Rachel’s clinical career spans over 15 years and reflects a unique synthesis of somatic, developmental, experiential, and trauma-informed work. A pivotal moment in her journey was becoming a Registered Play Therapist-Supervisor™, which reshaped her view of healing. She began to see it not only as a cognitive process but also as a sensory, relational, and symbolic one.

Working with clients across the lifespan, she recognized that play and creative expression access parts of the nervous system and emotional memory often unreachable by talk therapy alone. This insight opened the door to blending highly effective elements of CBT™, somatic psychology, Polyvagal Theory™, attachment science, and expressive therapies into a cohesive, embodied approach.

Rachel’s additional training as a Somatic Psychotherapist, EMDR™ clinician, and Somatic Experiencing® practitioner revealed an ongoing theme: many existing models offered tools, but lacked a unifying lens for understanding how neurochemical stress responses drive behavior, emotion, and nervous system states.

This led to the creation of NeuroResponse Pattern Theory™—a theory that explains how the body’s unique neurochemical “signature” is shaped by stress and reactivated across relationships, environments, and time.

NeuroResponse Pattern Theory™ is not a technique. It is a lens—a way of understanding what is happening beneath the surface of any therapeutic approach.

This lens helps clinicians:

• Track how neurochemical patterns form and repeat across time

• Understand how internal states (interoception, proprioception, vestibular awareness, and introspection) interact with external cues (exteroception and relational neuroception™)

• Map nervous system states to behavior and clinical presentation with greater clarity

• Integrate attention-based strategies like mindfulness, EMDR™, and play therapy with biological insight

• Recognize that all behavior, sensation, and emotional responses make sense within context, especially when grounded in a client’s relational and developmental history

The theory reinforces the idea that we cannot fully understand a client’s response pattern without also understanding their life story, their relational wiring, and the physiological language of their body.

NeuroResponse Pattern Theory™ is built upon decades of research and clinical insight. While it introduces a unique synthesis, it is not a new science. It integrates contributions from the following domains and thought leaders:

• Neuroscience and Neuroendocrinology
  (Candace Pert, Eric Kandel, Ruth Lanius)

• Polyvagal Theory™ and Neuroception™
  (Stephen Porges, Ph.D.)

• Interpersonal Neurobiology™
  (Dan Siegel, M.D.)

• Somatic Experiencing®
  (Peter Levine, Ph.D.)

• Sensorimotor Psychotherapy™
  (Pat Ogden, Ph.D.)

• EMDR™
  (Francine Shapiro, Ph.D.)

• Attachment Theory and Trauma-Informed Care
  (Bessel van der Kolk, Eliana Gil, Bruce Perry)

• Play Therapy Across the Lifespan
  (Virginia Axline, Eliana Gil, Violet Oaklander)

• Cognitive Behavioral Therapy™ (CBT™), Gestalt Therapy, Person-Centered Therapy
  (Aaron & Judith Beck, Fritz Perls, Carl Rogers)

• Humanistic Psychology
  (Abraham Maslow)

• Mindfulness and Attention-Based Practices
  (Jon Kabat-Zinn, Thich Nhat Hanh, others)

• Cellular Biology and Inflammation Research
  (linking chronic stress to gene expression, inflammation, and autoimmune function)

• Gabor Maté, M.D.
  (connecting trauma, emotional repression, and physical illness)

Each of these contributions offered vital insight. Together, they shaped Rachel’s understanding of the body-mind system and inspired a trauma-informed, developmentally responsive, and non-pathologizing way to help people recognize, track, and transform patterns of survival that no longer serve them.

To apply this theory in real-world clinical settings, Rachel developed the Celestial Therapy Method™. This is a structured, experiential, and relational model that brings NeuroResponse Pattern Theory™ to life through integrative therapeutic techniques.

The method helps practitioners:

• Witness and track patterned responses with curiosity and compassion

• Attune to internal cues and relational dynamics

• Align with present-day needs and safety

• Transform reactive, survival-based patterns into embodied, flexible responses

This four-phase approach—Witness, Attune, Align, Transform—is known as The Celestial Process™. It is the clinical roadmap that supports clients in moving from automatic reaction to intentional regulation.

Neurochemical Stress Signatures
The body encodes stress responses chemically. These internal signatures shape how we perceive, behave, and emotionally respond to new experiences.

Nervous System Mapping
Clinicians can track emotional and behavioral symptoms by mapping internal states, including interoception, proprioception, vestibular signals, and introspection.

Contextual Safety and Relational History
All behavior makes sense in context. A client’s history of relationships, stress, and attachment informs how the nervous system interprets safety and threat.

Relational Attunement and Attention-Based Change
Selective attention, co-regulation, and attuned presence are not just therapeutic techniques—they are active neurobiological mechanisms for change.