Somatic Experiencing (SE) therapy is a holistic approach to resolving trauma and reducing anxiety. Developed from the work of Dr. Peter Levine and Dr. Stephen Porges, Somatic Experiencing is a body-awareness therapy that has proven successful to help bring regulation to dysregulated nervous system states, support a felt sense of ease and safety, interrupt deeply engrained threat reactions, and the release of thwarted flight/fight energy we no longer need.

A core piece of SE therapy comes through the awareness that trauma’s lingering impact is carried implicitly in the body. Trauma can leave invisible wounds in our nervous system, and we might not even know it. The sounds of roaring engines might put you on edge, or a tightness in your gut, maybe even feeling emotions or desires (you are not used to feeling) can trigger a felt sense of danger (even though no real threat exists). Sometimes, trauma-memories show through being stuck in dysregulated states of anxiety, anger or apathy.

Some trauma may have happened years ago, but decades later it can still haunt us, robbing our capacity to have access to felt sense of safety and calm in the here and now. The lower part of our brain, that detects danger and safety, may still not know the original threat is over. Implicit fear of the trauma happening again lingers in our nervous system and continues to interfere with its capacity to take in that it is over and we are going to be okay. Somatic Experiencing (SE) recognizes that when we  remain stuck in a state of flight/fight, freeze or fold, the only narratives our nervous system allows us to experience are ones of escape, aggression, collapse, or isolation.

SE therapy aims at healing trauma from the “bottom up.” Rather than trying harder to think different thoughts or talk your way out of it’s impact through a “top-down” approach, “bottom up” processing will invite you to slow down and pay closer attention to the story of what is happening your body. SE therapy seeks to gently coax body memories to the surface of your awareness and support more access to safety, comfort, and connection. SE therapy aims to help your nervous system get unstuck from left over threat responses and have reparative experiences of compassion and protection that didn’t get to happen .

 In therapy, we might help you process by exploring questions like:

• What are you noticing in your body as you recall something you recently experienced?
• What do you notice physically right now that tells you you are safe? Regulated? Okay?
• What do you notice going on in your body as you’re experiencing that anxious feeling or thought? 
• Are any new possibilities or insights occurring to you as you sense newer levels of safety or calm?

Some people come into therapy hoping that if they tell every detail about the overwhelming and scary things that happened to them that they will somehow get better.  While sharing the content of our stories can be helpful, SE therapy does not require us to re-tell or re-live a trauma narrative in full detail. For some, to re-visit too much detail can be re-traumatizing. Instead, SE offers the opportunity to engage the deeper story of trauma in your nervous system in a slow and carefully guided way that keeps the past trauma experience from taking over while growing the capacity to orient our present attention to more calm and regulation,. Combined with Attachment Therapy, SE also sets the conditions to more easily follow our natural instincts for attachment and to safely land in connection with others. 

Call or email today if you want to chat more about Somatic Experiencing therapy and how it could be helpful to you in your own journey of healing.