Meet Alicia Hoffman, LCPC, SEP
My goal is to help you feel completely and unshakably connected to yourself.
I know what it feels like to move through adversity into a life with more ease, fuller self-expression, and rooted confidence.
I want that for you too.
You have already met so many of the goals you set out to conquer from your 20’s and 30’s and now find yourself in midlife looking to deepen, revaluate, reestablish, or redefine who you are and how you want to show up for yourself. Let’s be honest, it can be a lot to balance all the parts of life and you may feel unsure how to set the boundaries you need to thrive. You do so much for others and want to make more space for yourself. You want to live confidently and passionately like you thought you would when you were a teenager and live the unapologetic life you set out for, or maybe didn’t know you could have. I know what it feels like to move through adversity into a life with more ease, fuller self-expression, and rooted confidence. I want that for you too.
You spend so much energy tending to responsibilities and the have-tos of life; you deserve to spend some of it on the deeper parts of yourself. As an accomplished, highly sensitive, and creative person myself, I want to help you build the skills to thrive in your sensitivity, live creatively, connect with your body, and take up the space you deserve. My goal is to help you feel completely and unshakably connected to yourself..
We talk a lot about how the body keeps the score, but I didn’t yet have a way to help my body put that score card down…SE gave me that.
Somatic Experiencing® (SE) became central to my own practice after years of searching. I'd done deep psychological and spiritual work through years of my own therapy and exploring alternative healing practices. All the insight did not give me the relief or sense of feeling settled in my body and life I was looking for. We talk a lot about how the body keeps the score, but I didn't yet have a way to help my body actually put that score card down. Learning to communicate directly with the body through SE gave me that — more alignment, more relief, and a felt sense of change that talk alone hadn't given me. I want that same shift for you. I can help you develop the skills and language to keep communicating with your body long after our sessions end.
MY APPROACH
Everything we do is to help you feel resourced and supported in your body.
I blend traditional talk therapy with Somatic Experiencing® (SE), a body-based approach to healing trauma and managing chronic stress. Talking things through definitly matters. I want to understand your story, your history, and what's bringing you in. But I also pay close attention to what's happening underneath the words: your breath, your posture, the subtle shifts in your body and attention as we talk. Trauma and stress don't just live in our thoughts; they live in our nervous systems. SE gives us a direct way to work with that, gently and at a pace your body can actually handle.
I have a background in art therapy, and while it's not the center of my practice these days, it shaped how I work. I tend to approach things from a different angle rather than assume the most obvious presenting concern is the problem. I'm a creative person outside of work too — I make art and dance — and I bring that same spirit of curiosity, intuition, and resourcefulness into sessions. I tend to believe healing doesn't always have to be grim and gritty. I laugh easily (some might even say I’m funny), and I've found that humor and lightness at times can open doors, offer relief, and support your process in a way that seriousness alone can't.
I enjoy working with a wide variety of midlife women. My clients are culturally diverse and many are first generation Americans. I’m a proud LGBTQ+ ally and my practice is a place where all identities are honored and respected. Some women are partnered while others are single. Some are navigating parenting or fertility while others live child free lives. No matter my clients’ background, relationship status, or identity I take seriously the pressure so many women experience; to hold it together, to be strong, to carry everyone else, or constantly exceed expectations.
I also enjoy work with women in larger bodies and women struggling with body image. I work from a Health At Every Size (HAES) and Intuitive Eating lens, which means I'm not in the business of shrinking you or pathologizing your body. I'm interested in helping you build a more trusting, peaceful relationship with it, separate from diet culture and the messages you've absorbed about what your body "should" look like. I focus on how you feel in your body, not about it.
Somatic Experiencing is especially relevant here, because so much of what I've described above doesn't live in thought — it lives in the body. Whether you're over-functioning, burnt out, navigating the life-changing journey of perimenopause, living in a body that has been marginalized, or just wanting to feel more connected to yourself, this work meets you there. If you've spent years holding it together, staying strong, or making yourself smaller (literally or otherwise) to feel safe, your nervous system has been doing that work long before your mind put words to it. SE can help you notice, transform, and release what's been held — tension, bracing, hypervigilance — instead of just talking about it. Many of the women I work with have had to stay alert in spaces that weren't safe, and have been taught to distrust or disconnect from their own bodies. This work offers something different: a way back into your own body as an ally, not a threat.
Whatever brings you to therapy, my hope is to offer a space that feels genuinely human: warm, unpretentious, a little unconventional, and rooted in the belief that you already carry the wisdom your body needs to heal. It’s my goal to reflect it and help you learn to listen to it.
Education and Certifications
Masters in Art Therapy- Southwestern College, Santa Fe, NM
Bachelors of Fine Art- Barat College of DePaul, Lake Forest, IL
Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor (LCPC)
Somatic Experiencing Practitioner (SEP)- Somatic Experiencing International