About
Francesca Maximé, LCSW
Somatic psychotherapy for adults, couples, and adult families in New York, Florida, and Massachusetts.
About Francesca
I'm a Haitian-Dominican Italian-American somatic psychotherapist practicing virtually in New York, Massachusetts, and Florida, with in-person sessions available in Brooklyn. I hold a Harvard AB in English Literature and a Master's in Clinical Social Work from Fordham.
Before clinical work, I spent nearly two decades as a television news anchor and correspondent for PBS NewsHour, Bloomberg, NBC, and FOX — which means I understand the specific pressures of high-achieving, high-visibility life from the inside. I'm an award-winning poet and the author of two books of poetry, and the host of the Rerooted Podcast on Ram Dass's Be Here Now Network.
I came to this work through my own. For years I did traditional therapy- I understood the difficult things that had shaped me, but that understanding didn't shift the patterns underneath. When I found the combination of somatic work, Buddhist psychology, and neuroscience, everything changed. I moved from anxiety and a persistent sense of not-enough toward something that actually felt like wholeness. I trained in this work because I wanted to offer what had been so transformative for me.
Working with me can be a mix of a coach-y “big sister” advice session, where I can share some of my “been there/done that” moments that may help support you in seeing your situation from another perspective. Usually, there are some laughs. Sometimes, there are tears. Sometimes, we move and yell and allow the body to do what it needs to do.Sometimes we imagine getting what we need in a way that feels genuinely satisfying — even knowing we can't erase the past. There's space for all of it.
My Approach
I don't see myself as the expert who knows more than you do about your own life. I see myself as someone who works alongside you to uncover the answers that are already there — because I believe they are.
What I've found is that people move when they stop getting caught in the stories they tell themselves and go back to the actual experience of what the body is holding. Not what we think we should feel, not what the narrative says — what's actually happening underneath. That's where genuine shift becomes possible.
My clinical work draws on Somatic Experiencing, Internal Family Systems, and Relational Life Therapy. The modality shifts based on what you actually need.
Somatic Experiencing addresses what talk therapy alone cannot: the places where the body has absorbed what the mind has been trying to manage.
Internal Family Systems creates a language for the internal dynamics that show up in every relationship: the parts that protect, the parts that carry old pain, the parts that drive behavior that no longer serves.
Relational Life Therapy, developed by Terry Real, addresses the patterns that couples bring into the room — the dance of grandiosity and shame, the inherited models of connection and disconnection.
Together, these form the foundation of the Somatic Relational Method — the framework I bring to every engagement, whether individual, couples, or family work.
What stays consistent is the orientation: toward the body, toward honesty, and toward something that feels real rather than managed.
Approach
The Somatic Relational Method.
I don't see myself as the expert who knows more than you do about your own life. I see myself as someone who works alongside you to uncover the answers that are already there — because I believe they are.
What I've found is that people move when they stop getting caught in the stories they tell themselves and go back to the actual experience of what the body is holding. Not what we think we should feel, not what the narrative says — what's actually happening underneath. That's where genuine shift becomes possible.
After fifteen years of clinical work, I've developed a three-phase framework that anchors every engagement: the Somatic Relational Method. The work moves through three movements that, together, reach what insight alone cannot.
The modalities that anchor this work.
Somatic Experiencing
Developed by Peter Levine. Addresses what talk therapy alone cannot: the places where the body has absorbed what the mind has been trying to manage.
Internal Family Systems
Developed by Richard Schwartz. Creates a language for the internal dynamics that show up in every relationship: the parts that protect, the parts that carry old pain, the parts that drive behavior that no longer serves.
Relational Life Therapy
Developed by Terry Real. Addresses the patterns that couples bring into the room: the dance of grandiosity and shame, the inherited models of connection and disconnection.
Intimacy from the Inside Out
The IFS relational model. Guides courageous conversations that create space for both the listener and the speaker.
The goal is not to stop at understanding. The goal is to keep going until something shifts, from the inside out.
Client Voices
"Francesca is an attuned healer. I'm a psychotherapist and Francesca has helped me really listen to the 'unheard' parts of my being and to what they have to say about my present day experiences. By doing this, I have truly felt a big difference in the quality of my relationships since I started seeing her."
K.D. · Individual Client
"I have known Francesca for several years and she has an ability to create so much space and comfort that it feels possible to explore tender topics in her presence. Further, she has a wealth of clinical knowledge and lived experience that creates a sense of holding for me which is essential especially with some of my intersecting identities."
S.D. · Individual Client
Education and Training
Credentials and Certifications
Fifteen years of clinical work across somatic therapy, Internal Family Systems, and relational approaches — alongside a career in television journalism and two published books of poetry.