Eugene Somatic Therapy: Working With Your Nervous System
Jeniffer Duncan, LPC, LAT
The Intelligence of Your Body
Your mind understands everything perfectly: why you react the way you do, where patterns originated, what needs to change. Yet your body remains unconvinced. Your heart still races reading routine emails. Your stomach clenches before department meetings. Your shoulders stay locked even during meditation at the Kiva.
I provide somatic therapy to help Eugene residents bridge the gap between intellectual insight and embodied healing.
Why Somatic Therapy?
Academic culture rewards disembodiment. Success in academia means ignoring your body's signals: working through exhaustion, skipping meals for lab time, pushing past pain to finish one more chapter.
But your body keeps track of every override, every ignored warning, every time you chose productivity over physical needs.
The result: You might be defending groundbreaking research while dissociated from your body. Writing brilliant analyses while holding your breath. Providing compassionate patient care at RiverBend while your own nervous system screams for attention.
The very skills that earned your achievements — compartmentalization, endurance, mental override — now prevent healing.
Eugene's mind-body split runs deep. We have yoga studios and float tanks, but approach them like achievements to unlock rather than experiences to embody. Even mindfulness becomes another cognitive exercise: observing thoughts about thoughts while never actually landing in sensation. The body becomes something to optimize rather than attend to.
About Somatic Therapy
Somatic therapy works with a simple truth: trauma lives in the body, not just the mind. Those automatic responses — the freeze when criticized, the collapse after conflict, the chronic alertness — originate in your nervous system's learned patterns of protection. No amount of understanding changes these patterns until we work directly with the body holding them.
In our sessions, we develop a different kind of intelligence: somatic awareness. You’ll learn to distinguish between anxiety and excitement in your chest, notice how different emotions create specific muscular patterns, recognize when you're moving toward activation before your mind registers threat.
We work incrementally, respecting your nervous system's pace. Small movements: a gentle shoulder roll, conscious breathing, pressing feet into floor, can discharge years of stored activation. You’ll start to develop flexibility, moving fluidly between states rather than getting fixed in hyper-alertness or collapse.
Through this process, your body finally catches up to what your mind already knows. You understand intellectually that you're safe now, that the trauma is over, but your body is still braced for impact. Somatic therapy helps your nervous system get the message: you survived, it's over, you can let your guard down now.
FAqs For Eugene Residents
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You've probably gotten really good at understanding your patterns and talking about your feelings. But if your body still goes into panic mode — racing heart, shallow breathing, that knot in your stomach — then the work isn't done. Somatic therapy goes directly to your nervous system where these responses actually live.
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We're simply noticing what's already happening, like how you hold your breath when stressed or where tension lives in your body. It's about awareness. You can do this work in your regular clothes from your couch.
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Think of mindfulness as sitting on the riverbank watching your feelings float by. Somatic therapy means getting in the water and working with what's there. When you notice your shoulders are tight, we don't just observe that, we explore what happens when you move them, breathe into them, or let them shake out. Your body often knows how to release trauma if we give it permission to complete what it couldn't do before.
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Please contact Lane County Mobile Crisis, or dial 988 if you’re having an emergency.
For community-based support, please visit NAMI Lane County or White Bird Clinic.
Meet Your Eugene Somatic Therapist
Jeniffer Duncan, LPC, LAT
I'm Jeniffer, a Licensed Professional Counselor specializing in somatic approaches to trauma and anxiety. I work with Eugene's thinkers and achievers — researchers, healthcare providers, educators — who have mastered their fields but feel betrayed by their bodies.
My clients often arrive having tried everything: years of talk therapy, meditation retreats, every bodywork modality available. What they haven't tried is working directly with their nervous system, meeting their body's intelligence with curiosity rather than control.
Through online sessions, I guide you in developing somatic awareness from your own environment. No commute through campus traffic, no waiting rooms, just direct access to embodied healing.
Jennifer Duncan, Oregon Licensed Professional Counselor
License #C3022 · Verify with State Board-
Yes, I am currently accepting new clients. I generally work Monday through Wednesday. I have limited afternoon availability, so please contact me to inquire about hours.
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No, I only see clients online.
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My fee is $250 for 55-minutes. If you prefer to work more intensively, I offer 90-minute sessions for $375. If you’d like to schedule a half-day or a multi-day therapy intensive, please see my rates page for more information about package options.
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No, I am not in-network with any insurance company. I would be happy to provide a Superbill (an itemized receipt) for you to submit to your insurance company for reimbursement.
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I primarily use art therapy (also called expressive art therapy, or creative art therapy) and somatic therapy.
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Yes, but only when it will be helpful and effective for you. If you’ve already had a lot of talk therapy, it’s likely time to try a more body-based approach.
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I offer complimentary 30-minute consultations to prospective clients so that you and I can get a feel for what it will be like to work together. However, if that doesn’t work for you, I’d be happy to schedule your intake appointment.
Please scroll down to my contact form, or send me a message on my contact page and I will respond within 48 business hours with my availability.
frequently asked questions
Let’s Get Started
Contact Me
Contact me to schedule your first therapy appointment.
Complete this form and I’ll be back in touch via email, text, or phone within 1-2 business days.
Call or Text
503-974-4140
jduncanlpc@gmail.com
MAILING ADDRESS (Services are conducted 100% online)
4207 SE Woodstock Blvd. #398 Portland, OR 97206
Serving Eugene with Specialized Online Therapy…
I provide specialized online therapy to adults throughout Oregon, with focused support for residents of Eugene, Springfield, and the Willamette Valley.
Somatic Therapy in Eugene