Welcome back to Conversations with Clinicians where we interview one of our associate therapists. We like to give you this opportunity to learn more about the way that they work. It can also give you insight into therapeutic modalities, approaches and techniques. Today, meet Courtenay Houk, a somatic/ relational associate therapist who specializes in helping people with anxiety, boundaries, relational difficulties, managing transitions/loss, and trauma.
What is your therapeutic orientation?
Somatic and Relational
What are your areas of specialty?
- anxiety
- boundaries
- relational difficulties
- managing transitions/loss
- trauma
What other modalities inform your work?
I specialize in Formative Psychology and completed PACT (Psychobiological Approach to Couples Therapy) Level 2 as of November 2023.
What is it like to work with you?
I am warm, empathetic, relational, and hold my clients accountable. I have had clients express appreciation for how I slow them down to engage in their present-moment experience, for introducing somatic-emotional exercises that facilitate self-knowing – and sometimes, experiences of agency (which they have applied to different contexts, outside of our sessions) – and for how I model healthy boundaries in the therapy.
Who do you LOVE working with?
*Couples and relationships*, and anyone wanting a little support with making a relationship to their embodied experience. I work particularly well with anxious, high-achieving, women.
What is one thing that clients might be surprised to learn about you?
The very first time I saw a therapist myself, I felt completely un-met and shamed in the therapy; I did not think I would ever go back. I am so happy I gave myself another chance years later, because it set off a chain of events that led me to where I am now. I have grown from a person who felt like life was happening to her, to someone who feels like an agent in her own story.
If you could sum up in one sentence why someone might go to therapy, what would you say?
There is something that isn’t working for you (maybe it feels vague and maybe it is specific), and you want to know if what you are experiencing is ‘normal’, or want support with growing more satisfaction and agency in yourself and your life.
What is one takeaway moment that you’d like to share from your own experience as a client in therapy?
Some years ago, one of the most powerful interventions I ever experienced in a session is when my therapist interrupted my process and said, “Courtenay, I don’t care about your (relative); I care about you”. That got me to care about me, too.
Give us your best recommendations for …
Best places to laugh and cry in the Bay Area?
With a trusted person – wherever that may be.
Best self-care suggestions?
Yoga studios and sound healing will offer free classes at times, such as Metta Yoga in Marin. I believe there is also an Outdoor Yoga group in Berkeley that is affordable. These can be great opportunities to try out different movement practices and find what works best for you and your body/nervous system.
If you are a person prone to anxiety and happen to live by some hills, walking or running up a hill, or holding a plank pose, or going for a run can be excellent ways of releasing stored-up energy in the body.
Lastly, this may be easier said than done for some, but the practice of reaching out to a close friend and making time to connect and build intimacy, can do wonders.
Favorite books?
- “Your Body Speaks Its Mind” – Stanley Keleman
- “The Body is Not an Apology” – Sonya Renee Taylor
- “All About Love” – bell hooks
Favorite podcast?
“Wired for Love” podcast by Stan Tatkin (founder of PACT)
And one more thing you’d like us to know?
Like anyone, my identity is complex, even if I pass a particular way on the outside. I have a multitude of lived experiences that inform my empathy and awareness, as a therapist, some negative and some positive, but all formative. A few of these experiences include: growing up as a Third Culture Kid and living as a racial minority in various contexts where I did not speak the language; being seventh-generation Pennsylvania-Dutch (German) with my own intergenerational trauma history; being bi/pansexual and coming from a queer/open-minded family system (blessed!); and transitioning through various stages of economic security over the course of my life, with some of my early years spent in poverty.
How can potential clients contact you?
Courtenay Houk, AMFT #122207
supervised by Christina Loeffel, LMFT and Aaron Hagaman, LMFT
Phone: 415-360-1991
Email: [email protected]
Web: https://www.courtenay-houk-somatic-therapy.com
Where is your office located?
I have a hybrid (telehealth/in-person) practice with one office in San Rafael (Mondays only) and one office in San Francisco/Castro (Thursdays only)
You can also contact us at Center for Mindful Psychotherapy to learn more about working with Courtenay Houk or any of our associate therapists.