Ariane Porras is a social worker and Somatic Experiencing Practitioner certified through Somatic Experiencing International (SEI). She brings more than 20 years of experience in social work, where she supported caregivers through early childhood mental health consultation, facilitated support groups for kinship caregivers, and led a range of systems-change efforts. She has trained adults in strengths-based frameworks and trauma-informed practices and collaborated on prevention initiatives to reduce child maltreatment in San Diego County. Ariane is also a frequent conference speaker in the early childhood field.
Her own healing journey shifted when she discovered Somatic Experiencing and began relating to her body differently. For years, she had felt at war with her body, resenting the chronic pain she lived with. Learning to listen to it instead changed everything, and the experience was so profound that she felt called to learn this work and share it with others.
Ariane has come to see Somatic Experiencing as a deep practice of liberation, one that reconnects people with their own sense of agency and safety. She can’t imagine a better way to spend her time than helping others find their way back home to themselves.