Somatic Experiencing®

Somatic Experiencing® (SE®) is a body-based, naturalistic approach to the integration, healing, and resolution of trauma…

…developed by Dr. Peter Levine. It is supported by research and based upon the observation that wild prey animals, though threatened routinely, are rarely traumatized. Animals in the wild utilize innate mechanisms to regulate and discharge the high levels of energy arousal associated with self-protective survival behaviors. These mechanisms provide animals with a built-in “immunity” to trauma that enables them to return to normal functioning after highly “charged” life-threatening experiences.

Traditional talk therapy, which engages the later-evolved functions of the brain, while certainly helpful, cannot access the place where trauma is most commonly held: in our bodies. SE uses awareness of body sensation to help people “renegotiate” and heal rather than re-live or re-enact trauma. SE's guidance of the bodily “felt sense” allows the highly aroused survival energies to be safely experienced and gradually discharged.

SE “titrates” experience (breaks it down into small, incremental steps), rather than evoking catharsis, which can overwhelm the regulatory mechanisms of the organism.

SE can result in myriad benefits to you, such as relief of traumatic stress symptoms, increased resiliency, behavioral flexibility, and increased resourcefulness.

While this work takes time, change is often more rapid through SE than via traditional talk therapies because we get to the root of the challenges from the bottom up. Our bodies have innate wisdom and know how to create a way to live from a map of safety, rather than danger; from resilience, rather than fragility. But most of us have never been taught how to do that. Many of us in this culture have been trained to believe that top-down processing is the way to move through life and heal our wounds, but our conditioned minds often fail to show us the way, leading to frustration and often a feeling of helplessness, falsely believing that we cannot heal.

As a Somatic Experiencing Practitioner, through gentleness, deep respect for what you’ve been through in your life, and reverence for relational repair, I can help you learn to understand and speak the languages of your body (vibration, sensation, and movement). With this understanding, you will be able to restore your birthright; exploring life’s offerings from a place of curiosity, with a nervous system that responds appropriately to life’s demands.