Isa Martinez Mulcahy, LCPC, R-DMT

If you feel disconnected from your body, stuck in your thoughts, or like you’re carrying more than you can explain—you’re not alone. You might find yourself overthinking, feeling emotionally drained, or trying to hold everything together while navigating expectations from family, culture, or relationships.

I’m a bilingual (English/Spanish) trauma-informed therapist and Registered Dance/Movement Therapist (R-DMT) who works with women, couples, and adults experiencing anxiety, trauma, relationship challenges, and life transitions. I specialize in helping clients reconnect with their bodies, understand emotional patterns, and feel more grounded in their day-to-day lives.

In our work, we’ll focus on both your thoughts and your body—because anxiety, trauma, and chronic stress often live beyond words. Instead of pushing past your experiences, we’ll slow things down and begin to notice patterns: how stress shows up physically, how emotions move through you, and what your body may be holding onto.

Many of the people I work with are navigating cultural identity, first-generation experiences, or the pressure to meet family expectations while also trying to care for themselves. Together, we begin to untangle these patterns—so you can move through life with more clarity, steadiness, and choice.

My Approach
You might be exploring your cultural identity, working through trauma, or trying to understand patterns in your relationships that no longer feel aligned. In our work together, we’ll pay attention to both your thoughts and your body—so you can begin to feel more steady, connected, and clear in how you move through your life and relationships.

Somatic Therapy & Dance/Movement Therapy

As a Registered Dance/Movement Therapist, I offer somatic therapy for clients who feel that traditional talk therapy doesn’t fully reach what they’re experiencing.

Trauma, anxiety, and stress often show up in the body as tension, restlessness, numbness, or disconnection. In sessions, we may use movement, breathwork, and body awareness to support nervous system regulation, emotional processing, and reconnection.

This approach can be especially helpful for clients seeking somatic therapy for trauma, anxiety, and relationship patterns, or for those who want to feel more present and connected to themselves.

My Cultural & Personal Background

My work is shaped by my multicultural upbringing across Colombian, Puerto Rican, Dominican, Mexican, Spanish, and Brazilian cultures. Born in Colombia and raised between Latin America and New York, I bring lived experience that informs my work with Latinx, bicultural, and first-generation clients.

Growing up during Colombia’s civil conflict, I learned from Afro-Colombian and Indigenous caregivers about movement, rhythm, and the body as a source of knowledge and healing. These early experiences continue to shape how I support clients working through trauma, identity, and emotional regulation.

My Spanish paternal lineage—artists, dancers, and historians who fled Franco’s dictatorship—rooted me in cultural storytelling, creativity, and resilience. Later, becoming part of an Irish-Mexican family and raising children of Colombian-Irish-Mexican heritage expanded my understanding of interracial relationships, bicultural identity, and blended family systems.

Understanding Military Culture

I bring 9 years of clinical experience within the Veterans Health Administration, where I worked with veterans, active-duty service members, and their families.

I support clients navigating PTSD, trauma, reintegration, grief, identity transitions, and chronic stress. Military culture carries its own language, expectations, and coping strategies, and I work to help clients process these experiences in a way that feels accessible and grounded.

Research, Writing & Leadership

My approach is informed by my ethnographic research, “Give Peace a Dance: An Ethnographic Research Project About a Dancing Community in Chicago and the Implications for Dance/Movement Therapy,” which explores how movement and community support emotional regulation, belonging, and healing. You can read the research here.

I also serve as President of the Illinois Chapter of the American Dance Therapy Association, where I support the integration of movement-based and culturally responsive approaches to mental health.

I’ve written about Dance/Movement Therapy in Spanish, including reflections on the body and my work with disabled veterans in Chicago. These pieces were published in Contratiempo Magazine:

• “Dance, A Healing Art” (2011) — reflections on the body as a bridge between trauma and resilience
• “Todos Somos Artistas” (2018) — a celebration of creativity, expression, and accessible healing

Together, these projects continue to shape how I understand the body:
as a site of wisdom, memory, resilience, and possibility. They remind me that healing doesn’t always start with words – sometimes it begins with breath, movement, rhythm, and the stories our bodies carry.

Check out my website here: Isa Mulcahy, LCPC, R-DMT