Work with me
"Healing isn't just about time...it's about experience. You don't heal by waiting. You heal by showing your nervous system something new."
—Mastin Kipp
Working with me is an invitation to slow down.
I offer somatic-focused, nature-supported individual psychotherapy for people who want to move more slowly and honestly toward change.
In my experience, many struggles don’t come from a lack of insight — they come from a nervous system that has learned to stay on high alert. Our work together centers the body as a source of information and wisdom, while also drawing on the stabilizing presence of the natural world.
This might look like tracking sensations, working with emotion as it lives in the body, and allowing space for what hasn’t yet had words. We make room for what’s already here, rather than pushing toward solutions.
Over time, this kind of attention can soften old patterns, deepen self-trust, and support more authentic connection — with yourself, with others, and with the world around you.
“Attachment not only describes how we contact and connect with others, but also with ourselves and with our bodies. That is why understanding how trauma impacts our tissues and our nervous systems, and thereby our sense of safety, is so vitally critical to navigating the complexities of our attachment patterns.”
-Peter Levine
How I work
Living with an increasingly embodied understanding of how emotion, stress, and relationship shape our capacity as human beings has influenced not only why I do this work, but how I sit with others. What many people are longing for is not answers or quick solutions, but the chance to slow down in the presence of someone who can stay.
My work is grounded in somatic, emotion-focused, and nature-informed therapies, all of which are relational, attachment-based, and experiential. These approaches share a belief that meaningful change happens from the inside out. Our bodies and nervous systems must be shown a new way, not simply told. Insight matters, but it is often not enough on its own.
Together, we will work to develop a closer relationship to sensation and to the experience of emotion — to become familiar with these parts of ourselves and these parts of our inner life. We will practice allowing what is present to be felt fully, without rushing to fix it, manage it, or move past it. We will learn to stay with an experience long enough for it to complete its arc, and to invite what comes next once that moment has passed.
This work is not about holding on tightly or forcing change. It is about meeting the moment — and all it has to offer — with enough support, curiosity, and safety that something new becomes possible.
We do this so we can build greater capacity and presence for all that life asks of us. Many of us were never shown how to do this. Our cultural models often encourage disconnection, dissociation, and quick responses before we have had time to feel what is actually happening. In contrast, this work offers slow, gentle space for whatever arises, guided by the rhythms of the nervous system.
I work relationally and collaboratively, paying close attention to emotional experience, bodily cues, and the movement between safety and activation. Rather than positioning myself as an expert on your life, I aim to offer steadiness, attunement, and accompaniment. Together, we will give time, space, and support to know the fullness of you — your perceptions, your story, and your lived experience.
This includes time to breathe, to feel the breath, and to take in the world around you without the pressure to perform, explain, or make sense of everything immediately. In a culture that prioritizes speed, certainty, and productivity, this way of working is a quiet counterpractice — one that trusts slowness, presence, and relationship as essential conditions for healing.
Why this type of therapy?
Many people arrive in therapy having already tried to understand their experience through insight, reflection, or effort. While this can be meaningful, it often doesn’t reach the places where stress, trauma, and emotion are actually held. I find these three types of therapy are incredibly helpful towards finding embodied understanding of our experiences. While these aren’t the only types of therapy that I use in session, these are the methodologies that are the main underpinnings of what I consider to be the mechanism of change, and healing.
Somatic Therapy works with the nervous system and the body as central sources of information and change. By slowing down and attending to sensation, we allow the body to complete responses that were interrupted or never had enough support. This can help reduce overwhelm and build a greater sense of safety and capacity over time.
Emotion-focused therapy brings careful attention to emotional experience within the context of relationship. Emotions are treated not as problems to manage, but as meaningful signals that guide us toward needs, values, and connection. Working with emotion in this way can shift long-standing relational patterns and deepen self-trust.
Nature-informed therapy recognizes that our nervous systems evolved in relationship with the natural world. Attending to light, weather, sound, season, and place can support regulation, perspective, and a sense of belonging that is often missing in modern life.
Together, these approaches offer a way of working that is experiential, relational, and paced to the nervous system — allowing change to emerge through presence rather than pressure.
What this work supports
Much of my work is rooted in creating and holding a container to receive what you didn’t receive in the past — time, attunement, safety, permission to feel, permission to grieve. From my experience, when these things are missing, the body remembers and builds its shape around that absence. While this allows us to survive and keep going, it often has a deep impact on how we show up in our lives, affecting our relationships with ourselves, with others, and with challenge more broadly.
