Body First, Brain Second

Reclaiming Your Nervous System After Trauma

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Meet the Founder

Shimekia Williams, LCPC

  • Body First, Brain Second is a healing program for people who have learned to survive disconnection and are now seeking a way back to themselves.
    This program is designed for marginalized communities, individuals navigating life transitions, and those carrying personal, professional, mental, and emotional stress shaped by cumulative trauma. Many participants arrive having tried different forms of healing offered in isolation—therapy, somatic work, community spaces—without ever having them integrated in a way that allows for deeper, embodied change.
    At its core, this program teaches people how to reconnect with themselves after trauma by starting with the body. Healing is approached as a nervous system process, not an intellectual one. Regulation, safety, and awareness are cultivated first, creating the conditions for insight, repair, and sustainable change.
    What makes this program distinct is its integration. Individual therapy is woven into a communal healing space, allowing participants to practice regulation, connection, and new relational patterns in real time—rather than in isolation. Healing is not treated as a private task to be carried alone, but as something that can be supported and strengthened in community.
    This is not a quick intervention or a single modality. It is a structured, intentional process that brings multiple approaches together—honoring both individual care and collective healing—so participants can build capacity that carries into work, relationships, home, and daily life.

Work With Us

What Is Body First, Brain Second?

A healing approach that prioritizes nervous system safety before analysis or problem-solving.
When the body is supported, emotions can move and the mind can make sense of what’s happening—without overwhelm or shutdown.

Nervous System

Trauma research shows the body keeps the score, not the mind! which is why we prioritize nervous system regulation before cognitive processing, giving you the foundation to actually heal and thrive.

Somatic Practices

Your body holds what your mind can't process, which is why we use Yoga Nidra, Sound Healing, and Trauma Release Exercises to help you physically release stress, tension, and survival patterns.

Nature Activities

Nature adventures reconnect you to the earth's natural regulation forest bathing, grounding practices, and outdoor movement remind your body what calm actually feels like

Shared Meal

Eating in safe community activates your ventral vagal system (the part of your nervous system that says 'I belong here') shared meals are nervous system medicine. Meals serve by local c hefs. Meal

  • Why Does This Matter?

    Because you've been taught to ignore your body—and it's costing you everything.

    You override your instincts. You silence your gut. You push through symptoms.

    And now:

    You don't trust yourself

    You attract people who harm you

    Your body is breaking down

  • Why Body First?

    Because neuroscience shows that trauma is stored in your nervous system, not just your thoughts.

    Your body remembers what your mind has suppressed. And until you address it somatically, you'll stay stuck in:

    Fight, flight, freeze, or fawn

    Chronic pain or illness

    Anxiety that won't go away

    You can't think your way out of what's held in your body. You have to FEEL your way through it.

  • WHAT WILL I LEARN?

    Trust in your body

    A regulated nervous system

    Freedom from physical symptoms

    Setting boundaries without guilt

    Relationship that feel reciprocal

    Your instincts back so you never doubt yourself again

    Feel grounded, safe, and alive

    A life where you don't have to perform, people-please, or abandon yourself

This Program Is For:

Life Transitions & Personal Stressors

  • Divorce, separation, or relationship dissolution

  • Grief, loss, and bereavement

  • Postpartum anxiety or depression

  • Caregiver stress

  • Major role transitions (career changes, relocation, identity shifts)

Trauma & Chronic Stress Exposure

  • Complex PTSD or PTSD

  • Narcissistic or emotionally abusive relationships

  • Religious trauma

  • Childhood adversity (including adult children of alcoholics)

  • Incarceration or reentry-related stress (formerly incarcerated individuals)

  • Chronic exposure to unsafe or destabilizing environments

Mental & Emotional Health

  • Chronic anxiety or depression

  • Emotional dysregulation

  • Attachment wounds or relational stress

  • Codependency patterns

  • Difficulty maintaining relationships

  • Unexplained physical or psychosomatic symptoms

Marginalized Communities

  • Black women

  • BIPOC communities

  • LGBTQ+ individuals

  • Immigrant populations

  • Individuals from historically oppressed or marginalized groups

Professional Stress

  • Corporate and finance professionals

  • Healthcare workers and clinicians

  • Mental health therapists and social workers

  • Educators and academic professionals

  • Community leaders, organizers, and activists

If your body is holding what your mind can't process—this is for you.

Herbal Tea & Aromatherapy

Herbal teas and aromatherapy are offered as grounding practices that support nervous system regulation through sensory engagement. When the body receives cues of safety and care, it becomes easier to rest, release tension, and reconnect with the present moment.

Individual Therapy

Individual therapy offers you a private container for processing personal experiences, ensuring you have support for whatever arises in your healing.

Play

Play is how we reconnect with the inner child who needs healing too. Because that's where our stories often begin, we make space for joy and fun as part of the healing process.

Service

Service is essential because healing isn't complete until we give back. By connecting with those in need, service becomes medicine for both you and your community.

  • "The body is the stage on which the story of trauma is told. Trauma affects the body as well as the mind, and the body must be addressed if healing is to occur."

    Pat Ogden, PhD

  • "Recovery can take place only within the context of relationships; it cannot occur in isolation."

    Judith Herman, MD

  • "The body, not the thinking brain, is where we experience most of our pain, pleasure, and joy, and it is through the body that we find healing."

    Peter Levine, PhD

9-week facilitated group program

  1. Yoga

  2. Tension & Trauma Release Exercise (TRE)

  3. Sound Therapy

  4. Nervous system education and integration

  5. Nature-based activities and restorative play

  6. Aromatherapy

  7. Herbal teas

  8. Chef-prepared communal meals

  9. Four structured therapy sessions with a licensed mental health professional

  10. Program materials and guided support

What’s Included:

Program Options

Full Program Investment

Includes:

  • 9-week facilitated group program

  • Somatic practices (yoga, sound healing, TRE, grounding movement)

  • Nervous system education and integration

  • Nature-based activities and restorative play

  • Aromatherapy, herbal teas, and thoughtfully curated grounding meals

  • Four structured therapy sessions with a licensed mental health professional

  • Program materials and guided support

This rate reflects the full scope of facilitation, clinical support, space, materials, food, and care coordination.

Community-Sponsored Seats

We reserve a small number of community-sponsored seats in each cohort for participants who would otherwise be unable to access this program.

Includes:

  • 8-week facilitated group program

  • Somatic practices (yoga, sound healing, TRE, grounding movement)

  • Nervous system education and integration

  • Nature-based activities and restorative play

  • Aromatherapy, herbal teas, and thoughtfully curated grounding meals

  • Four structured therapy sessions with a licensed mental health professional

  • Program materials and guided support

Sliding Scale Access

We recognize that systemic inequities, caregiving responsibilities, health challenges, and life transitions can limit access to healing spaces.

A limited number of sliding-scale spots are available per cohort for participants who experience structural barriers to care, including (but not limited to):

  • Black, Indigenous, and People of Color

  • Queer, Trans, and Gender-Expansive individuals

  • Disabled and/or Neurodivergent individuals

  • Immigrants and formerly incarcerated individuals

  • Those living with chronic illness

  • Individuals navigating burnout, grief, divorce, postpartum transitions, or religious trauma

  • People working in justice-oriented, nonprofit, or community-based roles

Contracted Program Investment

This rate reflects:

  • Program design and facilitation

  • Somatic and wellness practitioners

  • Clinical support integration

  • Materials, supplies, and coordination

  • Planning, logistics, and post-program wrap-up

Let’s Work Together

If you're interested in working with us, complete the form with a few details about your project. We'll review your message and get back to you within 48 hours.