Repair the brain regions affected by addiction.
What Brings People Here
Some clients arrive in the early weeks of recovery, when the substance is gone but the nervous system is still in chaos. The anxiety, the sleeplessness, the cravings, the emotional flooding that using kept at bay, all of it surfaces at once, and the tools to handle it haven't been built yet.
Others arrive further along. They've done the program, worked the steps, stayed clean. And yet something still feels unresolved. A persistent restlessness. A body that doesn't know how to be comfortable. Triggers that arrive without warning and feel impossible to manage.
Both are familiar starting points here. And both point to the same underlying need: a nervous system that never learned to regulate without the substance.
The Role of the Nervous System in Addiction
Substance use and addictive behaviors are often, at their core, attempts to regulate an overwhelmed or undersupported nervous system. Substances work, in the short term, because they do what the nervous system cannot do on its own in that moment: calm, stimulate, numb, or connect.
What gets called a willpower problem or a moral failure is frequently a dysregulation problem. The body learned to reach for something outside itself because nothing inside felt like enough.
Somatic addiction treatment addresses that directly. Rather than focusing on the substance or behavior alone, this work builds the internal regulatory capacity that makes lasting recovery possible.
Credentials and Approach
In addition to somatic training, this practice holds the Holistic Addiction Treatment Professional (HATP) certification, a specialized credential in mind-body approaches to addiction recovery.
Sessions integrate Embodied Regulation Therapy (ERT) alongside foundational somatic methods to provide a structured, neurobiologically informed framework for recovery support.
What This Work Addresses
This practice works with both substance use and behavioral addiction, including alcohol, drugs, gambling, food, sex, and screens. While presentations vary widely, common threads include:
A nervous system that cycles between hyperarousal and collapse
Difficulty tolerating uncomfortable emotions without reaching for relief
Trauma histories that underlie or intersect with addictive patterns
Shame, disconnection, and difficulty feeling at home in the body
Cravings that feel physical, not just psychological
Addressing these layers somatically, rather than cognitively alone, tends to produce changes that hold.
What Sessions Look Like
Sessions are paced, practical, and adapted to where you are in recovery. Early work focuses on stabilization and building basic regulatory capacity. Over time, sessions may explore the underlying nervous system patterns and experiences that contributed to addictive behavior in the first place.
Sessions may include:
Nervous system education and craving cycle mapping
Somatic grounding and regulation practices for acute distress
Body-based processing of trauma and emotional dysregulation
Integration practices to support the recovery lifestyle between sessions
Sessions are available in person in West Los Angeles and via telehealth throughout California, the US, and worldwide.
How This Work Fits Into Recovery
Somatic addiction treatment at West LA Somatic is designed to work alongside, not instead of, existing recovery support. Whether you are working with a sponsor, attending meetings, in outpatient treatment, or supported by a prescribing physician, this work complements what you already have in place.
Sessions focus on building the nervous system resources that make the rest of recovery more sustainable: the capacity to sit with discomfort, to recognize and interrupt craving cycles early, to feel safe in your own body without chemical assistance.
This practice also collaborates with treatment teams and welcomes referrals from addiction medicine physicians, psychiatrists, and outpatient programs.
Recovery is hard enough without doing it in a dysregulated body.
If you're in early recovery and feeling overwhelmed, or further along and sensing something still needs to shift, reach out to schedule a free consultation.