Chris Lawrence

As a somatic practitioner, Chris sees “symptoms” as normal body adaptations to abnormal internal and/or external conditions. These conditions can be prenatal, familial, neighborhood, work or societal. Treating these “symptoms” involves a reorientation towards our resources - nature, pets, supportive others, movement, to name just a few - and a slow healing and unwinding of our nervous system to allow it to return to its natural state. Chris is an ongoing learner in the area of nervous system regulation, resilience, and the impact of traumatic stress on our bodies. Her newest passion is helping parents and babies work through birth trauma. She works directly with clients and provides supervision to students and developing clinicians. She is the founder and Director of HeartSpace Clinic, a nonprofit organization that offers a wide variety of services focused on building resilience in the face of traumatic stress through interventions that target the nervous system, including the Safe and Sound Protocol developed by Stephen Porges. She offers workshops and training on these topics to a wide variety of groups and organizations. Chris regulates her own nervous system by spending as much time as possible camping and hiking with her partner, knitting, practicing Pilates and cuddling with her chiweenie Ruby.