If you have a body, you will feel pain.
The natural world is characterized by growth and decay, ebb and flow, shedding and blooming. We, too, cycle through intelligent rhythms of expansion and collapse, descent and return.
To live is to surrender to these cycles of death and crawl through the muck of rebirth. To heal is not to arrive at an end point, but a devotional way of being that honors your soul’s journey and your body’s wisdom across seasons of life.
Pain is a portal. Your body is the map.
Depth-Oriented Somatic Therapy
WHAT IS SOMATIC THERAPY?
The mind seeks to understand what the body already knows.
Beyond conditioned thoughts and protective masks, there is a timeless place where memory, patterns, and profound wisdom are kept.
Through the soma, we access what has kept us suspended, braced, numbed, reactive, or controlled, and bring medicine to the original wound.
This transformation at the root creates an opportunity for deep integration and embodiment.
WHO IS SOMATIC THERAPY FOR?
For the sensitive, soulful, creatives, seekers, & disruptors, the black sheep or the shoulder everyone leans on:
You may be navigating a life transition, anxiety, depression, or grief that feels deeper than circumstance. You may carry traumatic residue in your body more than your memory. You may have a history of doing the work: therapy, yoga, meditation, insight and still find yourself craving a more aligned life. You recognize yourself here:
You understand your patterns, yet you keep repeating them
You feel deeply, but go numb, disconnect, or freeze when it matters most
You long for intimacy, expression, and aliveness while also fearing vulnerability
You sense that what keeps recurring – patterns, dreams, relationships – is pointing toward something that wants to be met, not managed
You're exhausted by making sense of your story and ready to move through it
You're drawn to a slower, more intuitive, body-based way of healing
This work tends to resonate especially for highly-sensitive people (HSP), those with a rich inner life, first-generation children of collectivist cultures or emotionally immature parents, and anyone called to transformation at the root versus symptom relief.
If any of this sounds like you: you're in the right place.
HOW DO SOMATIC THERAPY SESSIONS FLOW?
Sessions begin with attunement to the emotional undercurrent of present circumstances.
Space is created for shame, rage, fear, grief, longing, joy, pride – or any combination thereof – to be felt and expressed through words, imagery, sound, sensation, or silence.
Expanded consciousness is a doorway to release what’s been held and move anything incomplete to completion through the nervous system. Embodiment is cultivated organically through somatic resources that, over time, become integrated and support a life that feels more harmonious, grounded, and authentically your own.
Sessions may include:
Verbal processing: exploring past, present, and future circumstances, narratives, and stories to surface deeper emotional content
Somatic psychotherapy: tracking the body's moment-to-moment experience and using somatic resources as a doorway into completion and nervous system repair
Depth-oriented & Jungian psychology: working with the psyche's deeper layers, including unconscious patterns, archetypes, and the symbolic life of dreams and imagery
IFS (Internal Family Systems) & somatic parts work: getting to know the inner landscape of parts that protect, carry pain, or hold you back, with curiosity and compassion
EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing): an evidence-based, body-based approach to processing trauma and loosening the grip of painful memories
Mindfulness, Breathwork, & Sound: intentional visualization, breath, and sound practices that access states beyond ordinary talk therapy, facilitating release, integration, and expanded awareness
WHAT CAN I EXPECT FROM SOMATIC THERAPY?
We begin where you are. We follow your body, psyche, & soul.
The only thing you need to bring is a genuine, collaborative inquiry into what your body and psyche are asking for. A willingness to honor depth and engage in body-based modalities to navigate depression, anxiety, trauma, grief, or life transitions is foundational to therapeutic outcomes.
Over time, many clients find that what first brought them in becomes a doorway into something larger: a more embodied life, a deeper relationship with themselves, and a capacity to meet experience without being overcome by it.
Individual somatic therapy sessions are typically 50-75 minutes while specialized offerings like EMDR intensives and Soma + Sound sessions are 90-180 minutes. Sessions are available in-person in Santa Monica or virtually throughout California.
HOW DO I GET STARTED?
On the threshold?
I offer a free mini-session – a 15 minute phone or video call – to connect, ask questions, and experience my offerings. If it feels aligned, we’ll go over next steps and book your first session through my client portal. I’m looking forward to connecting with and supporting you.
WHO ARE YOU?
Hi, I’m Megan Shaina Bakva.
Depth-oriented somatic therapist · Breath + sound facilitator · Writer · Los Angeles, CA
I am not who I am because I am a somatic therapist. I am a somatic therapist because of who I am.
I once moved through life with urgency and vigilance, braced and breathless as I shifted into the shapes each relationship or job asked of me. Through somatic therapy, what was once vigilant monitoring became a steady, kind presence and what was once braced became fluid. I learned to not only hold, but belong to myself.
If you are sensitive, soulful, a seeker or a disruptor – if you are craving a more harmonious, grounded, and aligned life – I'm honored to walk side-by-side with you, bearing compassionate witness to your being and your becoming.
WHAT ARE YOUR SPECIALTIES?
Our work takes shape within a co-created field between therapist and client.
POPULATION
Individual, one-to-one therapy for adults 18+
Life transitions, trauma, grief, depression, anxiety
Highly-sensitive people (HSP), neurodivergence
First-generation children of collectivist cultures, emotionally immature parents
APPROACH & MODALITY
Somatic psychotherapy for incidental trauma (PTSD)
Nervous system and attachment repair for complex trauma (C-PTSD)
Reparenting and somatic parts work for developmental and attachment wounds
Sound meditation (harmonic instruments and vocal toning) as a conduit for healing
Breath work, meditation, visualization, sonic journeys for coherence and resonance