Client Testimonials

Somatic Experiencing with Allison has been a total game changer. Allison holds safe space to touch on fear and anxiety, then guides you back to a feeling of safety, helping you connect pathways that you may not otherwise have access to on your own. As someone who often intellectualizes feelings, it’s been an important step in my healing journey to be guided into fully feeling. I have been dealing with attachment anxiety throughout my life and have worked with a variety of practitioners. Working with Allison has helped me find a deeper, more embodied healing than I have with traditional talk therapy.

I’m a 64-year-old single male with some very traditional beliefs. 3-1/2 years ago, I mentioned to my chiropractor that I wanted to start exploring a more intensive journey and learn more about Yoga. My goal at the time was to increase my flexibility so I could expand my weight training.

Dr. Josh Vickers connected me to Allison Benner with this quote, “be open-minded, Allison will teach and help you with far more than just yoga.” I can confidently say he was so right!

Allison and I have spent an hour a week together online on zoom over the last 3-1/2 years not only working on expanding my Yoga experience/journey but so much more. The practice with Allison now spans from helping to navigate challenging life situations, relationship dynamics, day-to-day stress, injury recovery, and how all of this impacts our mind and body. I’ve gained awareness, the ability to manage very challenging life events, expanding physical and mental health, as well as emotional growth.

Recently, my youngest daughter left for college and we moved to a new home. While all pretty normal territory for most people, it was different for me. I raised my daughter as the primary care parent until she was 13 and then became a full-time parent. She was my purpose! I knew her going off to college was going to be harder for me than it was for her. The challenging role at work on top of everything else could have been very overwhelming and I risked missing some very positive awakening.

Through the work Allison and I have done, this event ended up being an amazing growth opportunity for both my daughter and I. I see, feel, and experience so much more of what life has to offer. I’m so very grateful for all Allison has done for me and look forward to continuing to explore, expand, and grow my practice with her.

I’ve had the gift of working with Allison consistently for over a year. I initially sought out Rolfing body work to aid in fully healing from a cesarean birth. At my first session Allison explained that before addressing physical symptoms, it can be even more helpful when we address what is happening emotionally and then observe how that affects the nervous system. Then, we can then do the work of inviting the nervous system to a place of calm and rest and more helpful patterns emerge for processing emotional energy. Subsequently she explained, when addressing physical sensations in the body, shifts we desire can come more quickly and with ease. Physical treatment is then able to prompt lasting positive change.

Along this journey together I also found great support in Allison’s deep knowledge of the body and pathways of healing. I had very particular challenges in my body at different points that required detailed attention. I have been truly amazed, time and again, at how her attention and intuition led her to help resolve long-standing causes of pain and discomfort or imbalance in my body. This has ranged from addressing sore abdominal fascia, the painful after-effects of inflammation from a case of Shingles, an ankle sprain, and general body mechanics and alignment that have been extremely helpful with the physical demands of mothering my toddler. I have had medical providers and other body workers address some of these issues in part, but no one was able to view them with a holistic lens, which is what Allison does and what makes her work so effective.

I can describe Allison’s work as comprehensive, intuitive, compassionate, and engaging. She has walked with me through some very challenging experiences, all the while prompting me to discover more of my innermost self and access the strength I already have. I have gained significant internal transformation through having done this work. I recommend everyone find a healer as gifted as Allison!

Working with Allison using somatic therapy has been a true gift to heal my anxiety stemming from childhood and trauma from a bike accident. I was introduced to Allison after having a pretty severe bike accident, resulting in facial breaks, a concussion, and a very overactive nervous system.  She helped my body slowly tap into the trauma and fear from the accident in a safe and controlled way.  The process of experiencing small amounts of difficult memories at a time helped me revisit the event by focusing on listening to my body and its sensations, with the goal of relieving pain and calming my nervous system.  We have been able to take a very pivotal event in my life (ie. The bike accident) and allow that to dive far back into my own grief of my father’s passing 14 years ago.  We worked on grounding myself by using “tools” to allow my “up energy” (that’s how I experience my anxiety) to move down and out of my body, which in return gave me more stability emotionally and mentally.  

It feels important to mention we did all of this work together virtually.

I now live with a calmer nervous system and am able to tackle life in a way I have never experienced for over 35 years.  I am less charged and reactive, I am more focused, and I have healthier relationship boundaries.  Being an artist, a lot of my unhealthy childhood relationships had shaped and formed major walls that affected me creatively.  With all the work I have done with Allison for 3 years, she has helped me break down these creative walls and allow myself to fully engage and create in ways I have always dreamed.  I no longer stand in my own way of becoming my best self.

I found Somatic Experiencing during a period of intense burnout. Despite a successful career, I was exhausted beyond belief and deeply unsatisfied. Years of talk therapy had given me an intellectual understanding of my trauma and go-to patterns, but I wasn’t seeing the changes I was hoping for in my life. The first time someone asked me where I felt something in my body, I literally had no idea how to answer the question. I had a sense that somatic work was the missing component of my healing journey, and I was right.

If you’ve read all the books and listened to all the podcasts, but are struggling to manifest the changes you want to see, your body likely holds some additional answers. Somatic Experiencing has been a way for me to reclaim my body’s innate knowledge, with less efforting and more allowing.

Allison helped create a safe space for this next level of healing to begin. Through our work together, I have been able to build my capacity for embodied sensation; allow stuck energy charges to flow again; experience greater ease and presence; spend less time in freeze/dissociative states; and become more aware of my own intuition. Practically, these shifts have led me to change my work environment, start dating more purposefully, and to begin moving, inch by inch, towards the life I had been secretly dreaming of.

Allison is a gifted guide. I trust her wisdom comes not only from her own journey, but from her experience accompanying many others along this path. Our sessions are an amazing holistic mash-up of embodied remembering, spiritual guidance, witnessing, physical health inquiries and practical brainstorming. To be on this journey with Allison is a true gift and one that will undoubtedly lead to profound changes in your life.

My work with Allison has all been virtual. Beyond the convenience of virtual visits, I have come to really appreciate the benefits of connecting via Zoom. During our sessions, healing isn’t something that happens in a peaceful room away from my ordinary life. Healing happens in my living room, while I am orienting to my own space, using the resources I will have available to me during the week. Practicing the skills at home feels like it helps them root even deeper. There’s also the option to titrate what is done on or off screen, as needed, which is a benefit of virtual spaces. Allison is adept at picking up on all the physical cues one would notice during in-person sessions, so for me, the ability to work together in this way has been entirely positive.

Working with Allison has been a transformative experience. She has helped me to become more self-aware, action-oriented, and embodied. Allison creates a safe and supportive environment where I have felt able to fully engage and be free to address anything that comes up. She is a compassionate listener, always provides meaningful insight, and offers proactive tools that I can immediately integrate into my life.

In addition to the Somatic Experiencing work that we have done together, the attachment healing has been illuminating. Understanding attachment and the impact of my family of origin and how that plays out in my intimate relationships has allowed for differentiation, and a true, authentic connection, that’s secure.

Through our work together, I have been able to become more present and grounded in my daily life and I have noticed a significant improvement in my ability to manage stress and regulate my emotions. This has led to a greater sense of hope and overall well-being. I feel very lucky to have found Allison and this work.