About Marta Olson, SEP
35 years of listening to what the body holds, and learning what it takes to help heal.
I didn't come to this work from the outside. I came to it from the inside, from my own questions about the body, about healing, about why some people carry their wounds their whole lives and others find a way through.
What I've learned in 35+ years is this: the body is not a problem to be managed. It is the path. Everything it holds, every pattern, every tension, every survival response still running long past its usefulness, is information. And when it's met with the right kind of attention, the body knows how to heal.
That's what I offer at Breath Body Works. Not a fix. A way through.
How I found this work, or how it found me
I first found massage therapy at age 19, but quite literally, it found me. I was appeasing my family because they wanted me to do something with my life when I agreed to go to school at the Integrative Therapy School in Sacramento, CA. On day one, I had never had a massage and was completely unaware of the fact that I was extremely uncomfortable with touch, which, as you can imagine, was a problem. Thankfully, I had masterful teachers who helped guide me through that. It was my first awareness around my own body and what it might be holding. I also found that I had a natural ability to be in connection with another as they were on my table.
I next found John Barnes and his Myofascial Release work. This was in my first year after being licensed, and the work felt as if I had landed in graduate school as I studied the magic of fascia and all that it contains. I took everything the man taught and focused my practice on Myofascial work.
I am a continual student and always searching and learning.
I studied Classical homeopathy for 3 years, where I really learned to listen and to capture the whole of the person and how they might be suffering, not only physically, but emotionally and spiritually as well.
I found yoga around 2000 and absolutely fell in love. My connection to my physical body deepened there as I became aware of memory trapped in my tissues as I worked to open and create space within my physical and energetic body. I went to yoga teacher and meditation teacher training at Ananda in Grass Valley to deepen my connection and understanding of these practices.
The Egoscue method of postural alignment also fell into my hands quite serendipitously. I was working with a local Egoscue therapist to deal with some of my own pain and posture issues and getting amazing results when she told me she had decided to retire and was looking for someone to take her practice.
I was able to work alongside her with her clients as I got my training to do the posture work. All of that informed me as to how people hold patterns of tension within their physical body.
I began to get very curious about the mind-body connection when I found a Somatic Therapist, and after decades of talk therapy working with CPTSD, something finally really shifted. The new awareness around how my body was holding my story changed everything as to how I approached my own healing.
And while I have come a very long way, I often tell my clients that I am healing right alongside you. Having gone through a very challenging childhood, my ACE score is a 9. While that was very difficult to live through, I believe it gives me more compassion and a knowingness that helps me connect with my clients.
I became aware of Somatic Experiencing through the work I did with my own Somatic therapist, and she encouraged me to take the leap and study. I am forever grateful that I did.
What I wish I had known decades ago is that the manual therapy I did was very helpful in a temporary way, but the more subtle work I am currently doing makes lasting change because it reaches the reason the tension exists in the first place.
Why SE and NeuroAffective Touch, and why now
Over the course of my career I've trained in a range of body-based healing modalities, Myofascial Release, Egoscue Postural Alignment Therapy, Yoga Therapy, Guided Meditation, and Therapeutic Massage. Each one taught me something important. Each one added a layer to my understanding of how the body holds experience and how it releases it.
But over time, something clarified. The clients who were coming to me, the ones doing the deepest work, the ones who'd tried everything else, needed something more specific. They needed a nervous system approach. They needed a way of working that could reach the survival patterns stored at a physiological level, not just release surface tension or build awareness through movement.
When I found Somatic Experiencing, I recognized it immediately. This was the framework I had been working toward. The 3-year SEP certification through Somatic Experiencing International gave me the clinical precision to do what I had been doing intuitively, and to go much further.
NeuroAffective Touch came next, and it completed the picture. Dr. Aline LaPierre's work gave me a way to reach the pre-verbal, developmental layer of the wound, the layer that forms before language, in the earliest experiences of relationship and contact. For clients with developmental trauma or early attachment wounds, NAT reaches what SE alone sometimes cannot.
Together, they are not two separate offerings. They are one integrated approach to nervous system healing, the most complete one I know.
My practice today is focused entirely on SE and NAT. Not because the other modalities weren't valuable, they were, and they're part of what I bring to every session, but because this is where the deepest and most lasting healing lives. When I found this work, I stopped looking.
