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Reclaiming Wholeness - Erika Shershun and the Power of Somatic Therapy

Reclaiming Wholeness - Erika Shershun and the Power of Somatic Therapy

For survivors of sexual trauma, healing is not just about moving forward—it’s about reclaiming their sense of self, safety, and wholeness. Erika Shershun, MA, LMFT, is dedicated to guiding individuals through this deeply personal journey with a compassionate, body-centered approach. As the author of Healing Sexual Trauma Workbook and Healing Sexual Trauma Guided Journal, as well as a leading educator through PESI’s Sexual Trauma Clinical Training, she integrates somatic psychotherapy, EMDR, Brainspotting, and parts work to help survivors heal from PTSD and CPTSD. With years of experience providing therapy in California and coaching clients worldwide, Erika understands that healing is not one-size-fits-all. Her work empowers survivors to reconnect with their bodies, process trauma safely, and regain control over their narratives. In this conversation with Mystic Mag, she shares insights into her therapeutic approach, the importance of embodied healing, and how survivors can cultivate resilience on their path to recovery.

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Somatic psychotherapy plays a key role in your work. Can you explain how the body stores trauma and how somatic practices help survivors regain a sense of safety and empowerment?

Trauma is caused by overwhelming our system. When our autonomic nervous system detects a threat and takes us into fight, flight (sympathetic) or freeze (dorsal vagal) a series of physiological changes take place in the service of survival. One of these is that blood rushes away from the prefrontal cortex (the rational part of our brain), the digestive track, and reproductive organs to our limbs where energy is most needed.

Our memory is impacted as well, trauma is encoded predominately as implicit emotional and procedural (sensations, patterns of movement…) memory. Emotions and sensations arise in the body, we feel them. All of this leads to unconscious or conscious reminders of the trauma (thoughts, emotions, sensations…) throwing our nervous systems back into dysregulation, leaving us feeling triggered, or experiencing any number of other symptoms that can be caused by trauma, if and until integration takes place.

Your Healing Sexual Trauma Workbook offers a comprehensive approach to recovery. What inspired you to create this resource, and what impact have you seen it have on survivors?

I spent years in talk therapy trying to heal, yet the traumas went largely unaddressed. At the same time, I didn’t realize the extent to which the traumas were impacting my life. It became clear to me that trauma is stored in the body one day during a body work training, trigger point therapy, where my hands suddenly went numb (disassociation) and I began experiencing flashbacks. This was over 25 years after the trauma arising in the flashbacks had taken place.

I decided to go back to school to finish my undergrad so that I could study somatic psychology in grad school, while at the same time still struggling to heal. It took me about seven more years to heal after the first flashbacks because I couldn’t find a therapist who was skilled at healing sexual trauma, one who would teach me practices to use outside of session, and knew how to integrate the traumas.

This struggle to heal led to my first book, the Healing Sexual Trauma Workbook: Somatic Skills to Help You Feel Safe in Your Body, Create Boundaries & Live With Resilience, because no one should have to spend 10, 20 or more years of their life investing time and money trying to heal. I also wanted a book for those who can’t afford therapy and don’t have access to a low fee clinic.

When I started writing it in 2019, I saw a need for a book on healing sexual trauma that included somatic practices and education on the nervous system. This way survivors could understand why their body reacted the way it did, learn to recognize which state they were in at any given time, and begin to feel agency in shifting their state. There were no books like it available for survivors at that time.

I’ve had a lot of positive feedback from survivors on the Healing Sexual Trauma Workbook. Some have said it’s the first time they’ve felt grounded or a sense of safety or presence, and others have finally felt seen or validated in any number of topics that the book covers.

Although I didn’t write it specifically for therapists, I’ve had many tell me they’ve read it and use it in their sessions with their clients. I suggest that readers who have a therapist bring the book to their sessions for additional support. The workbook is available in English, Spanish, Russian, and Polish. You can download the first chapter for free at healingsexualtrauma.com.

I feel it’s worth mentioning in this political climate that the HST Workbook was banned in at least one school district in Michigan. It’s sad to know that there are people who fought to remove a book from high school libraries that could help survivors to heal. I can’t think of a single honorable motivation behind such twisted actions!

