Somatic Massage Therapy & Embodied Trauma Healing for Women in Toronto

Nervous-system aware bodywork and relational healing for women seeking safety, presence, and reconnection with their bodies.
Offered by a Registered Massage Therapist (RMT) and
Somatic Experiencing® Practitioner in Toronto, Ontario.

Welcome, brave heart.

The path you’re on takes immense courage, to pause, to listen, and to turn inward toward the places that have long been unheard. I honour you for arriving here.

As a Somatic Experiencing® Practitioner and Registered Massage Therapist (RMT), I offer trauma-informed, body-based healing for women who are ready to reconnect with themselves and reclaim a sense of wholeness.

This work is not a quick fix, it’s a sacred and steady unfolding.

Rachel Pfau
~

A Different Way of Healing

Many women arrive here having tried talk therapy, conventional massage, or self-improvement paths that felt incomplete. They sense that healing must include the body - but without being rushed, pushed, or overwhelmed.

Embodied Healing offers a way of working with trauma and stress that honours the intelligence of the nervous system. Rather than revisiting stories or symptoms alone, we attend to sensation, safety, and the subtle language of the body.

Somatic-informed massage therapy deepens this process through touch that is attuned, respectful, and consent-based. Each session unfolds at the pace of your system, supporting regulation, reconnection, and a felt sense of safety.

Here, healing is not performance.
It is relationship.

A cozy window nook with a white brick wall, a white cushioned bench with textured pillows, and decorative items on the windowsill, including potted plants, bowls, a ceramic vase with flowers, and decorative plates.

Ways to Work Together

Somatic Massage Therapy (RMT)

Trauma-informed, nervous-system aware bodywork for women seeking safe, grounded, and relational touch. This work integrates Registered Massage Therapy with somatic awareness to support trauma healing, stress regulation, and embodied reconnection.

Somatic Therapy & Trauma Healing

Body-based sessions rooted in Somatic Experiencing® and trauma-informed practice. These sessions support women navigating trauma, chronic stress, grief, and patterns of disconnection from the body.

You are not broken. Your body remembers.
And together, we’ll listen.

Schedule a Session

Who This Work May Support

This work may be supportive for women experiencing:

  • chronic stress and burnout

  • anxiety or nervous system dysregulation

  • dissociation or emotional numbness

  • difficulty receiving touch

  • grief and loss

  • chronic tension or pain

  • relational trauma

  • a longing for safe, respectful contact

  • A space where I feel I can show up, be myself, and name my needs,

    My experience with Rachel at Embodied Life has been truly amazing. She is wise and intuitive. She creates a space where I feel I can show up, be myself, and name my needs, which she responds to with helpful care. I was in a really rough place, physically and emotionally, when I showed up 8 months ago and was desperate to see what somatic therapy could do for me. I feel like the care that Rachel has offered has been a critical piece in my healing and is a major part of why I’m now thriving. This is true so much so that in sharing my experience at Embodied Life with my employers, they offered to pay for a number of sessions as they saw the positive change in me and how it has helped me flourish in my own care-providing work.

    S.C.

  • A transformative journey.

    I walked into Embodied Life looking for a new massage therapist in the neighbourhood… little did I know I was about to embark on a transformative journey. I have been doing a lot of inner work and healing…. But the moment I met Rachel it was apparent to me that I am literally at the tip of the iceberg! It is only the beginning of my journey with her, but I am already captured by her healing touch, and new perspective! Definitely recommend to anyone who is curious to find the route cause of the physical pain they are experiencing…. Which is a transformative experience in every aspect of your life! Rachel is truly an expert in her field …and best of all she keeps it real! Now go get healed!

    K.S.

  • A kind, knowledgable and supportive healer/therapist/educator.

    Rachel is a kind, knowledgable and supportive healer/therapist/educator. My experiences working with her personally and professionally over the past 11 years have been exceptionally positive. I learn much from her and I have experienced her healing work as profound. As a somatic therapist, a yoga teacher and a massage therapist, I do not hesitate to say that Rachel is among the very best. The aesthetic space is a reflection of the depth of care she puts into everything she does. As a yoga teacher/therapist and the owner of a 27 year old Toronto yoga studio myself, I do not make these comments lightly.

