believe no parent should have to navigate it alone.
My Clinical Background
I’ve spent over 15 years supporting individuals, couples, and families through some of the most vulnerable seasons of their lives.
What I’ve learned is this:
The moment you’re in is rarely the whole story.
Beneath what feels overwhelming in the present, the anxiety, the “Buzz',’ the perfectionism, are patterns learned long ago. These were coping strategies that once kept you safe, but now leave you stretched too thin and disconnected from your own agency.
Therapy offers a place to slow down enough to actually see those patterns, understand where they came from, and begin building something steadier, truer, and more sustainable.
My work blends evidence-based therapy with a warm, grounded, somatic understanding of what it’s like to be a parent navigating life’s biggest transitions.
Why I Built Haven Wellness
I built Haven Wellness because I saw how few spaces existed for parents, especially queer parents and IVF families and high-achieving perfectionists, to talk honestly about what this season actually asks of you.
The waiting.
The worrying.
The identity shifts.
The quiet parts no one prepares you for.
So much family building happens internally, long before it shows up on the outside. I wanted to create a space where those experiences could be named, held, and supported, without minimizing, fixing, or rushing them.
Haven Wellness was built to be that place.
Therapy became my way of creating the space I wish I’d had, a place where you don’t have to perform ‘togetherness’ because I already understand the weight of the mask.
My work isn’t about perfection. It’s about helping you feel:
Human again.
Grounded again.
Connected again.
And it’s about offering you a space to breathe, maybe for the first time in a long while.