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Angela Rivero, Somatic Therapist in Escondido, CA, smiling and looking welcoming.

If you’ve landed here, you’re probably tired of holding it all together. The symptoms, the pushing, the endless trying. You’ve done the healing work. The therapy. The diets. The yoga. And you’re wondering: why does it still feel hard to be in your body?

You are not your symptoms. Beneath the anxiety, the pain, the exhaustion, there’s still a whole, wise part of you waiting to come alive again. You’ve likely been in survival mode, carrying too much for too long. But it doesn’t have to stay this way. This is the beginning of your chronic thriving.

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This is for you if...

  • You live with anxiety, fatigue, gut struggles, migraines, pain, or feel “off” in your body.

  • You’re exhausted by the self-help cycle of fixing, chasing, or forcing.

  • You long to feel sensual, wanted, awake, not numb, flat, or in your head.

  • You want to reconnect with your body without pushing, striving for perfection, or focusing on performance.

  • You crave deep connection, with yourself, with others, with life.

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What Women Are Saying​

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"I didn’t realize how much I was living in survival mode until I started working with Angela. I thought I was just an anxious person or someone who gets tired easily, I’d spent years trying to fix myself with diets, doctors, even therapy, but nothing really changed.

With Angela, it felt different right away. There was no pressure to perform or be perfect. She helped me listen to my body in a way I never had before. Things started to soften. My energy slowly came back. I stopped feeling broken.

I still have hard days, but now I trust myself. I know what my body’s asking for. I feel more like myself, like I’ve come home after a long time away."

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“I didn’t realize how much my fatigue was getting in the way of feeling close to my partner. I was always so tired, distracted, and distant, even when I wanted to be present. Working with Angela helped me gently reconnect to my body and my desire without pressure or shame. It’s like I found a new way to show up in my relationship, more open, more alive, and way more honest with myself. The fatigue didn’t disappear overnight, but now I know how to listen to my body instead of fighting it. That’s made all the difference.”

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For the Woman Who’s Tired of Managing, Coping, and Pushing Through

 Your body still whispers, or screams, with symptoms that won’t budge. The fatigue. The tight chest. The anxious spinning. The flatness in your desire. The ache of disconnection, from yourself, from others, from life itself.

I work with women who are exhausted by the idea of “fixing” themselves. Women who want something different, not more effort, but more truth. More aliveness. More thriving.

Because you were meant for more than survival.

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It’s not about being "regulated" so you can do more. It’s about feeling wanted, worthy, and well.
It’s about desire—not duty.
Pleasure—not performance.
Thriving—not just getting by.

Here, your body gets to lead. Gently. Honestly. Powerfully.
And I walk with you.

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My Story: Why I Do This Work

I don’t teach this from theory. I teach it because I lived it. I know what it’s like to live in a body that feels impossible.

For years, my body was in constant pain. Intense inflammation, joint pain, exhaustion that no amount of rest could touch. Getting out of bed hurt like hell, but lying still hurt too. I couldn’t win. I couldn’t sleep. Every part of me ached. I felt trapped. Hopeless.

It wasn’t just the pain. It was the fear. The anxiety that crept in when I realized nothing was working. The hopelessness when doctors offered only prescriptions with harsh side effects, I wasn’t willing to accept, or cruel, dismissive comments that left me feeling small and unseen.

Even with a loving partner by my side, the world felt lonely as hell when I was sick. Because no one could really understand what it was like to live inside that body but me.

I tried everything: diets, cleanses, supplements, therapy. I kept thinking if I just worked harder, healed faster, did more...I’d finally get better. But the harder I pushed to “fix” myself, the worse I felt. The more exhausted I became.

I had small children who needed me. I couldn’t keep living this way. I've reached the moment many women know: I can’t do this anymore.

And then something shifted.

I didn’t have the words I have now, nervous system regulation, embodiment, trauma resolution, but I followed what felt true. I found sensual dance. I reconnected to my primal, erotic self. I began feeling my emotions—wide, wild, messy, and letting them move through me. I found community. I was witnessed in my full, real expression.

And slowly...life began to change.

Because here’s what I now know:
When a woman comes home to her wild, brilliant, primal nature, everything shifts.

We’ve been taught to fear these parts of ourselves. To shove them down. To believe that being primal or erotic means being sexual in a way shaped by someone else’s rules. But that’s not the truth.

We are made to feel. To want. To move. To desire.
And when we step out of the shadows of shame and “shoulds,” we finally come home to ourselves.


 

I want every woman in this struggle to hear this:

I see you.

You get to have the life you want, even if you don’t know what that is yet. It doesn’t have to look a certain way. It’s not going to look like my way, or anyone else’s.

This is your path. It unfolds as you walk it. It becomes clear as you stay close to yourself.

And I walk beside you, as you remember, feel, and reclaim what’s been yours all along.

