Client Testimonials

I was referred to Allison by a friend with high praise to help me with knee and heel pain that was making it hard to walk and participate in outdoor activities I love. She helped me with those physical pains, and since has guided a process of deep personal growth work to understand the connection between physical/mental/emotional experiences and heal on a much deeper level. Allison is a skilled teacher, therapist, and energy worker unlike anyone I’ve ever met. I can’t recommend working with her enough.

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.

Engaging in Somatic Experiencing work with Allison has dramatically changed the way I move through and experience life. I met Allison in midlife while navigating transitions of menopause, parenting, and loss. I aspired to embrace aging with acceptance and increased strength and flexibility of body and mind. I have experienced that in ways I had not imagined.

While being a long-time swimmer, yoga practitioner, and someone oriented towards personal awareness and growth, I hadn't realized the extent to which embodiment was missing from my equation. Becoming more embodied has taken many forms. My body has become more of a friend and a guide. I am learning how to listen to what it has to tell when my system gets thrown. I have learned that if body awareness is in the driver’s seat, I am able to move through autonomic nervous system states with greater clarity, trust, ease, compassion and resolution.

As someone who experienced an eating disorder in high school, my relationship with my body has been complicated. Though I considered myself mostly recovered from the disordered thinking and behavior, it has been a delightful surprise that somatic experiencing has further liberated me. Increasingly, I see my body as an ally and a healer.

Allison has been a wonderful facilitator and champion of this process. She brings tremendous knowledge and intuition to the work, and transmits that to the individual. Her ability to compassionately witness and encourage engenders trust in the process.

The effects on my life have been numerous. My intuition has gotten exponentially stronger and louder. My body and mind are learning how to settle and rest. Through befriending my body’s wisdom, fear and anxiety have less of a hold on my life. I feel more balanced. As my somatic knowledge and reflexes continue to awaken, I feel a greater sense of agency, and life feels more expansive. I look forward to continuing to learn how I can meet challenges with curiosity and resilience.

I first saw Allison Benner at the suggestion of a friend to help me with some chronic pain issues. I had already sought help with my pain from several more conventional health providers to no avail and was growing desperate to find a more effective treatment. As it happens, at the time, I had recently retired from an unsatisfying and at times very stressful career as an attorney and was unable to find the fulfillment that I had expected upon leaving my work life. After a session or two, Allison was able to see how years of stress and confounding circumstances were contributing to my discomfort. She suggested that to properly heal my “pain” I needed to get to its source and to do that, treatment with a technique that dealt more with the relationship between body and mind with a neurological perspective might be the best way to proceed. Having already gained my trust, I agreed to try Somatic Experiencing. Her analysis was spot on and, with her expertise and wisdom along with her knowledge of ayurvedic medicine, yoga and mindfulness I came through the process not only rid of the pain for which I initially sought her help, but also as a happier and healthier person far more aware of the keen relationship between body and mind and therefore more adept at knowing myself and at dealing with the “pain” that is an inevitable part of living . Her approach to the treatment was forceful and effective and at the same time gentle and compassionate. Only someone as talented as Allison Benner can merge those qualities successfully. Allison Benner is the most empathetic person I have ever known. She is a genuine healer in every sense, and I will always be indebted to her for all she helped me accomplish.

I’ve worked with Allison for several years now. She has helped me transform old traumas into opportunities to find my strength as a man, becoming more self aware, self loving, and self transcending in the process.