INTEGRATIVE SOMATIC THERAPY
A PLACE TO SLOW DOWN, FEEL, AND CONNECT WITH THE
DEEPER ASPECTS OF YOU
MEET MARAYA RODOSTIANOS, THERAPIST IN PERSON IN MELBOURNE,
& ONLINE AUSTRALIA WIDE, CA, US (PT/EST) & NZ
It can feel like the ways you’ve been showing up in life and relationships - holding back your emotions, avoiding, people-pleasing, perfectionism, anxiety, stress or over-functioning, are just part of who you are..
But they aren’t.
These patterns are protective adaptations. Strategies you learned to keep you safe at a time when survival mattered most. They made sense then.
Now, they’re costing you; in your body, your relationships, and your sense of self.
Often, it is life itself that brings this into focus.
A rupture, a loss, an illness, a season of uncertainty or change can shake the structures you’ve relied on and what was once operating in the background, begins to surface. Reactions can feel stronger, old ways of coping are less effective and you can feel a little destabilised.
I see these moments as potent thresholds.
Adversity can be a time of reckoning, initiating us into deeper self-awareness.
It asks us to slow down, to listen and to feel what we’ve long overridden. It invites us to examine the identities we’ve constructed for survival and to question whether they still serve the life we are growing into.
By exploring where your patterns come from, sense and feel how they live and express themselves in your body, and recognise how they shape your relationships in real time, you begin to create space. Space for choice. Space for presence. Space for a more authentic way of being to emerge.. one that feels steadier, truer and more aligned with who you truly are.
"Healing isn’t about ‘fixing’ ourselves, but about discovering the inherent wholeness that lies within."
MATT LICATTA
MEET MARAYA
Therapy with me is different..
You may have tried traditional talk therapy and gained valuable insight, but are sensing you need something deeper.
The people who find their way to me aren’t looking to keep retelling their story or endlessly analysing the past. They want to work where patterns truly live - in the body, in the nervous system, and the identities formed around staying safe.
My work is grounded in the understanding that the body is the storehouse for experience and wisdom. Working with the body can access memory, emotion and sensation that the mind simply cannot.
Many people understand their patterns intellectually, yet their body still reacts automatically with anxiety, tightening, bracing or shutting down. Somatic therapy works where these patterns live, in the body, helping you notice and work with sensations, emotions and impulses as they arise, retraining your nervous system to respond with presence, steadiness and choice, over being hijacked by old patterns.
Many of the people I work with recognise themselves in patterns like:
Over-functioning in relationships - taking responsibility and carrying more than their share
People-pleasing or self abandoning - prioritising others needs over their own
Withdrawing or shutting down when conflict or strong emotions arise
Becoming reactive or defensive when feeling criticised, misunderstood or unsafe
Feeling triggered by partners, family members or children
Trying to control or manage their emotions or situations to feel safe, versus trusting their capacity to meet what life brings
Stuck in patterns of distraction; overeating, drinking, social media, shopping, overthinking, overworking etc.
Chronic health issues: burnout, digestive issues, chronic stress etc.
My Approach:
-
Embodied Processing is a holistic somatic-psychotherapy approach that addresses the root of trauma, stress and emotional dysregulation stored in the body. Developed on modern neuroscience on trauma and the nervous system, informed by pioneers in trauma work and integrating modalities like Somatic Experiencing, Internal Family Systems, Polyvagal Theory, NARM, mindfulness, and timeless wisdom traditions, it helps repair your inner relationship, release stuck stress, restore nervous system balance, and transform patterns that drive anxiety, depression, chronic health, addictions, compulsions and relational challenges. By working from the body up, it empowers you to reconnect with your authentic self, increase emotional resilience, and respond to life from a steadier, more present place.
-
Somatic Inquiry describes the process of guided body-based explorations that help you access and work directly, with the wisdom of your body. Your body has guidance and answers; memories, emotions and patterns stored in tissues and the nervous system. By learning to communicate with it, you can access insights and experiences that might otherwise remain hidden. These methods help you uncover and understand the emotional patterns, beliefs, trauma, stress and tension that have been held in your nervous system for years, shaping your experience.
-
Through trauma informed, embodied mindfulness and self-compassion practices, you learn to stay present with your body, emotions, and inner experience without judgment or avoidance. By cultivating awareness of how stress, tension, and protective patterns live in your body, these practices help you soften resistance, embrace your full range of feelings, and develop a kinder, more grounded relationship with yourself.