Testimonial
"I live with fibromyalgia, and after years of trying massage, acupuncture, and deep tissue work with only temporary relief, I realized emotional stress was my biggest trigger. At my Rolfing therapist's recommendation, I began working with Marta, and it has made a profound difference. She helped me recognize the early signs of a flare-up, understand the connection between my stress response and my pain, and gave me practical tools to calm my nervous system before symptoms escalate. I now feel more aware, more capable, and more hopeful."
-Anonymous
Why “Breath Body Works”?
Breath Body Works. What does that mean, anyway? A few people have been willing to ask me this question. Others just ask "What, again, is the name of the business I should write on my check?" They ask this same question every time they come and have a session. And still others just go ahead and write 'breath and body works' on the check and call it good. Close enough, right?
Well, I thought it may be time to explain. Honestly, the name literally just came to me as breath body work, for the work I was doing personally with individual clients. I noticed how the intention of my own breath, when directed upon a certain area of a client's body, could profoundly change the result of the work. I was often surprised to see how things softened and aligned when I directed my breath and intention upon a specific physical issue. It was from the inquiry of why this was so that Breath Body Works was born.
Yoga has an entire limb dedicated solely to the breath, called pranayama. Prana is defined as vital energy, or breath, and yama is translated from Sanskrit as self control. Yogis have been using the control of the breath to
elevate their experiences for thousands of years. This one limb alone could be studied for the entirety of one's life, it is so full, and rich and mystical.
My use of breath and body together is to bring to your understanding that the breath is unique; it is an autonomic system we can have control of through our awareness. You can be advised to "take a deep breath," and you can do that by using your mind to direct your lungs. Yet, should you never have your brain tell your body to take a deep breath, it would continue to breathe for you. This ability to control the breath has great power. First and foremost, it brings us to the present moment, which is the only thing that really exists anyway.
Secondly, by breathing deeply from the low belly, we immediately begin to change our physiology. The sympathetic nervous system, which runs the body's nervous system during times of stress, such as running from the tiger, creates a hormonal soup within us that helps us to have the fuel to run, but is extremely taxing to our system over the long haul. The problem so many people have is they are in this state ALL THE TIME. When we are breathing from our chest and not from the low belly, allowing the diaphragm to fully drop down and contract, our sympathetic nervous system is running the show and telling our entire being: DANGER! DANGER!
Some of us have been in this state, literally, for decades. If we remain unconscious about this, our adrenal system, which pumps out all the danger signals to our body, will eventually give out. We were not meant to be on high alert for long periods of time. This is the beginning of auto immune disorders and chronic pain. Our system was functionally designed to run away and then rest. It is within the restful state that we come back into a level of peace and homeostasis.
We can bring ourselves back to this state just by bringing our awareness to our breath, breathing deeply from our low belly. Conscious breath triggers the parasympathetic nervous system, which floods our body with rest and digest hormones. It is only then that our body can begin to heal and rebuild.
The breath is also central to bringing us into awareness of our body. It is what connects our mind to our body. Have you ever heard the term, "you have to feel it to heal it?" The statement acknowledges we can only heal that which we are aware of. Awareness gives us opportunity to respond.
So much of what our physical body does on a daily basis is unconscious and automatic. It is my goal and passion to bring the body-mind-breath connection to my clients in order for them to learn to heal themselves. Ultimately, real healing only comes from the work we do ourselves. I am a humble vessel intending to help you connect these pieces together in a way that makes it yours.
Training and Credentials
I believe you deserve to know exactly who you are working with.
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Certified through Somatic Experiencing International, a rigorous 3-year training program in Dr. Peter Levine's body-centered approach to trauma resolution.
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Trained in Dr. Aline LaPierre's polyvagal-informed, psychobiological approach to body-mind integration through safe, attuned touch.
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Advanced training in Kathy Kain’s trauma-informed approach to therapeutic touch, emphasizing safety, attunement, and the understanding that trauma may be held in the nervous system, tissues, and structure of the body. This work deepens my ability to support regulation, repair, and healing with greater sensitivity and precision.
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Over 35+ years in body-based healing, I have trained in Myofascial Release, Egoscue Postural Alignment Therapy, Yoga Therapy, Guided Meditation, and Therapeutic Massage. These modalities form the deep foundation of my embodied understanding of how the body holds and releases experience.
Not sure if this is right for you? Let’s talk.
The first step is a free 30-minute consultation. No pressure, no commitment, just a conversation to see whether this work feels right for you and whether we're a good fit.
I work with people in Minden and the greater Carson Valley and Northern Nevada area.
Many of my clients tell me they wish they'd found this work years earlier. You don't have to wait any longer.