Amy Williams LMHC, CYT

10/15/2025

Foster Care Essentials' Winter Wear Event is on November 8th, and we need your help to make it a success! We're collecting winter jackets, winter boots, winter hats, winter gloves/mittens for all age groups — every donation makes a difference. Check out our Walmart Wishlist https://www.walmart.com/registry/RR/456c6e36-8144-4e10-8911-db2786b9a408Questions? Please email fostercareessentials@gmail.com

10/15/2025

👂🏼”Listen to your body” can feel complex, for a lot of reasons. What exactly is it that we are listening for? 🤨

➡️ The body speaks through SENSATION. Sensation is, in part, what you are listening for and to. All sensation originates in the autonomic nervous system. Sensation happens through electrical signals that travel up and down the nervous system.

❕The way we listen to the body is through INTEROCEPTION. This is the sense of noticing and feeling sensation inside the body.

✌🏼These two things, sensation & interoception are how we listen to the body.

🔹Reconnecting with the body requires being able to notice and feel with curiosity the sensations of the body. This can truly feel like learning a new language. It takes time and practice to feel sensation and then be able to translate what you observe into verbal communication that helps you understand the messages your body is sending.

🏃🏼‍♀️It can be helpful to enter into this type of body-listening practice with a “marathon vs. a sprint” mindset. There is no rush here. Take all the time you need.

👉🏼 The goal of practicing listening to your body is not to reach any particular destination. Rather, the objective is more similar to a journey. What is there to uncover each and every time you practice exploring your internal landscape with wonder and curiosity? What felt sense is there to discover?

👌🏼The more you understand the workings of your nervous system, the easier it is to hear the language of sensation in a way that makes sense to your cognitive brain!

10/13/2025

When I feel my body stuck in a freeze or depression, I notice an automatic tendency for my mind to ruminate on the past. I find myself replaying times I’ve hurt others or been hurt or perseverating on memories that hold a lot of charge.

While I’ve learned to meet these parts of myself with curiosity and compassion, at times setting internal boundaries has also been supportive and necessary. A way to symbolically say, “enough.” 🤚🏼 To do this, I use imagery.

There are so many ways we can use imagery to find relief. And imagery is also just one way we can communicate with our nervous system, so if that channel doesn’t jive for you, there’s plenty more to explore!

Join me next month at the Somatic Healing Retreat to learn & embody more ways of resolving symptoms of stress and trauma using a body-oriented approach! Click the link in bio to join!

09/30/2025

many times in therapy, with one foot grounded in the safety of the present moment, we travel back to younger parts of ourselves.

we get to interact with these parts as a way to process emotion and gain more insight into our inner worlds.

questions we consider- how old is this part? how old does this part believe you are now? was there something this part of you needed to hear? what did this part of you need, but didn’t receive? many times it is an ally or a protector, a comforting presence, someone to let you know that whatever was happening wasn’t your fault, or to protect you from something that was overwhelming. the younger these parts are, the more they need the help of a loving and supportive other to have their needs met.

a lot of times when we go to these places the answers emerge organically from within.

a common imagery associated with this experience is that of your adult self today being that person that you wish was there for you as a child.

when i heard of this trend i felt called to hop on board. me being there for little me. just feels right. 💞

09/23/2025

𝐓𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐰𝐚𝐬 𝐚 𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐞 𝐢𝐧 𝐦𝐲 𝐥𝐢𝐟𝐞 𝐈 𝐫𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐞𝐝 𝐨𝐧 𝐬𝐮𝐛𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞𝐬 𝐭𝐨 𝐚𝐯𝐨𝐢𝐝 𝐛𝐞𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐚𝐧𝐱𝐢𝐞𝐭𝐲 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐜𝐚𝐦𝐞 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐛𝐞𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐦𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫.

Sure, for a while it "took the edge off," at lease for the moment, but ultimately it created a feedback loop where I felt compelled to turn towards the substance each time I felt stressed.

