Somatic Experiencing® (SE)

A naturalistic, and neurobiological, body-oriented approach to healing trauma and other stress-related disorders; restoring the authentic self with self-regulation, relaxation, wholeness, and aliveness.

“Trauma is a fact of life. It does not have to be a life sentence. ”

— Peter A Levine, PhD

Somatic Experiencing (SE™) aims to resolve symptoms of stress, shock, and trauma that accumulate in our bodies and nervous systems. Trauma, from an SE lens, is focused on how it shows up in the nervous system and how that dysregulation impacts life.

When we are stuck in patterns of fight, flight, or freeze, SE helps us release, recover, and become more resilient.

It is based on a multidisciplinary intersection of physiology, psychology, ethology, biology, neuroscience, indigenous healing practices, and medical biophysics and has been clinically applied for more than four decades. It is the life’s work of Dr. Peter A. Levine.

The SE approach releases traumatic shock, which is key to transforming patterns that get stuck and impact people’s daily life. It can be used to support the resolution of PTSD and developmental attachment trauma.

It offers a framework to assess where a person is “stuck” in the fight, flight or freeze responses. And provides tools to resolve these fixated physiological states.

The Science

Trauma may begin as acute stress from a perceived life-threat or as the end product of cumulative stress. Both types of stress can seriously impair a person’s ability to function with resilience and ease, and live in the here-and-now. Trauma may result from a wide variety of stressors such as accidents, invasive medical procedures, sexual or physical assault, emotional abuse, neglect, war, racial discrimination, oppression, natural disasters, loss, birth trauma, or the corrosive stressors of ongoing fear, conflict, and chronic shaming.

“You don’t have to know the facts of your story to be able to reprogram the symptoms or the outcomes.”

— Peter A Levine, PhD

HOW IT WORKS

In a Somatic Experiencing session, I gently guide clients to develop increasing tolerance for difficult bodily sensations and suppressed emotions. This works to complete defensive responses previously thwarted from bringing resolution to the nervous system and, therefore, to the individual.

Dr. Levine was inspired to study stress on the animal nervous system when he realized that animals are constantly under threat of death yet show no symptoms of trauma stuck in their systems. What he discovered was that trauma has to do with the third survival response to a perceived life threat, which is freeze.

When fight and flight are not options, we freeze and immobilize, like “playing dead.” This makes us less of a target. However, this reaction is designed to be time-sensitive, in other words, it needs to run its course, and the massive energy that was prepared for fight or flight gets discharged, through shakes and trembling. If the immobility phase isn’t complete, that charge stays trapped, and, from the body’s perspective, it is still under threat.

In a Somatic Experiencing session, we gently work to release this stored energy and turn off this threat alarm that causes dysregulation and dissociation. SE helps people understand their body’s response to trauma, and work through a “body first” approach to healing.

Susan offers 60 minute SE sessions, in person or virtual. Contact Susan for session fees, questions, scheduling or brief discovery call to see if working together may be a support and fit. Currently, free or discounted session fees are available for WNC residents affected by Hurricane Helene.

Email: susan@intentionalgrowth.org to schedule a session or for more info.