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How I Work 

I guide women through nervous system recalibration, somatic healing, and embodied intimacy, rooted in my 7+ years of training in Somatic Experiencing®, Polyvagal Theory, VITA™, S Factor™, Mama Gena’s School of Womanly Arts, and The Wild Woman’s Way.
 
This is not another mindset hack or willpower game. This is body-led, connection-centered, and designed for real thriving, not just symptom management.

 

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How to Work With Me

Sessions are one-on-one, 60 minutes long. We begin with what feels most important or present for you in that moment, and then we take it from there, no pressure, no expectations.

I work with women who want to explore chronic symptoms, stress patterns, or build a deeper connection with their body and themselves. I offer sessions both in person in Escondido, CA, and virtually for your convenience.

Here’s how to get started:

  • Schedule a complimentary 60-minute session

  • Try 3 sessions

  • Reach out via email if you have questions or want to learn more

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(858) 800-8014 thesomashift@gmail.com

                   From Chronic Struggle to Chronic Thriving

For women who are done with fixing and ready to feel alive, connected, and deeply well.

What a Session Looks Like

We sit together and talk, like in talk therapy. But I’m also paying close attention to your nervous system as we go. If I notice a small change in your breath, posture, or tone, I’ll ask you to pause so we can explore what your body might be trying to tell you.

We focus on what’s happening right now: the sensations, emotions, your story, and the ways your nervous system is responding, often without you even realizing it.

Each session is shaped by what you need. I use different tools and gentle practices depending on what fits you. You might do some gentle movement, work with boundaries using yarn, or notice how your body reacts when you say something true out loud.

This approach helps your nervous system find safety and regulation, which is the foundation for healing and feeling more connected in your body and life.

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You don’t have to live in survival mode.

If you're dealing with pain, fatigue, anxiety, gut issues, or a general sense of “something’s not right,” and nothing seems to help, you’re not imagining it. Many people spend years managing symptoms that don’t respond to treatment or that keep coming back.

Often, the missing piece is the nervous system.

Chronic symptoms are real. They’re also signals. Your body may be stuck in patterns shaped by past stress, trauma, or years of pushing through. Nervous system work is about gently helping your body shift out of those patterns, not through force, but through presence, connection, and care.

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This Is What Creates the Healing

It’s not about doing more. It’s about being with what’s already there.

Healing doesn’t come from the perfect technique or talking endlessly about what happened. It comes from what your body experiences in the moment, when it’s truly listened to, respected, and supported.

This work helps your system do what it hasn’t been able to do on its own: settle, complete unfinished stress responses, and feel safe again. That’s how we move from chronic struggle into something more steady, more alive, and more connected.

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The Approach: Somatic Experiencing + VITA Method

This is a therapeutic approach focused on nervous system healing. I don’t diagnose or treat medical conditions. What I offer is a way to understand your body’s signals so long-held tension and patterns can begin to shift.

Somatic Experiencing® (SE™)

 a body-based approach to healing trauma and chronic stress. At its core, it’s about helping the nervous system complete responses that got stuck during overwhelming experiences, things like fight, flight, or freeze.

Instead of focusing only on the story or talking through what happened, SE guides a person to tune into your body’s sensations, impulses, and internal rhythms. This gentle attention helps the body process what's unresolved, restore balance, and build more capacity for stress.

It’s not about reliving trauma, it’s about listening to the body in the present, noticing what’s happening now, and allowing the nervous system to gradually find safety and regulation again.

The VITA Method

VITA brings together embodiment, science, emotional awareness, and conscious sexuality. It supports reconnection to pleasure, desire, boundaries, and aliveness, especially for those who’ve felt shut down, numb, or disconnected.
This part of the work honors that pleasure isn’t a luxury. It’s part of how we heal.

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The sessions I offer aren't about pushing you to open up or revisit the hardest parts. It’s not about catharsis or rehashing the past. It’s about going slow, noticing what’s here now, and letting your body guide the way.

You don’t need to be ready to “do the work.” You just need to be willing to pause and get curious. That’s enough.

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This therapeutic process is about being in relationship with your body’s signals, noticing things like:

• physical sensations (tightness, stillness, warmth)

• emotions that might be just under the surface

• unconscious survival patterns (like shutting down, tension, or people-pleasing) A few of the core tools that guide this process:

• Pendulation: gently moving between a challenge and something more resourced or neutral

• Titration: exploring things in small, manageable pieces

• Resourcing: identifying internal and external supports that feel steady

• Choice + consent: nothing happens without your clear “yes,” and we go at your pace.

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Your nervous system needs safety, space, and time to shift. Think of it like dipping your toe in the water, not jumping into the deep end. That slow, steady pace is what creates lasting change. Sometimes it’s just a 1% shift, but those small shifts add up. We all want to feel better now. But if we push too hard, too fast, the system can shut down, leading to more anxiety, more overwhelm, or collapse. So yes, “slow is fast.” Because that slower, attuned pace? It actually gets you there. That’s the kind of work I do. Gentle. And truly effective.

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