My follow up book, the Healing Sexual Trauma Guided Journal: Writing and Somatic Practices to Help You Process, Heal, and Feel Safe, will be available March 1st. It was such a positive experience writing the journal, it flows from one topic into the next and feels gentle for the subject matter. It’s a good companion book or can stand alone.

What type of services do you offer?

I specialize in healing trauma, PTSD, CPTSD, and sexual trauma. I see individual clients online weekly or bi-weekly, offer therapy in CA, and coaching for those residing outside of the state. I have a course for therapists and other healing professionals, Sexual Trauma Clinical Training, that’s available through PESI, and offer SA consultations and supervision.

You integrate multiple modalities, including EMDR, Brainspotting, and parts work. How do you determine which approach is best suited for a particular client?

In my work I prioritize the integration of trauma, memory reconsolidation, and clearing trapped emotions. I determine which approach is best suited for each client by listening to and observing them in session, along with their feedback, what symptoms they’re experiencing, and what their goals are for treatment. I also pay attention to my intuition.

My work is integrative and holistic, I never use only one approach. For instance, I might bring somatic practices, parts work, and/or Emotion Code (an energy modality that releases trapped emotions) into an EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) session.

Trauma can have a profound effect on a person’s relationships. What strategies do you use to help survivors rebuild trust and establish healthy boundaries?

I wrote in the journal about how, when we look deeply, it’s often ourselves we don’t trust (due to trauma symptoms). Trust has to start with oneself, we have to be able to feel and decipher the signals our bodies and intuition are giving us, as well as our surroundings, about safe and not safe. To decipher if it’s anxiety, fear, or intuition, and to trust that if we’re getting a clear signal of not safe, to listen to it. So, I begin with practices that support establishing a felt sense of safety or presence, followed with self-compassion. Further along I go into fear vs intuition.

Sexual trauma is a devastating boundary violation that leaves boundaries shattered, so there’s a whole chapter on boundaries in the workbook. It includes why they’re of such value to us, feeling into internal and external boundaries, making implicit and explicit boundaries, and recognizing and naming needs. Clients see wonderful shifts in their relationships when they learn to trust themselves and make healthy boundaries.

As a mental health professional, how do you practice self-care and prevent burnout when working with deeply emotional and complex trauma cases?

Because I’ve been through a lot and healed the majority of my own trauma’s, I don’t tend to get triggered by others’ trauma. Instead, I feel confident that they can heal and I can help them to do so. I often feel empathy, and at times deep, deep, emotional empathy when clients share particularly painful traumas – it arises from a place of love in my heart center and doesn’t cause burnout.

The Emotion Code is a big part of my self-care. I have cleared so many trapped emotions now that when I use it on myself, I immediately experience a positive shift. I do my best to stay grounded (I use a BioMat when working), orient myself to my surroundings, check in with my breath, and drink a lot of green tea and water throughout the day. I also tune into what I’m needing, our emotions are great messengers for this, letting us know what’s needed in the present moment. My list might include any number of these: connection with a friend, loved one, or community, yoga, a run, an energy practice, more sleep, body work, getting organized, reading, writing, a good show or movie, art, and time in nature.

We rank vendors based on rigorous testing and research, but also take into account your feedback and our commercial agreements with providers. This page contains affiliate links. Advertising Disclosure
MysticMag contains reviews that were written by our experts and follow the strict reviewing standards, including ethical standards, that we have adopted. Such standards require that each review will take into consideration independent, honest and professional examination of the reviewer. That being said, we may earn a commission when a user completes an action using our links, at no additional cost to them. On listicle pages, we rank vendors based on a system that prioritizes the reviewer’s examination of each service but also considers feedback received from our readers and our commercial agreements with providers.This site may not review all available service providers, and information is believed to be accurate as of the date of each article.
About the author
Writer
Katarina is a Content Editor at Mystic Mag She is a Reiki practitioner who believes in spiritual healing, self-consciousness, healing with music. Mystical things inspire her to always look for deeper answers. She enjoys to be in nature, meditation, discover new things every day. Interviewing people from this area is her passion and space where she can professionaly evolve, and try to connect people in needs with professionals that can help them on their journey. Before joining Mystic Mag, she was involved in corporate world where she thought that she cannot express herself that much and develop as a person.