Before I knew it, the beautiful life I created started to feel colorless. I felt trapped. Like a carrot on a string, happiness and ease always felt just out of reach. Because here's the thing-

𝐖𝐞 𝐜𝐚𝐧'𝐭 𝐬𝐞𝐥𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐲 𝐚𝐯𝐨𝐢𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐩𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐟𝐮𝐥 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬 𝐰𝐞 𝐞𝐱𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡 𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐛𝐨𝐝𝐢𝐞𝐬 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐚𝐥𝐬𝐨 𝐧𝐮𝐦𝐛𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐬𝐞𝐥𝐯𝐞𝐬 𝐭𝐨 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐣𝐨𝐲, 𝐩𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐮𝐫𝐞, 𝐛𝐞𝐚𝐮𝐭𝐲, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐞.

Yet, many of us were never taught how to fully ride the wave of an emotion. Instead, all we know is that the intensity of an emotion builds and builds to a point that becomes too overwhelming, which is when we shut down, suppress, and avoid. We get stuck in these automatic, habitual loops that feel impossible to find our way out of it.

𝙒𝙝𝙚𝙣 𝙬𝙚 𝙛𝙪𝙡𝙡𝙮 𝙡𝙚𝙖𝙧𝙣 𝙩𝙤 𝙧𝙞𝙙𝙚 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙬𝙖𝙫𝙚, 𝙬𝙚 𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙡𝙞𝙯𝙚 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙤𝙣 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙤𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙧 𝙨𝙞𝙙𝙚 𝙤𝙛 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙡𝙡𝙮 𝙙𝙞𝙛𝙛𝙞𝙘𝙪𝙡𝙩 𝙚𝙢𝙤𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣 𝙞𝙨 𝙥𝙧𝙚𝙨𝙚𝙣𝙘𝙚, 𝙘𝙤𝙣𝙣𝙚𝙘𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣, 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙘𝙪𝙧𝙞𝙤𝙨𝙞𝙩𝙮.

We recognize that we can be the supportive witness to our experience, and feel stronger, resilient, and more authentic as a result.

The irony is that now that I have learned to be with the distress, rather than run from it, life itself is so much more vibrant!

𝐈𝐟 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐦𝐢𝐬𝐬𝐞𝐝 𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐨𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐬𝐮𝐩𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐧𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐧𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐧𝐞𝐝 𝐡𝐨𝐰 𝐭𝐨 𝐟𝐮𝐥𝐥𝐲 𝐛𝐞 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐞𝐦𝐨𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬, 𝐤𝐧𝐨𝐰 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐢𝐭'𝐬 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐭𝐨𝐨 𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐞.

Join me this fall at the Somatic Healing Retreat as we dive into the core principles of Somatic Experiencing, a world-renowned, modality of healing stress and trauma through the body.

I can't wait to share this knowledge and be in community with you! 💖

https://www.supyoadventures.com/tour-item/somatic-healing-retreat-at-the-bartlett-village-house/

09/12/2025

We are not wired to witness human suffering at the rate that our algorithms feed to us.

Scrolling casually past murder then getting on with your day?? No. We can’t let this be normal.

There’s a lot we can’t control- and things that we can. Notice where you have agency and make decisions that support your sense of safety and comfort. You don’t have to be IN IT 24/7 to have empathy.

05/29/2025

Didn’t even know this was installed here in Milford! So awesome! Movement is medicine! 🫶🏼

HAVE YOU SEEN IT?! The Fitness Court® Studio was installed in Milford Town Park last week as a centerpiece of the Town Park renovation. This new outdoor gym continues to be protected by construction fencing as the other work continues, but will open to all on SATURDAY, JUNE 21 at 1:00 p.m. with a ribbon-cutting ceremony during the TOWN PARK CELEBRATION. Fitness Court demonstrations will follow the ceremony so everyone can see this new addition to Town Park in action.

The Fitness Court® Studio has been brought to Town Park through a partnership of the Milford Parks and Recreation Department, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts, and National Fitness Campaign to expand free access to high-quality workouts and create equitable access to exercise. The Fitness Court® Studio is the world’s best outdoor gym that lets users leverage their own body weight to get a complete workout using seven exercise stations, in just 7 minutes.

