When Talk Isn’t Enough: How Somatic Therapy Helped Laurel LeMohn Heal Grief, Trauma & Chronic Illness

By Intentional Spaces Psychotherapy

Laurel LeMohn (she/her) became a therapist not just because of what she studied, but because of what she personally lived through: grief, chronic illness, and the kind of pain that doesn’t go away just by talking about it.

Before graduate school, before credentials, Laurel was already asking the deeper questions: Why does my grief feel so physical? Why does talking help… and also not help? Why am I carrying so much, even when I can’t name it? For her, therapy wasn’t an academic decision—it was a personal unfolding. A way to understand why healing sometimes requires silence, movement, tears, or breath, rather than more words.

Laurel’s own story is rooted in grief, chronic illness, and a long-held ache to feel whole. She knows how trauma can echo through the body even when the mind doesn’t know what to say. She knows what it’s like to carry pain that others can’t see—and to feel frustrated by clinical spaces that don’t know how to hold that kind of depth. That’s why she doesn’t practice therapy from a clipboard. She practices from presence.

Clients who come to Laurel often feel like they’ve outgrown traditional talk therapy—or were never helped by it in the first place. They’re grieving someone, something, or some version of themselves. They may feel stuck in depression, disconnected from their bodies, or overwhelmed by emotional heaviness that talk therapy hasn’t been able to shift. They’re searching for a body-based, holistic approach—an alternative to talk therapy that centers the mind-body connection.