Somatic Experiencing (SE™)
““Neuroscience research shows that the only way we can change the way we feel is by becoming aware of our inner experience and learning to befriend what is going on inside ourselves.””
Our bodies hold all of our experiences. The good, bad and in between. It just makes sense to incorporate our innate healing wisdom to help us along our healing journeys. When words fail and mystify, the body is honest and holds our stories.
what is somatic experiencing(SE™)?
Somatic Experiencing (SE™) is a body-based therapeutic model that supports healing trauma and other stress related disorders. SE was developed by Dr. Peter A. Levine and has been clinically used and informed by physiology, psychology, ethology, biology, neuroscience, indigenous healing practices, and medical biophysics for over 40 years.
“The SE approach releases traumatic shock, which is key to transforming PTSD and the wounds of emotional and early developmental attachment trauma. It offers a framework to assess where a person is “stuck” in the fight, flight or freeze responses and provides clinical tools to resolve these fixated physiological states”. SE™ is informed by the Polyvagal Theory developed by Stephen Porges and supports the theoretical and experiential understanding of the autonomic nervous system.
A body-based psychotherapy helps clients notice their sensations and other realms of experiences such as affect, and images in the body by:
bringing moment-to-moment awareness to what is happening in the body in the here and now
building capacity to changing states of dysregulation
helping you get to the root of what’s causing your distress
helping you process change on a neurological level
increasing your capacity to experience ease
A containment exercise used to teach kiddos to connect to safety.
A slinky can be used inside and outside of the playroom to teach folks about the nervous system’s ability to contract and expand. In any given minute we are in constriction or expansion. Sometimes we’re stuck. The goal is to have access to a flow state that engages in this pattern freely and autonomically.
Hand to heart self touch helps resource our nervous system. Try it!
Your practitioner may slow down your verbal sharing to help you connect with yourself on a somatic level. You may be asked (to):
Notice that!
Where does that land?
Where do you feel that in your body?
Now what?
What’s changed?
What does that part want to say?
What happens just before?
What does your body want to do?
What meaning might you make of this?
Body-oriented psychotherapy can help folks feel safer, calmer and more regulated in their bodies. By tapping into the mind-body connection, folks can trust in their bodies' inner healing capacity to do what it needs do to regulate. This is a powerful modality that works in synergy with other therapies. Please click below to see what all the fuss is about.
