Jodi Schwartz-Levy, PhD, LPC

Jodi Schwartz-Levy, PhD holds a doctorate in Clinical Psychology with a specialization in Somatic Psychology from The Santa Barbara Graduate Institute. This deeply experiential master’s and doctoral program emphasized learning from the inside out, shaping her lifelong commitment to embodied, relational, and trauma-informed healing. With time and distance, Jodi continues to recognize how fortunate she was to study with exceptional teachers in a truly unique program. In 1998, Jodi became the first Nia instructor in Pennsylvania. This holistic movement practice allowed her to create a therapeutic space where emotional pain and trauma could be processed through the body—while also offering the joy and vitality of movement. A lifelong dancer and student of the body, Jodi has always understood that healing occurs at a somatic level, guided by an intuitive understanding of somatic energetics. She is also trained in multiple forms of bodywork, including Thai and Swedish massage, Reiki, and Integrated Energy Therapy. For six years, Jodi owned and operated Healing Arts Studio in Chestnut Hill, Pennsylvania. This long-held dream space housed workshops, movement classes, acupuncture, and her somatic psychotherapy practice. Although the studio was thriving, it closed its doors in March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Jodi has taught in Arcadia University’s graduate counseling program, where she served as Internship Liaison and Internship Seminar Instructor and taught group counseling using a highly experiential and process-oriented approach. She also served on the program’s admissions committee. Her doctoral dissertation focused on eating disorders, drawing from her clinical work and research at The Renfrew Center. Additional professional experience includes working at Women Against Abuse, where she provided support to women and children residing in a domestic violence shelter. She has also led professional workshops and trainings and offers supervision to clinicians seeking a somatic and trauma-informed approach. SOMA The term soma is an ancient Greek concept that refers to the body as the container of all of our experiences (including the mental, emotional, energetic and spiritual). That is to say, that we cannot have any experience unless we are living in a body. The body therefore is an energetic system that is deeply and curiously interconnected. Our feelings effect our thoughts, our thoughts effect our posture, our beliefs influence our behavioral patterns, our experiences effect our movement patterns — the web is endless. We are a dynamic and amazingly interconnected system and our symptoms (depression, anxiety, pain, etc) point to such imbalance. In somatics we deeply listen to the language of the body (sensation, movement, breath, voice, etc) to not only better understand unconscious material, but to also be better resourced. The body gives us an incredible amount of information on how to navigate the world, but we have been taught to ignore such bodily cues. By working with the body in psychotherapy, we can work directly with the nervous system while also clearing and creating new patterns of embodiment.