SOMATIC EXPERIENCING
When humans are faced with terror and trauma, if we cannot fight or flee, we will freeze. It’s a vital response that can keep us alive. But, when our body never has the chance to move those emotions through, fearful energy gets “trapped” and wreaks havoc. Hypervigilance, panic attacks, sleep disturbance, a racing heart, and physical pain are just a few of symptoms that can manifest from trapped trauma.
The goal of somatic experiencing is to release that trapped energy within the body, which gradually (and gently) reduces symptoms. You can trust your body. It knows what you need.
Table work is a gentle intervention offered to in-office clients who may be interested. It is absolutely not required, but often helps the nervous system go from a sympathetic to a parasympathetic state. We’ll typically start with kidney adrenals, brain stem, and gut.
There are four main reasons I recommend table work: 1) Where we place our hands, we’re also placing our attention and intention, 2) The warmth of our hands increases blood flow to experience shifts and relaxation, 3) we build rhythm back into the nervous system, and 4) with increased regulation, we increase our capacity for life.
The Somatic Experiencing® method is a body-oriented approach to the healing of trauma and other stress disorders. It is the life’s work of Dr. Peter A. Levine, resulting from his multidisciplinary study of stress physiology, psychology, ethology, biology, neuroscience, indigenous healing practices, and medical biophysics, together with over 45 years of successful clinical application. The SE approach releases traumatic shock, which is the key to transforming PTSD and the wounds of healing emotional and early developmental attachment trauma.
Somatic Resilience and Regulation focuses on understanding the effects of Developmental Trauma on the child, as well as the developing adult. By understanding the neurochemistry of early trauma, and rebuilding developmental platforms through regulation, clients begin to move from a high-cost-of-doing-business system to a smoother and less stress-oriented system.
Somatic Skills for Trauma Therapists provides methods for working somatically with clients to support their recovery from trauma, as well as supporting their somatic change process. "The primary focus is on tactile skills, somatic awareness, and other touch-related skills in the context of working with the resolution of trauma.”
Since trauma is stored in the body (not in the mind), Somatic Experiencing allows us to work directly with the body and nervous system to move stagnant energy through.
Over time, we can get in touch with the body and release the fight or flight energy. We’ll be curious about what’s happening in the body – sensations, emotions, movement (like stretching, sighing, flexing the jaw, dropping the shoulders). We honor memories that come up, and see how the body responds to them.
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