Somatic Experiencing® in a Nutshell

 
Image of person watching sunset on beach regulating the nervous system through nature and somatic living
 

The information in this article is adopted from the Somatic Experiencing website. Visit this link for more information.

Somatic experiencing in a nutshell

Somatic Experiencing® (SE) is a naturalistic approach used to enhance regulation in the nervous system and support the resolution of trauma developed by Dr. Peter Levine. The word trauma in this sense covers a wide range of physical and psychological symptoms that result from the effect of acute and/or accumulated stress on human physiology.

SE is partially based upon the observation that wild prey animals, though routinely threatened, are rarely traumatized. Animals in the wild utilize innate mechanisms to regulate and discharge the high levels of energy associated with self-protective survival behaviors. These mechanisms provide animals with built-in resilience that enables them to return to healthy functioning in the aftermath of highly charged, distressing, or life-threatening experiences.

These built-in responses are often inhibited in humans by other humans, social and cultural conditioning, and/or our inability to find safe enough conditions that we can fully move through them. SE supports individuals in completing fight, flight, and freeze response patterns that remain in the physiology after stressful or traumatic experiences or conditions.

How can Somatic Experiencing support me?

The completion of these survival patterns can bring a greater capacity for self-regulation, as well as an increased sense of social engagement, well-being, and integration. Even though SE primarily targets issues of trauma, it is also seen as an effective way of supporting individuals interested in expanding their ability to authentically be in the world. People often report feelings of greater ease physically, psychologically, relationally, and spiritually.

  • SE employs awareness of the body and the body’s “voice” to help people “renegotiate” rather than relive or re-enact traumatic experiences in their efforts to heal

  • SE approaches allow highly charged survival energies to be safely experienced and gradually discharged

  • SE “titrates” experience (breaks down into small, incremental steps), rather than evoking catharsis – which can overwhelm the regulatory mechanisms of the organism

  • SE may employ (with the client’s consent) coregulatory touch work (not massage) in support of the renegotiation process

For more information about SE please see the following references:

  • Levine, P. (1997). Waking the Tiger: Healing Trauma. Berkeley, CA: North Atlantic Books.

  • Levine, P. and. Kline, M. (2007). Trauma Through A Child’s Eyes: Awakening the Ordinary Miracle of Healing. Berkeley, CA: North Atlantic Books.

  • For further references and information online about SE you can go to: traumahealing.org

Jasmine Aldrich