Therapy, Evolved.
SIP — Somatic Integrative Psychotherapy represents the next stage in the evolution of modern therapy through structured integration of mind and body. Rather than working with thoughts alone, SIP unifies cognitive insight with somatic processing in a cohesive clinical framework. This integration allows change to move beyond understanding into lived experience. The result is transformation that is embodied, coherent, and sustained.
For Individuals
SIP supports people who are ready to move beyond insight alone. By working with both thoughts and embodied patterns, therapy becomes grounded, experiential, and lasting. Change is not just something you understand — it becomes something you live.
For Clinicians
SIP offers a refined clinical framework that integrates cognitive and somatic processes in a disciplined, structured way. It is designed for therapists seeking deeper integration, greater precision, and more durable outcomes in their work.
What is Somatic Psychotherapy?
The word somatic refers to the body, especially in distinction from the mind. For healing to be both effective and enduring, we must understand not only a client’s cognitive processes, but also their lived relationship with bodily experience. In SIP, awareness of the body becomes a compass — revealing how past experiences are held and how unresolved trauma continues to shape present patterns. By working with these embodied signals, we gain clarity about the original injury and a grounded path toward integration and repair.
Why Somatic therapy?
Mind and body are not separate systems, but interdependent aspects of a whole. The relationship a person has with their bodily experience directly shapes their cognitive patterns, survival strategies, and emotional responses. To fully understand a person’s struggles, both dimensions must be addressed in an integrated way. Without this integration, therapy risks managing symptoms rather than transforming the underlying patterns that sustain them.
Afraid to jump in?
That is normal. It is a difficult thing to start this process. Letting go of the things we have held on to and learning to hold onto ourself is not easy especially at the start. Despite it being scary you have everything you need to navigate. You will succeed and change your life.
In order to fly you must have your feet planted on the ground.
— Beth Bardovi
Founder
Zak Poyo, LPCC, is a somatic psychotherapist based in Los Angeles, California. His clinical work centers on the integration of mind and body and the ways developmental experience, environment, and personal adaptation shape that relationship over time. Through years of practice, he has focused on understanding how embodied patterns influence cognition, emotion, and behavior — and how restoring integration can create meaningful change.
Zak’s work supports clients in breaking longstanding destructive patterns and addressing deeply rooted emotional injuries through structured, integrative therapy.
He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology from California State University, Northridge, and a Master’s degree in Clinical Mental Health Counseling from Webster University in Greenville, South Carolina. He is certified in Integrative Body Psychotherapy (IBP) through the IBP Institute in Venice, California.
SIP — Somatic Integrative Psychotherapy — was developed as a refinement of contemporary therapeutic models, integrating cognitive and somatic processes into a cohesive framework designed to support durable transformation. Zak remains committed to advancing this work for individuals seeking meaningful change and for clinicians pursuing greater depth and integration in their practice.