We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Meridith Antonucci a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Meridith thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Was there a defining moment in your professional career? A moment that changed the trajectory of your career?

A defining moment in my life – and ultimately career – happened gradually over the course of a few months. In college, I sought out psychotherapy for both depressive symptoms and for support managing life stressors and started to become aware that practicing yoga and meditation allowed me to actually feel and embody the work I was doing with my traditionally trained talk therapist. I would learn concepts cognitively in therapy and then later I would feel and integrate them somatically in yoga. I distinctly remember sitting in my dorm room and wondering why our thinking minds and bodies so often get separated as if they are distinct entities.

That line of questioning eventually led me to study yoga therapy and then somatic (body-centered) psychology and counseling. My approach to wellness is holistic and rests on the foundation that the mind and body are deeply connected – I firmly believe we are not just our brains; we also exist inside of bodies. Why not utilize both to provide insight and information? As a somatic psychotherapist, I integrate body awareness and movement with traditional talk therapy to help clients build a stronger mind-body connection and more robust toolbox to help them move through their life with greater choice and ease. And as a yoga teacher and therapist, I help create meaningful changes in folks’ mental, emotional, and physical patterns.

Meridith, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I am the creator of Repattern Therapeutics, a small holistic wellness business that offers somatic psychotherapy, social/emotional/relational wellness workshops and consulting as well as private yoga and yoga therapy to help people repattern their bodies, minds and hearts towards ease, connection and thriving. I wear many different hats, including somatic psychotherapist, yoga teacher, yoga therapist and facilitator. Whether someone’s aim is to repattern people-pleasing tendencies into skillful, direct boundary setting (somatic psychotherapy services), repattern low back pain into more strength and comfort (through private yoga services) or repattern chronic exhaustion into a sense of restored balance (through yoga therapy services), I am here to support them and their process.

In psychotherapy, I predominantly support adults and teens navigating and exploring relationships, gender and sexuality as well as people struggling with anxiety, depression, stress, trauma, indecision, perfectionism, and low self-esteem. And as a queer psychotherapist, I love working with fellow LGBTQIA+ folks (and parents of queer and/or trans or gender diverse children). In yoga and yoga therapy, I commonly support clients in navigating chronic pain, burnout and stress. Recently, I have expanded into creating and facilitating social emotional wellness workshops, both virtually and in-person, at various organizations. Workshop topics include nervous system regulation, conflict resolution, somatic psychology 101, emotional intelligence in the workplace, burnout and effective communication strategies.

It is an immense honor to support clients in their healing process. I am so grateful to do something that I am passionate about every day.

Have you ever had to pivot?

Like many, many people, I was forced to pivot when the pandemic began. I graduated with my degree in Clinical Mental Health Counseling in May of 2020. Many counseling agencies were on hiring freezes so I decided to take the leap into a virtual telehealth-based private counseling practice. Something I am working on repatterning personally is my tendency to elongate decision-making processes. The external circumstances of the pandemic gave me the much needed (almost necessary) push to start my own business. It has been enlivening, overwhelming, satisfying, emboldening, challenging and incredibly rewarding to run my own business.

Training and knowledge matter of course, but beyond that what do you think matters most in terms of succeeding in your field?

I believe people are looking for healthcare providers that are authentic and holistically-oriented. People often crave to be heard and understood. I do not pretend to be a blank slate or a robot as a therapist. Instead, I allow myself to be human in session, which sometimes shows up as being outwardly impacted by a client or sharing personally to deepen trust in our therapeutic relationship. In yoga and yoga therapy, I work more holistically through the framework that we as humans have various layers, including a physical body, energy body, mental body, wisdom body, and bliss body.

I also believe that “succeeding in my field” looks like striking a balance between taking care of myself financially, while promoting accessibility to mental healthcare. The cost of mental health services can be a prohibitive barrier for people to access necessary services. That’s why I see some clients who can afford my full private pay fee and I have consciously chosen to accept Medicaid insurance and some commercial insurance for my mental health services in order to promote accessibility to mental healthcare. I also offer a number of sliding scale slots for both somatic therapy and yoga/yoga therapy services.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://repatterntherapeutics.com/
• Instagram: @repatterntherapeutics
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/meridithantonucci

Image Credits
Carly Mitchell Photography; Felicia Magliula Photography; Nolan Antonucci