    K.B.

  • So much internal progress towards true embodiment.

    I have just completed 5 sessions with Rachel (and will continue), and I am seeing so much internal progress towards true embodiment that it’s hard to even explain in writing. Rachel’s somatic therapy work is so unique and truly transformative! I am feeling more aligned with myself and walking in a sense of trust, ease and peace that I have only started feeling while working with Rachel. TRUST THE PROCESS is all I have to say, HIGHLY RECOMMEND.

    E.S.

  • I am more centered, confident and assertive with my needs.

    In my initial consult with Rachel, my body told me she is the practitioner for me. Even though it was just a consultation, Rachel related to me with so much care, centeredness and honesty, that I immediately felt safe. It was refreshing, comforting and hopeful all at the same time. I was debating leaving the city for a bit but she is one major reason that I have stayed. Ever since then, my journey with her has been an extension of those sensations. We worked every week to build safety within my body, practice being present in the now, listening to my body, amplifying the sliver of goodness buried under an ocean of trauma within my body, all without exchanging too many words. I have gone from saying "the" body to consciously owning it as "my" body. I am more centered, confident and assertive with my needs. Allowing and accepting where I am unapologetically. I felt my insides strengthening ever so slightly every week!

    S.T.

  • It is rare to find people who truly know how to hold space in silence.

    Rachel has taught me to ask for more, make something "even better" instead of settling for "good" without shame and without being attached to getting it every time. She has helped me begin my journey from head to body. My work with her has been extremely respectful, safe, consensual and truly co-creative. I have learned the value of my own voice and consent in places I didn't think it was necessary. My work with her is not done yet, but I have achieved a significant milestone in being able to function. I have huge respect for somatic work. It is rare to find people who truly know how to hold space in silence. Rachel is a gift for her clients and I am so grateful that she chose to serve the world with her magic!

    S.T.

  • A gentle yet powerful force.

    I had the pleasure of working with Rachel and it was a magnificent experience. She is a gentle yet powerful force and knows how to work with people, our nervous systems and help us transform and heal at our own pace. I have worked with many somatic practitioners over many years and none compare to Rachel's abilities. You can feel her authenticity and her compassion for the human experience and supporting people through it. Her wisdom created space for my needs (versus many other practitioners where I felt like I had to follow their script), Rachel flowed the session with what I was comfortable with and what I needed at any given moment. She also empowers her clients and helps us find agency in ourselves to create confidence and knowing of self. I'm so grateful I found her and look forward to many more sessions in the future! Bonus, her studio is absolutely stunning!!! Thanks Rachel you are an absolute light!

    SN

  • Rachel’s presence is ethereal yet grounded and her studio is a physical representation of her, inviting and warm.

    I worked with Rachel over the course of eight months and in that time, she became my primary support in my nervous system healing journey. Even though I had initially started with somatic touch therapy with her, she stayed flexible as my needs changed and we organically transitioned into her holding space for me as I faced and healed parts of myself. Rachel’s presence is ethereal yet grounded and her studio is a physical representation of her, inviting and warm. Rooted in training, she intuitively guides each session, and she knows how to seamlessly weave in and out of holding silent space for feeling and offering words of support. Rachel holds a witnessing presence, and she gently guides subtle shifts in the safety of the space she holds. With her steady support, I have faced and worked through lifelong patterns. Thank you, Rachel, for your unwavering support, I can’t recommend you and your services enough.

    GS

  • One honest, embodied, sacred moment at a time.

    Rachel brings an uncommon fusion of depth, lived wisdom, and reverent slowness that is increasingly rare.

    Guided by teachers like Francis Weller and Thomas Hübl, and held by her own spiritual lineages, Rachel walks a path of integrity, reverence, and love — even when it’s hard. Her deepest purpose is to contribute to the healing and restoration of a world in need, one honest, embodied, sacred moment at a time.

    SR

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