I like to call myself a heart-centered heathen. I’m sincere and deeply feeling with a pretty wild rogue streak that pushes back against the status quo. I’ve always danced between the worlds of the mundane and the sacred, trying to make meaning from the mystical while being completely part of this world. I’ve always been fascinated by what we call cultured and what we call profane, having a penchant for bringing tenderness to places that are often taboo and shameful. And I’ve never been one to take life lightly, having had to learn how to grow immense capacity on the inside to meet my life on life’s terms. There are many identity hats I trade throughout any given day. I’m a mama, long time yoga practitioner and meditator, fellow queer, devoted partner, ecstatic dancer, potter, teacher, somatic psychotherapist and author.

As a Somatic Psychotherapist I work with woman of all ages, queer folks, and couples of all orientations and relationship styles to help them reorient and repair their nervous systems to live more vibrantly, authentically and powerfully. I assist in processes of trauma healing, navigating life’s transitions and thresholds, building more sustainable relationships, and supporting the emergence of authentic desire and healthy impulses for vibrant living. I am direct, honest, warm and exceptionally skillful in working with grief/loss, anxiety, PTSD, C-PTSD, intergenerational and attachment trauma, intimate betrayal, narcissistic abuse, major life transitions, body image, and spiritual emergence in mind-body practitioners.

I am the author of The Somatic Therapy Workbook: stress-relieving exercises for strengthening the mind-body connection and sparking emotional and physical healing, released in December 2020. I continue to write on the intersection of yoga, somatics, and psychology, offering a fresh and sane voice to the emergent trends within the fields of yoga and wellness. The article Yoga-Based Body Psychotherapy is published in the International Journal of Body Psychotherapy and is a tool for weaving yoga and psychotherapy into a seamless psychotherapeutic model.

As a creative writer, I can be found crafting vivid prose and free verse on topics including; feminism, dismantling and healing misogyny, narcissistic abuse, and the vast array of motherhood experiences. I’ve been told I speak elegantly to all of these topics with nuance, sanity, complexity, and courageous humanity. My work has can be found in places like Taproot magazine as well as on a variety of podcasts.

In the yoga world I bring essential Somatic Psychology principles and tools to dedicated yoga students and instructors worldwide. Having practiced and taught yoga for over two decades, I continue to encourage people to grow their ranges of motion and emotion through steady asana practice, somatic education, and body-centered mentorship. I’m generally known for my sincerity, directness and humor, offerings teachings that illuminate the spiritual path as deeply human and body-centric.

Livia holds a masters of Somatic Counseling Psychology from Naropa University in Boulder, CO and is a certified SomaSource Life Cycles Practitioner. She is a faculty member in the somatic program at Naropa University. She graduated Cum Laude from the University of Vermont focusing on Psychology and comparative religion.

An avid mover, meditator, artist and cook, Livia resides in Boulder, CO with her family .