What is Somatic Experiencing?
Somatic Experiencing® (SE™) is a body-centered approach to healing trauma, developed by Dr. Peter Levine in the 1970s. It works with your nervous system directly.
How Somatic Experiencing Works
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.
He observed that after a threat had passed, the animals experienced a physical release of their survival energy (fight/flight/freeze) by shaking, trembling, or sometimes running. Following this completion of the physical release, he noticed the animals quickly returned to their pre-threatened state.
SE helps your body complete what got interrupted. The SE approach is done in slow, small, titrated steps. In SE, we “dip our toes'' into the material, rather than jumping straight into the deep end. This ensures your system has enough capacity to be with the deeper layers of your trauma while still remaining connected to the safety of the present. We start by first focusing on building a foundation of support and “resource” to ensure your system feels safe and regulated, before beginning to process any traumatic material.
SE works with what’s present in your body now, and does not require you to retell your story. In fact, a conscious memory does not even need to be available for healing to happen.
Does this sound familiar?
SE may be a good fit if:
You have talked about it for years and your body still braces
You know why you react, and you react anyway
Your chest tightens or your stomach drops before you can name what's wrong
You swing between hypervigilant and shut down
You run on adrenaline, and rest feels unsafe
Talk therapy left you stuck, flooded, or replaying the worst moments
What a session looks like
We always start in the present, checking in what initial thoughts, emotions, or sensations are here now. Sessions are 50 minutes. In that time we talk, and we also notice. Where does your attention land in your body? What does steady feel like right now? We track sensation together: warmth, tightness, buzzing, heaviness, the urge to move. We might experiment with orienting, movement, postures, or breathing practices. Everything is always a choice.
I follow what your system is ready for and encourage a pause when it needs a pause. You set the pace. Over time, your body learns it can feel something hard and come back to feeling steady. Creating capacity to experience the vastness of life — both the pleasure and the pain, is all part of the work.
Is Somatic Experiencing right for you?
SE suits women who have tried talk therapy, still feel stuck, and want something different. It may not be the best fit if you want a more directive approach. A free consultation is a good way to sort that out.
What Somatic Experiencing can help with
I use SE in my work with Complex PTSD, sexual trauma and childhood sexual abuse, birth trauma, and burnout in high achievers. You can read more about individual somatic trauma therapy here.