Erica Berman (she/her) is a white Jew witch, middle aged, queer femme, somatic and EMDR psychotherapist who focuses on issues of developmental trauma and CPTSD, queerness and gender, sex work, abandonment, anxiety, grief, PTSD, holistic, political, and spiritual health. The foundation of how she works is Relational Somatic Healing, which is a somatic orientation that focuses on an embodied healthy relationship as a vehicle for change. This practice incorporates safe somatic touch, movement and internal somatic inquiry/mindfulness. She also utilizes EMDR, a trauma healing modality, and parts work, a practice that deepens into the multiplicity of being.

 She is grounded in a history of movement organizing, and holds a decoloniality lens. Her spiritual practice is deeply intertwined with her work as a somatic healer. She is a graduate of the John F. Kennedy University Somatic Psychotherapy Masters program, and is a certified ecotherapist through the Earth Body Institute. She also practices parts work (IFS), Hakomi method, Theta Healing, and EMDR. She has an in-person Covid safer private psychotherapy practice on Huichin, Ohlone (so called Oakland, CA) lands and believes whole-heartedly in the healing power of healthy connection to self, community, the earth and the body for deep systemic change.

Bio:

Erica was born and raised on Chochenyo, Ohlone (so called San Francisco) lands to a single mother, and was forced to leave home at an early age. From age 15-18 she lived on the streets, staying in squats and engaging in street based survival work as well as activism and community health projects, like condom distribution outreach and youth based needle exchange. During those years, she also sat at the bedside of many queer elders who were dying of AIDS. While visiting New York at age 16, she got her GED and at the age of 19 decided to pursue higher education. Erica enrolled in City College of San Francisco, and then New College of CA (now defunct), a (somewhat) lefty progressive four year college. This experience along with her earlier years of living and working in the street economy and community based public health projects and AIDS care, formed much of her early political analysis. In her twenties, Erica became a sex worker, working online and indoors. She found that way of working was quite isolating, so she created peer based support, running a “whore’s brunch”, a monthly potluck support group for sex workers. She also started a queer cabaret in Oakland at that time (early 2000’s) with Annie Danger, and their collaboration - Waste Management Productions. Soon after, she was hired by Carol Leigh aka Scarlot Harlot (who coined the term ‘sex work’) to assist in the San Francisco Sex Worker Film and Art Fest. Erica went on to direct the festival for twenty years. During her time there, she created the “Whore’s Bath”, a sex worker run spa day exclusively for current and former sex workers. The project incorporated spa activities, mind/body healing, nourishing food, clothing swaps, and lots of community building. The Whore’s Bath has been replicated internationally and has been shepherded on in the Bay Area by a new batch of organizers.

​Erica has been involved in anti-war organizing, Queers for Black Lives Matter, Harm Reduction movement and education, deplatforming TERFS, Fat Power Movement, Jews for Free Palestine, and is now focussing on decoloniality in somatics and disability justice around COVID safety in the queer and trans community. She worked on founding the orientation Relational Somatic Healing, but has set it down in order to focus more on furthering her education in C-PTSD, and the dream of creating more accessible mental health care for queer, trans, nonbinary and intersex people. 

​She currently lives on Huichin, Ohlone (so called Oakland, CA) lands with her partner, dog, cat and occasionally her step kid. She loves swimming, nature, ritual, outdoor community gatherings, dog walks, mutual aid, reading many genres of fiction, geeking out on healing modalities, baking and cooking, traveling, hot springs, and playing with arts and crafts for fun.