The colorful mural, which you can see from Spruce Street, covers the 32’-wide multipurpose training wall that anchors the Fitness Court® Studio. Titled “Fitness for All,” this mural by Massachusetts artist Carol Abram showcases health and wellness in Milford, while celebrating the diversity of our population and highlighting historic aspects of our community. Abram’s design was selected from over 30 submissions to a Call to Artists executed by the Milford Cultural Council in December 2023.

DOWNLOAD the free Fitness Court® App, which acts as a coach-in-your-pocket, to see how to use the Fitness Court: https://www.nationalfitnesscampaign.com/app

LEARN MORE about what’s happening at the Town Park Celebration: https://www.milfordma.gov/DocumentCenter/View/2634/TOWN-PARK-CELEBRATION-Website-Info-22-April-2025-PDF

PLEASE SHARE!

Milford Town Hall Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts National Fitness Campaign Carol Herman Abram

05/27/2025

🗣️ As world-renowned trauma expert Dr. Gabor Mate puts it, “Trauma is not what happens to you; trauma is what happens inside of you, as a result of what happened to you.”

👉🏼 It’s undeniable- stress and trauma impact us at the deepest layer of our being, the nervous system.

🧍🏽‍♀️Healing somatically involves learning to understand the language of the body. This is why the role of psychoeducation in healing from stress and trauma cannot be overstated. If the nervous system speaks its own language, then education is the A in the ABC’s.

🧠 This piece of the puzzle is so important because as human animals, our complex higher brain likes to understand what is going on. When we understand the complexity of our physiology and how our body holds onto survival stress (fight/flight/freeze), we can better support ourselves through our present moment experience when old, stored survival stress comes to the surface to be released.

🙅🏼‍♀️ Without this understanding, we fall into automatic patterns of avoidance and suppression, draining us of our vitality and creating painful and distressing symptoms.

😌 Through education and embodied practice, we learn to grow our capacity to be with the vast experiences of life, to expand our ability to hold both pleasure and pain, and to reconnect with our body’s innate ability to heal.

👍🏼 We’re diving into all this material and more at the Somatic Healing Retreat! Registration is now open! Click the link below to learn more & sign up!

https://feltsense.co/somatic-healing-retreat

05/20/2025

Pop psychology will have you thinking everything is a trauma response and everyone who disagrees with you is a narcissist.

I live in a “both/and” world. In this case, it’s wonderful that somatic therapy and nervous system regulation have become more mainstream, *and* when it’s reduced to social media posts and captions, much of the nuance gets left out.

Here are some of the trendy things I’ve come across that, well, I’m just not buying into. 🤷🏼‍♀️

05/06/2025

Guyssss. The Embody Your Experience Workshop is officially sold out! 🤩

I opened Felt Sense Psychotherapy just over two years ago. In that time nearly every workshop or retreat I’ve hosted has sold out! I can’t even tell you how thrilled I am about that! 🥰

One- because I pour my heart and soul into every offering, from my 1:1 work with clients, to the workshops, retreats, and yoga classes. But two- because we are living in a time where this information and these embodied experiences and understandings are crucial to the trajectory of our lives on a micro and macro scale. Every time you offer yourself compassion, speak kind words to yourself, come back to your breath, place a hand on your body where you sense activation and hold space for that feeling instead of turning away from it... all of these little moments affect not only your own experience in the world, but also impact everything and everyone around you. 🌎

When you show up for these offerings, inquire about working together 1:1, ask to be added to my waitlist... it reassures me that I am on the right path, and that this work is so needed. 💞

So thank you thank you thank you. Endlessly grateful for you being here! 🙏🏼

PS - The Felt Sense merch is still up n running! In fact, May is Foster Care Awareness Month! And if you didn’t know- all proceeds are going to Foster Care Essentials, a local nonprofit that provides essentials, at no charge, to families that care for children in foster/kinship care. Click the link below to get your own! 🙃

https://www.bonfire.com/store/felt-sense-psychotherapy/