Individual Therapy
Somatic Therapy for adults navigating what talk therapy hasn't reached.
Available in-person in Brooklyn, New York and virtually throughout New York, Massachusetts, and Florida.
You deserve to thrive.
You deserve to live a fulfilling life complete with delight, joy, respectful relationships, and genuine fun! You deserve to speak your truths, maintain your boundaries, feel like you can be seen (and can tolerate being seen) and experience enjoyable and deep physical, emotional and even spiritual intimacy.
Facing your personal, collective and ancestral history, and understanding your unique imprinting, is necessary for healing. We might not always have precise answers to point to what went wrong or where, or, we might recall a rather ideal upbringing where nothing major was wrong or missing and we “had what we needed” or “dealt with it.”
But sometimes we don’t realize what might have been missing.
How even though we got through, we deserved more than what we got. Without complaint, we’ll touch into the sense of loneliness or anger that might be underneath your tendency to withdraw, freeze, or act out.
We’ll pull out the weeds and get at the root of the problem, giving “the flower of you” the water, sun and fertilizer it needs to grow.
No two people are the same: some are cacti and need lots of sun and little water, some are sunflowers and need lots of both.
However you are, you’re welcome.
Areas of Focus
Somatic therapy can help with:
- Trauma, PTSD, and complex PTSD
- Anxiety and chronic stress
- Relational patterns and attachment wounds
- Racial trauma and the cumulative weight of navigating systems that were not built for you
- High achievers and founders whose nervous system is carrying more than their output shows
- Life transitions, identity shifts, and grief
- Somatic therapy and Internal Family Systems for people who have done years of talk therapy and want to go further
What to Expect
What therapy looks like:
Pinpoint the Pattern
Together we figure out what the pattern or problem is, and what happens in your body and experience when you're faced with the challenge. We explore your personal, ancestral, and collective history and understand your unique imprinting. We look honestly at what might have been missing, even in a "good childhood," without judgment and without getting lost in the story.
Get to the Root
We get underneath the surface behavior to what's driving it. Using Somatic Experiencing and Internal Family Systems, we touch into the loneliness, anger, or shame that may be underneath your tendency to withdraw, freeze, or act out. We address not just why a pattern exists, but what it would take to actually shift it in the body, not just the mind.
Build Genuine Capacity
You learn to be with your emotions without being overwhelmed by them. Not through suppression or management, but through somatic and mindfulness-based approaches that build the kind of nervous system regulation that creates real, lasting change. You develop the ability to speak your truths, maintain your boundaries, and tolerate being fully seen.
Move Forward Differently
We unburden and unpack the beliefs you've held, the limitations you've felt, and the ways you've felt trapped. From that place, you move from anxiety and a sense of not-enough toward something that actually feels like wholeness and wellbeing. Not a fixed destination, but a genuinely different way of moving through your life.
"Francesca strikes the perfect balance between pushing and holding with boundaries and compassion. She inspires healing from within."
M.M. · Individual Client
Also at Maximé Clarity
Need more than weekly sessions?
If your schedule or situation calls for something more concentrated, Relational Intensives at Maximé Clarity offer immersive full-day formats designed for exactly that.
Common Questions
About Individual Somatic Therapy
What is somatic therapy, and how is it different from talk therapy?
Somatic therapy works with the body as well as the mind. Talk therapy operates primarily through language and insight — understanding why you feel the way you do, or where a pattern comes from. Somatic therapy goes further: it addresses what the nervous system has absorbed and stored, often long before there were words for it. The goal isn't just understanding — it's actual shift. Many people who've been in talk therapy for years find that somatic approaches move things that conversation alone couldn't reach.
What is Internal Family Systems (IFS), and is it right for me?
Internal Family Systems is a model that understands the mind as made up of different parts — each with its own perspective, history, and role. Some parts protect; some carry old pain; some drive behavior that made sense at one point but no longer serves. IFS creates a compassionate framework for understanding why you do what you do, and a path toward genuine internal shift rather than just management. It's particularly effective for people who feel internally conflicted, struggle with self-criticism, or have found that insight alone doesn't change their patterns.
What does Francesca specialize in for individual therapy?
The primary focus areas are trauma and PTSD, anxiety, relational patterns, and the specific pressures that come with high achievement and high visibility. Many individual clients are founders, executives, creatives, and professionals who are functioning at a high level externally while carrying something that hasn't shifted — despite prior therapy, insight, and self-awareness. The work draws from Somatic Experiencing (SE), Internal Family Systems (IFS), and mindfulness-based approaches, integrated based on what each client actually needs.
How long does individual therapy typically take?
It depends on what you're working on and what you're hoping for. Some people come with a specific issue and find meaningful movement in a focused period of months. Others are doing deeper work on longstanding patterns and find value in longer-term engagement. The timeline is always discussed openly — the goal is never indefinite therapy, but genuine movement toward what you came in for. A consultation call is the best place to get a realistic sense of what the work would look like for your specific situation.
Where does individual therapy take place, and is virtual therapy available?
In-person sessions are available in Brooklyn, New York. Virtual individual therapy is available for clients in New York, Massachusetts, and Florida — the states in which Francesca holds clinical licensure. Sessions are conducted via a HIPAA-compliant platform. For clients navigating complex trauma or somatic work, in-person is often preferable when accessible — but virtual sessions are genuinely effective and not a lesser alternative.
What can I expect from a first session?
The first session is primarily about understanding what's bringing you in and what you're hoping for — not intake paperwork or history-taking for its own sake. You'll have space to describe what's been happening in your own words. Francesca will ask questions that help clarify the picture and begin to orient toward what the work might look like. Most people leave the first session feeling heard and with a clearer sense of direction. The work itself begins in earnest once there's a shared understanding of what we're working toward.