-
Sometimes communicating with the body can be difficult or take time, especially when there has been significant trauma or disconnection from it. Using art, play, drama, movement, roleplay, and other expressive approaches, we can step into creative exploration, where images, symbols, movement and form become guides, helping you access emotions, patterns, and insights that words alone can’t touch. Through this process, you can reconnect with parts of yourself that have been hidden or ignored, explore difficult feelings safely, and discover new ways to express, understand, and integrate your experience.
-
This work is ultimately about reconnecting with your true self — the original blueprint you were born with, your essential essence, and the qualities that make you uniquely you. Beneath the layers of adaptations, protective patterns, and conditioned responses lies a deeper, authentic self that has always been present.
This self has qualities that may have been diminished, distorted or suppressed over time. All of our work orients toward clearing the way to meet the deeper self, rediscovering what was lost, reclaiming your alignment with your own truth, and expressing your true self fully as a human being in the world.
HOW THIS WORK SUPPORTS CHANGE
1/ Gain deeper awareness of the patterns that shaped you
Begin to recognise the patterns, roles and beliefs that developed in response to earlier experiences. Gently get to know the inner parts of you that carry these patterns; the protective parts that manage life, and the more vulnerable parts that hold deeper feelings and unmet needs.
2/ Develop the capacity to stay present somatically
Through somatic and nervous system work, learn to notice what happens in your body when emotions and triggers arise. This growing capacity allows you to stay present with your experience and the parts of you that become activated in emotionally charged moments, responding with capacity and awareness rather than automated reactions.
3/ Relate to life from inner safety, steadiness & openness
As your relationship with yourself deepens, and your capacity to hold activation grows, old survival strategies begin to soften. A greater sense of steadiness, presence and trust develops, allowing you to meet life and relationships with more authenticity, resilience and freedom.
THE GOAL ISN’T PERFECTION, IT’S PRESENCE
‘The wound is the place where the light enters you.’
RUMI
SPECIALISING IN
Clients describe me as warm, compassionate, intuitive, present and steady.
I meet you in my own authenticity, and from my own lived experience. I am committed to doing my own ongoing inner work and am a lifelong student of all that I teach. I won’t ask you to go somewhere I haven’t gone myself.
I know personally how confronting it is to question who you’ve been being, to sit with things you have normally run from, and I also know the freedom that comes when you do.
THERAPY WITH ME IS:
-
A place where you can set down the effort of holding everything together and begin relating to yourself with more depth and integrity.. honouring body, mind, and spirit.
-
I meet you exactly where you are, walking alongside you, helping you meet the parts of yourself you can’t reach alone. We move very slowly, noticing the small nuances happening in your body, and how the mind relates to that, working at a pace that builds safety and capacity rather than overwhelm.
-
We don’t just talk about triggers; we work with them as they arise. Step by step, you build the capacity to feel without collapsing, respond with choice rather than reaction, and reconnect with a steadier, truer version of yourself; in your life, your relationships, and in how you relate to yourself.
-
At times, we’ll sit with what feels uncomfortable or long avoided; grief, rage, shame, fear, or the words and actions you’ve kept inside - without bypassing or softening it prematurely. Other times, we’ll explore how your body learned to brace, withdraw, over-function or disconnect, gently unwinding patterns that no longer serve you.
My goal is to help you cultivate the capacity to remain steady, aware and connected to yourself, even in the face of adversity and when difficult feelings arise.
With this steadiness and awareness you can then meet life with intention and emotional resilience; engaging more fully, honestly and openly in relationships, honouring your body and its needs, trusting yourself and your inner guidance, building capacity for intimacy, vulnerability, and taking action that is in alignment with who you truly are.
Whether you are rebuilding or beginning a relationship, rediscovering yourself after loss, being forced to look at yourself due to illness or a health challenge, or putting the pieces back together after a significant life rupture, this time in your life can become a passage for inner healing, and the emergence of the deeper, truer you.
My Training:
-
Embodied Processing Practitioner Level 1 & 2
Certified Life Coach
Women’s Transformational Coach
Transpersonal Arts Therapy and Arts Psychotherapy
Hatha Yoga Instructor
Positive Neuroplasticity Practitioner
Heart Math Practitioner
Meditation + Mindfulness Teacher (In-Training)
Ongoing student of the Diamond Approach
-
Phoenix Institue Transpersonal Art Therapy
Ikon Institute Arts Psychotherapy
MindValley Life Coach
The Centre for Healing Embodied Processing
Deep Brain Reorienting - current
Mindfulness + Meditation Teacher Training - current
Additional ongoing education through PESI, Embody Lab and NICABM