Debi Fries

Clinical Director of Somatic Psychotherapy

I’m a Somatic Psychotherapist, but you can also call me a guide, a teacher, a healer, an alchemist and an archeologist.

I help people who struggle with meeting the challenges and demands that are inherent in our daily lives.  Some of these challenges are self-imposed and others are part of the rhythm and cycle of life. I believe that we each possess all the wisdom that we need and it is just a matter of how to access and tap into it.  It is the wisdom that lies beneath all the chatter and interruptions.  It is your inalienable right to live your life from a place of vitality, authenticity and attunement.

My Approach to Therapy

Your body is a repository of all that has happened to you, both the positive and the painful. As certified Integrative Body Psychotherapist, I will teach you how to use the breath and your body to in order to express and embrace all the different parts of you.  I am here to help you unearth your essence. To go on an archeological dig so to speak, to find that treasure that has been there all along. It is a humbling and deeply honoring experience to do so.

I provide a template for how to face the intolerable, the difficult, and the unavoidable, as well as how to live from an expansive, abundant and joyful place.  This works helps clients attune, adjust and accommodate to meeting life’s offerings. To know that we have a choice on how we either respond or react to what’s coming at us. We can either fall deeper into the abyss (the scary place where we don’t have access to our voice and our wiser self) or by contrast find that precious, luminous treasure of our essence so that we can live our life on our terms. You will learn to navigate the slings and arrows that are inherent in a life well lived, while deepening a state of abundance and joy, with equanimity, self-love and grace.

Why I Do This Work

As a somatic trained Integrative Body Psychotherapist, I find that this work taps into and releases the tremendous amount of wisdom and information that lies within each of us. I believe that one can create a fresh narrative that allows for new neural pathways to take hold.

As a practicing body psychotherapist for over a decade, a middle and high school counselor for over 13 years, and as mother of 3, and a grandmother I have acquired life tools that cannot be taught from a textbook.  I bring a unique and highly personalized approach to my work with my clients.

Through rediscovering my inner voice while witnessing my own personal struggles, I know how to invite and appreciate all that life presents. It takes courage, consistency and support to build a life that is at once authentic and awakened. It is the lens through which I choose to view it from that informs how I either react or respond to the myriad of feelings and situations that come my way. I have found this work to be transformational both personally and professionally.  I believe that kindness and compassion, first to self and then offered to others, can change the world.  That’s why I hope you will seek me out so that together we can co-create the life you were meant to live, today.

Education & Certification

• BA Antioch University
• MA Counseling Psychology Phillips Graduate University
• Certified Integrative Body Psychotherapist
• Certified Integrative Body Master Teacher
• Member of CAMFT