Many of the people we work with have been in therapy before and want more meaningful change in their lives.
You can be capable, competent, and passionate, yet feel like you aren’t doing enough.
You can lose your sense of yourself when you feel pulled in too many directions.
You can have a full life and still sense that something is missing.
You are looking for something more.
We work with people who…
Have been in therapy before or simply know they are looking for something that goes beyond talk therapy.
Are high-functioning and appear capable and productive from the outside, but underneath it all they feel drained, overwhelmed, or uncertain.
Carry stress or anxiety in their bodies, feeling chronically tense, restless, or on edge even when life seems “fine.”
Are trying to make sense of change, loss, or trauma and want to feel more grounded, present, and regulated.
Are very self-aware and can see their own patterns, but get stuck in their heads and feel disconnected with themselves, their creativity, and their vitality.
Want more from their relationships, are tired of taking care of everyone else, and have a difficult time making time and space for themselves.
Imagine what it could be like to feel more like yourself, more at home in your body, and more fully alive.
How We Work
You Are Not The Problem
And you don’t have poor coping skills – your coping strategies are brilliant.
They just don’t always match what you need in your life now.
We are all walking around the planet, doing the best we can with what we have. We all develop ways to cope with our experiences, and we all create stories about who we are and what we can expect in life.
Our habits show up in how we think, how we feel, and how we move through the world. They are typically on autopilot, and when they run the show in the background, we can get stuck.
At Movement Matters, we believe that real change happens when we work with the whole self, including the mind and body, and get underneath the surface to explore the stories and patterns that have shaped how we move through life.
Therapy offers a chance to honor who you are and how you have gotten to where you are. It makes it possible to soften and update your strategies and move forward with a different sense of yourself and what is possible.
We offer therapy that is active, relational, creative, and deeply personalized.
We are ready to roll up our sleeves and dig in the muck with you. Whether we’re helping you face change, uncertainty, or deep sorrow, or learning how to find more ease and joy, we are right there with you.
We will sit with you, laugh with you, sometimes cry with you. Our work is characterized by a spirit of collaboration and experimentation, gently pushing the edges, and celebrating change, creativity, and curiosity.
You are welcome to curl up with a blanket and a cup of tea. You can also stomp around the room, say things out loud that you wouldn’t dare anywhere else, make some art, or learn how movement can reduce agitation.
We might encourage you to push yourself a little bit out of your comfort zone, or we might invite you to embrace more ease and comfort.
We believe healing emerges through curiosity, connection, experimentation, and the discovery of new possibilities for being yourself.
Our Somatic Approach
We love somatic therapy because it gets us away from talking in circles, and helps us dive under the surface, taking the work deeper. It interrupts the habits and patterns we do without noticing and gives us a chance to rework them in genuinely new ways.
Our therapists share a deep commitment to somatic and experiential work. All our therapists have in-depth training in Sensorimotor Psychotherapy and bring their own backgrounds, training, and interests to the practice.
Talk therapy helps you understand your patterns; somatic therapy helps you change them.
Meet Our Therapists
Annabelle Coote, Founder & Director
Arin Willey
Monica Thomas
Jesse Carter
Imagining what’s possible
Moving through life differently doesn’t mean overhauling everything.
It means finding more ease, more presence, more you in the life you’re already living. It means reconnecting to your creativity and vitality.
We help people reduce anxiety, heal from trauma, recover from burnout, develop more satisfying relationships, and navigate the transitions that leave you feeling like you’re without a map.
We can help you get out of your head and work with what’s under the surface. The stuff you can’t “think your way out of.”
When you bring the body and mind together in therapy, it changes what’s possible.
You start making space for yourself. The tension you can’t let go of starts to ease. The thoughts constantly running in the background make less noise. You feel less overloaded, more grounded, more like yourself, and more settled in your life.
What if You Could…
Reconnect with yourself, your vitality, and your creativity
Feel more at home in your body, with greater ease, energy, and self-trust
Build relationships with joy and connection without losing yourself
Feel more free to be yourself in your relationships, work, and daily life
Feel less trapped in cycles of overthinking and be more connected to your own instincts and experience
Pursue your dreams and desires with greater clarity, flexibility, and confidence
Show up for yourself the way you care for everyone else
Curious if our approach is right for you?
Our Specialties…
Trauma, Complex Trauma & PTSD
Trauma is experienced in the body.
