How to Work with Resistant Clients

Jessica Montgomery, MSW, Certified Hakomi Trainer, has been a somatic counselor and catalyst for over 30 years. Blending brain science with mindful experiential techniques, she facilitates individuals, couples, and communities toward greater wholeness. Her background spans community mental health, private practice, retreats, integrative medicine, and counselor education. A Trainer at the Hakomi Institute of the Pacific Northwest, she has served on faculty at the National University of Natural Medicine, META Institute, and as program director at Breitenbush Retreat Center. She is co-developer of the Primary Attachment model and lives in Portland, Oregon.

Manuela Mischke-Reeds. MFT is an international teacher of somatic psychology, somatic psychotherapist, a founder of Hakomi Institute of California and Embodywise (non-profit) that cultivates learning from the wisdom teachings of the body. She is the developer of the Innate Somatic Intelligence Trauma Therapy Approach (ISITTA), an in-depth trauma training program for therapists and practitioners.

Manuela has 25+ years of clinical experience with trauma clients, coaching executives, first responders. She lectures and trains professionals on the topics of Hakomi Therapy, mindfulness-somatic psychology, trauma healing, embodied mindfulness for trauma and stress, Movement Therapy, Somatic Psychedelic assisted Psychotherapy.

Manuela is the author of several books, including 125 Somatic Psychotherapy Tools for Trauma and Stress (PESI 2018), 8 Keys to Practicing Mindfulness: Practical Strategies for Emotional Health, Well Being (W.W.Norton 2015), Trauma-sensitive movement (2025), Embodied Psychedelic Therapy (2025).

Karee Powers, LICSW, EMDR-C is certified in EMDR and is an EMDR trainer and consultant. She has over 17 years of experience providing psychotherapy in a variety of settings including inpatient facilities, and non-profit organizations offering care for children, adolescents and adult survivors of abuse, neglect, combat trauma, sexual trauma, phobias, generational trauma, and interpersonal traumas. Her private practice and training is centered in work with complex trauma and dissociation, using EMDR, CBT, psychodrama, somatic psychology, and mindfulness. She graduated from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill with her Master’s in Social Work.

Morgan Starr-Riestis, LMHC, PATP is a licensed therapist, holistic health coach, and business strategist dedicated to evolving the fields of psychology and self-development through her transformative model, the Seven Centers System™. She holds a Master’s degree in Clinical Mental Health with an emphasis in Somatic Therapies and a Bachelor’s degree in Cognitive Neuroscience, Wellness, and Human Biology. With a deep passion for bridging science-backed methodologies with holistic healing, Morgan has built an engaged online community of nearly a million followers across TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook, where she shares practical tools for nervous system regulation, sustainable self-development, and holistic well-being in a way that is digestible, accessible, and helps fill in the gaps of 1:1 therapy.

Deb Dana, LCSW, is an author, clinician, and consultant using Polyvagal Theory to understand and resolve trauma while honoring the autonomic nervous system. She developed the Rhythm of Regulation Clinical Training Series and lectures internationally. Deb is a founding member of the Polyvagal Institute, clinical advisor to Khiron Clinics, and advisor to Unyte. Her clinical works with W.W. Norton include The Polyvagal Theory in Therapy, Polyvagal Exercises for Safety and Connection, and the Polyvagal Flip Chart. With Sounds True, she released Befriending Your Nervous System and the book Anchored.

Pat Ogden, PhD is a pioneer in somatic psychology, the creator of the Sensorimotor Psychotherapy method, and founder of the Sensorimotor Psychotherapy Institute. Dr. Ogden is a clinician, consultant, international lecturer and the first author of two groundbreaking books in somatic psychology: Trauma and the Body: A Sensorimotor Approach to Psychotherapy and Sensorimotor Psychotherapy: Interventions for Trauma and Attachment (2015). Her third book, The Pocket Guide to Sensorimotor Psychotherapy in Context, advocates for an anti-racist perspective in psychotherapy practice. Her current interests include couple therapy, child and family therapy, social justice, diversity, inclusion, consciousness, and the philosophical/spiritual principles that underlie her work.

Dr. Richard Schwartz began his career as a family therapist at the University of Illinois at Chicago, where he discovered that family therapy alone did not achieve full symptom relief. Patients described being plagued by "parts"—inner networks resembling families. As they separated from their parts, they shifted into a state of curiosity, calm, confidence, and compassion he called the Self. From these explorations, the Internal Family Systems (IFS) model was born in the early 1980s. Schwartz now lives in Brookline, MA, and is on the faculty of Harvard Medical School's Department of Psychiatry.

Dr. Scott Lyons (DO, PhD, MS, MFA, CHT, BMCP/T, RSMT, SME, BMCP, IDME, SEP, CST, BFA, RYT-500) is a Clinical Psychologist, Osteopath, and Mind-Body Medicine practitioner who specializes in therapies for infants, youth, and adults. Additionally, Dr. Lyons holds a BFA in Theater/Psychology, and an MFA in Dance/Choreography. Scott is the creator of The Embody Lab — a hub for embodied education, self-discovery and healing— and developer of Somatic Stress Release™ — a processes of restoring our biological adaptation system.