SOMATIC & RELATIONAL THERAPY
Sophia Beletsis
M.A. · Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist #165319
Therapy for individuals, teens, and couples. In person in San Francisco, and online throughout California.
Sophia is a therapist at Embodied Relational Psychotherapy, a group practice in San Francisco.
Get in touch
My approach
Life is often messy, contradictory, and full of experiences that ask us to adapt in ways we never expected. Many of the struggles we bring into therapy aren't signs that something is wrong with us—they're understandable responses to loss, disconnection, overwhelming circumstances, or relationships that require us to forgo essential parts of ourselves. A safe, trusting therapeutic relationship offers an opportunity to understand those responses with compassion, honoring the ways they've helped you survive while making room for new ways of relating to yourself, your body, and the people around you. My role isn't to fix you. It's to help create the conditions where you can begin listening to yourself more deeply, with curiosity and compassion.
I bring warmth, curiosity, and an active presence to our work together. My work is somatic, which means we pay attention to the wisdom of your body in addition to your mind. As we talk, I might invite you to notice a held breath, tension in your shoulders, or a feeling of relief. Sometimes we might slow down with a feeling, explore a movement, or practice saying something you’ve had trouble expressing. These invitations can help you recognize what parts of you are feeling and needing, and try out new ways of responding.
I also make room for the cultural, social, and material realities of your life. My experience includes working in schools, residential, and community mental health settings with many people who hold a wide range of gender, sexuality, religious, cultural, and racial identities. Whether our identities and experiences overlap or differ, I’m committed to listening carefully, trusting and respecting your worldview, and honoring the experiences that have shaped you.
Working together
Individuals
I’m drawn to people who long to feel less careful and more alive: who want to speak honestly, trust their own experience, and stay connected to themselves while maintaining fulfilling relationships with others. People come to therapy for all different reasons, but ultimately, my aim will be to help you locate a sense of being at home in yourself: connected to your body, freer to express what you feel and need, and more able to experience joy and fulfillment. A few specialties that I enjoy working with are:
- Anxiety and overfunctioning
- Trauma and C-PTSD
- Grief and loss
- Life transitions and relationship challenges
Teens
Adolescence can be a particularly complicated time to figure out who you are and how you want to move through the world. Teens are navigating growing independence while still being deeply shaped by family, friendships, school, culture, and the expectations around them. I enjoy working with teenagers as they make sense of these competing pressures, develop a stronger sense of identity, and learn to trust their own inner experience. I also believe that supporting a teenager often means supporting the relationships around them, and I work collaboratively with parents to better understand what their teen may be experiencing while honoring the privacy and autonomy that are essential to the therapeutic relationship.
- Exploring sexuality and gender identity
- Navigating relationships with substances and technology/social media
- Neurodivergence
- Trauma/C-PTSD
Couples
Joining together with another can be a profoundly connective experience, and it can also be a place where we tend to replicate old wounds. I enjoy working with couples to shift unhelpful patterns and discover ways of relating that allow each person to be fully themselves without compromising their connection. Alongside the places where you feel hurt or stuck, I make room for pleasure and possibility: more playfulness, affection, intimate connection, and freedom to grow. Our work can help you understand what each of you longs for and what you want to create together, while leaving room for honest questions about what isn’t working. I have significant personal and professional experience with both queer and non-monogamous relationships, and I welcome all relationships, in all their complexity.
- Recurring conflict and patterns of disconnection
- Intimacy, vulnerability, and expressing needs
- Changing identities, roles, and relationship agreements
- Navigating transitions, grief, and uncertainty together
About me
I came to this work with a deep reverence for the many ways people adapt, find connection, and build meaningful lives amidst difficult circumstances. I began my career in nonprofits and community health organizations, where I often longed for more time to know the people I worked with, to walk with them on their paths and offer the sustained support that those settings couldn’t always make possible.
A longtime love of yoga and dance, as well as the deeply embodied experience of grief, brought me to somatic work and continues to shape how I understand healing. Outside of therapy, I love cooking for loved ones, getting lost in a book, and experiencing the awe of the natural world, whether that be through scuba diving, bird watching, or tending to the flowers in my backyard.
Education
I earned my M.A. in Somatic Psychology at the California Institute of Integral Studies. The three-year program teaches through the body as well as through books, drawing on Eastern and Western psychology and grounded in the experience of body and mind as one. Alongside my degree, I completed a 200-hour yoga teacher training in the Iyengar tradition, trained to teach mindfulness, and taught mindfulness in San Francisco public schools. Since graduating, I’ve done further training in psychodynamic work, grief and loss, harm reduction and addiction, and trauma, including study with Peter Levine and Janina Fisher. I’m currently in a mentorship with Robin Levick at Embodied Relational Psychotherapy, deepening my integration of somatic and psychodynamic work through weekly consultation.
Sophia is a therapist at Embodied Relational Psychotherapy, a group practice in San Francisco.
A few questions
you might have.
If there’s something else you’d like to know, you’re welcome to ask.
Get in touchWhere do we meet?
I offer in-person sessions at Embodied Relational Psychotherapy, 582 Market Street, Suite 1904, San Francisco, CA 94104, and online sessions for people located in California. We can discuss which format would work for you.
View the location (opens in a new tab)What are your fees?
Individual sessions are $200 and couples sessions are $225. Sliding-scale options may be available; please ask about current availability. For family sessions, we can discuss fees when we connect.
We’ll clarify fees and any insurance questions before beginning. Please contact me to confirm current insurance arrangements and coverage.
Do I need to know anything about somatic therapy?
No. “Somatic” simply means that we include your bodily experience alongside your thoughts and feelings. That might mean noticing a sensation, a shift in your breathing, or how you feel as you talk about something.
You don’t need to be good at noticing your body. We can begin wherever you are, and any exercise or invitation is optional.
What happens in the first conversation?
I offer a free 20-minute consultation call. You can share a little about what brings you to therapy, ask questions, and get a sense of what it might be like to work together. We can talk about practical details, too.
You don’t have to tell your whole story or decide on the spot.
How do we know if it’s a good fit?
You might notice whether you feel listened to, whether there’s room for your questions, and whether my way of working makes sense to you. It’s okay if that takes time to know.
Therapy isn’t always comfortable or linear. We can keep talking about how our work feels, what is helping, and what you need to be different.
Get in touch
You’re welcome to book a free 20-minute consultation call to ask questions and get a feel for working together.
510.852.9768Text Sophiasophia@embodiedrelationalpsychotherapy.com
Calls, texts, emails and bookings all go to Sophia at Embodied Relational Psychotherapy. There are more times than the online calendar shows; text, call or email and we will find one.