Long after traumatic events or situations have passed, it keeps showing up — in startle responses, hypervigilance, agitation, numbness, or a sense of feeling like a stranger in your own life.
Somatic therapy works directly with these responses, helping you feel safer, more regulated, and more at ease in yourself.
High-Functioning Anxiety
Anxiety is a nervous system state as much as a thought pattern, even when you don’t realize it.
Thoughts that keep you “on” all the time are often a protection against emotions and sensations.
Somatic therapy works with your whole experience, so that you can still be productive, but with more ease, calm, and satisfaction.
Burnout & Loss of Self
Burnout isn’t just tiredness; it’s running on empty over time.
Your brain and body signals get lost, and it becomes hard to know what you need or even who you are underneath it all.
Somatic therapy helps you restore balance, reconnect to yourself, and rediscover a sense of zest and vitality.
Life Transitions
When you’re facing a transition — a relationship ending, a change in school or work, a new family structure, a decision to change something big about your life, or even just the sense of time passing — it can feel disorienting.
Somatic therapy can help you feel grounded and centered, even if you don’t yet know where you’re headed or how to get there.
Self-Worth & Embodiment
We relate to ourselves through our bodies.
The way we sit, stand, move, even where we look or how we speak all express something about how we feel about ourselves.
Somatic therapy helps you listen to those signals with curiosity and self-compassion, so that you can feel more at home in yourself.
Therapy for Women
Anxiety, burnout, and chronic stress often show up differently in women, who also carry the weight of expectations, the emotional labor of relationships, and the pressure of holding it all together.
Somatic therapy helps you reclaim yourself — creating space to breathe, to be yourself, and to build a life filled with joy and connection.
Therapy for Men
There are so many ideas about how men are “supposed to” handle things — think your way through problems, stay in control, keep it together.
There’s a cost to that, and it often leaves you feeling tense, pressured, and worn out.
Somatic therapy offers a way to go deeper than problem-solving, and helps you build a life that feels more like your own.
Relationships & Patterns
We form relational patterns through non-verbal interactions long before we learn to speak.
We develop maps that we follow in relationships, often without even realizing it, which is why the same patterns keep showing up.
Somatic therapy helps you notice what’s happening beneath the surface and build more satisfying relationships.
At Movement Matters, we address relational patterns through both individual and couples therapy.
Chronic Pain & Stress
Chronic pain and stress-related symptoms add a constant layer of distraction and discomfort.
Even when you’re good at pushing through, pain demands your attention and drains your energy.
Somatic therapy can help you change your relationship to your body, find more self-compassion, and lessen the extra suffering that comes from struggling.
Learn more about working with chronic pain and stress-related symptoms. »
Creativity & the Arts
Creativity lives in the body.
It shows up in the urge to make something, the willingness to be messy, the energy that fuels ideas, the sense that something new is possible. When life gets in the way, we can lose connection to our creative and artistic drive.
Somatic therapy can help you find your way back to the creative part of you that can take risks, play, and go somewhere new.
If something here resonates, we’d love to talk with you about whether we’re a good fit.
Ways to Work With Us
Somatic therapy is the foundation of all our work. We tailor it to your unique challenges, interests, and goals.
We welcome clients of all identities, backgrounds, and orientations.
Individual Therapy
For adults and older adolescents.We dive in with you to help you get more in sync with yourself and live more fully. Learn more »
Couples Therapy
For couples who want to find new ways to connect, navigate challenges, and move through life together. Learn more »
Walk & Talk Therapy
Combining somatic therapy with nature can support greater presence, perspective, and movement. Learn more »
Somatic Therapy Intensives & Retreats
The richness and depth of somatic therapy make it well suited for therapy intensives, which offer extended, immersive sessions that allow for deeper work in a concentrated period of time.
Intensives at Movement Matters are available in person in Great Barrington, MA with limited online options.
We’re ideally located for people to travel from New York or Boston for a retreat-style therapy intensive in the Berkshires. Learn more »
In-Person & Online Somatic Therapy
Movement Matters in Great Barrington, MA offers both in-person therapy and telehealth. Somatic therapy can be very effective when done online.
The body is present wherever you are, and we bring our creativity online to support your process. Clients find that online work feels surprisingly connected and present.
Get started with online somatic therapy in Massachusetts, New York, Vermont, Maine, and Florida. Ask about options»