Grief is often at the center of this work, whether it arrives clearly named and seen, or not. One of the most difficult truths we are asked to live with is that everything we love will be lost to us one day. The when and how of these goodbyes remain uncertain, but our relationship to this truth — how much we let it be real, how we build a life around it, and whether we are supported in it — is something we will explore together.
Grief takes many forms. It may be tied to the death of a loved one, or a beloved pet, but just as often it shows up as ambiguous loss: the loss of a role, a relationship, a future you thought you were moving toward, a sense of ability, faith, health, or belonging. Many people arrive feeling anxious, overwhelmed, or numb without realizing that grief is moving quietly underneath — shaping how they relate to uncertainty, responsibility, and the possibility of loss.
Anxiety, from my perspective, is often the nervous system’s attempt to manage what feels unstable, overwhelming, or at risk of being lost. Performance anxiety, in particular, frequently emerges where worth, safety, or belonging have become entangled with output, achievement, or visibility. These patterns are not personal failures, but adaptations — ways the body has learned to stay vigilant, capable, and responsive in environments that have asked a great deal.
This work also supports experiences of disconnection — from self, from others, from community, from support, and sometimes from linear time itself. Chronic illness, long periods of caregiving, burnout, and prolonged stress can all create a sense of fragmentation that isn’t resolved by insight alone. In my experience, these disruptions need to be met slowly, with attention to the body and with the presence of another.
I am especially drawn to holding space for the grief and disorientation that accompany change and transition. When loss and change are not witnessed, named, or held by others — when they are treated as things to “get over” — they can become traumatic. Therapy can become a place where these experiences are recognized as real, meaningful, and worthy of care.
You don’t need to know exactly what you’re grieving to begin this work. Often, that understanding unfolds over time.
Who tends to find this work supportive?
This work is good fit for people who are:
Insightful, capable, and tired
Carrying a lot while feeling unsure of where to put it down
Drawn to depth, slowness, and embodied work
Less interested in quick fixes, and more interested in understanding what their body and emotions are asking for
Curious about their own inner workings and patterns
Willing to move gently, even when things feel uncertain
We might work well together if:You are interested in exploring, nurturing and befriending your nervous system, and offering yourself curiosity towards your inner experience and patterns.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Individual Psychotherapy (Adults)
Ongoing therapy for adults (18+) living in the state of Maryland who are navigating anxiety, grief, burnout, trauma, performance-related stress, and periods of transition. Sessions are relational, somatically informed, and paced with care, supporting both insight and embodied change. I offer virtual sessions only.Grief & Loss Support
Therapy for those living with loss in its many forms—death, ambiguous loss, identity shifts, chronic illness, caregiving, or futures that did not unfold as expected. This work makes room for grief that has been unspoken, rushed, or carried alone.Anxiety & Performance-Related Stress
Support for individuals whose nervous systems are organized around vigilance, responsibility, or achievement. This may include performance anxiety, creative blocks, perfectionism, or a sense that worth and safety have become tied to output or visibility.Burnout, Caregiving & Chronic Stress
For those who have been holding too much for too long—professionally or personally. This work supports nervous system repair, reconnection, and the slow restoration of capacity after prolonged demand.Nature-Informed Therapy (when appropriate)
Sessions may incorporate the natural environment as a co-regulating presence, supporting grounding, perspective, and connection beyond the individual nervous system.All work is tailored to the individual; these categories often overlap.
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Contact me to schedule a free phone consultation. I'll be happy to answer any questions you might have, and discuss your needs for treatment. If you choose to move forward, we'll schedule an appointment for an intake session.
In that session, we'll have a chance to see see if we're a good match, and if we would like to move forward and continue working together. If one or both of us decides it is not a good fit, I will be happy to provide referrals for other providers.
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Insurance plans accepted for therapy:
Aetna
CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield
Kaiser Permanente of the Mid Atlantic
*Insurance is verified and billed through Headway, a third-party company. Clients' insurance coverage will be confirmed by Headway prior to the start of therapy.
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If I do not accept your insurance plan, I can provide private pay sessions at these rates:
60 min. initial intake session: $180
50 min. psychotherapy session: $150
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You can connect with me using any of the following:
email: katie@katie-chen.com
phone: (410) 205-4993
I try to respond to all messages and voicemails within 24-48 hours.
Please note I am not a crisis resource. If you are a current client experiencing a mental health emergency and cannot ensure safety for yourself or others, please call Maryland's Helpline at 211 and select Option 1, or call 911.
Interested in working with me?
Schedule a free 15-minute phone consultation so we can explore whether we’re a good fit to work together. I’ll answer any questions you might have, and ask a few of my own, and we can see if we would like to move forward from there.