Somatic Experiencing: The what’s + how’s
Potential clients: Please read this before you reach the juicy bits you’d like to know
As an advanced student (in the last year) in the three year program at the Somatic Experiencing Institute, from which I’m pursuing my certificate as a Somatic Experiencing Practitioner, I have a significant degree of adequate training to meet clients dealing with chronic stress and trauma where they are. That said, some cases and situations are more appropriate than others for me to take on which is what makes it important for us to meet and briefly discuss your goals, wants, and needs and whether we are a good fit prior to doing our work together. I say “our” because it truly is a collaborative effort in which I’ll be there to witness, reflect, and sometimes guide you through your inner work.
Sessions are not meant to be in place of psychotherapy with a licensed psychologist or psychiatrist. If you are interested in receiving sessions with me, please contact me by email first to arrange your spot in my schedule or be placed on the waitlist. Thank you!
SEI’s website explains that, “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.” (2) This is a client led practice, meaning you’re not directed to *do* anything. You’re also not being analyzed the way many conventional cognitive behavioral practices might function. You’re being invited to notice sensations and be present in your body, safely. This is particularly for people who have experienced severe chronic stress, anxiety, depression, or trauma that is playing on a loop without closure.
When animals (including humans) incur injuries or feel threatened, we can respond from a collection of possible behaviors: orienting, dodging, hiding, contract/stiffen, brace/guard, pull away, combat, run, freeze, fold, and so on. These are all somatic (bodily) based coordinations. It’s what we, as bodies, do to protect ourselves.
Although humans and domesticated animals experience the phenomenon of trauma (a stuckness/dysregulation of the nervous system in response to a threatening event or injury), wild animals recover naturally and spontaneously from these states. Researchers who study animals have provided documented evidence of what it looks like: “involuntary movements, changes in breathing patterns, yawning, shaking, and trembling, release or discharge the intense biological arousal; these phenomena have been observed repeatedly by (PAL) over 45 years of clinical experience, and confirmed through numerous anecdotal accounts by those who work professionally with wild animals.
Although words are used in the process of SE therapy, they are used to point to and elicit non-verbal experiences of internal bodily sensation (interception), sense of position and orientation (proprioception), sensations of movement (kinesthesis), and spatial sense.” (1)
The intellect/ conscious thought and unconscious emotional processes have a yin/yang relationship. They influence one another. The same goes for our emotions and our physiology. The body provides structure for emotional processes and responses. It’s a two way street.
Talking about our stressors and trauma has its place, but it’s not central to the dynamics of SE. Sometimes, you can talk until you’re blue in the face and be aware of where you’re stuck, but talking and awareness still don’t lead you to closure the way your body and nervous system want. SE is a bottom up approach (bottom of the brain-you can learn more about what that means here) and heady, intellectual types often find it surprising to receive so much feedback and later freedom from coming back into present with their body— to be embodied.
“When a person is able to stay fully present to their interoceptive and proprioceptive experience, the interrupted movement (incomplete at the time of the trauma) can then fulfill its meaningful course of action. This gives rise to proprioceptive feedback in the nervous system that tells the ANS that the necessary action has (finally) taken place, so that the sympathetic system can stand down.”… or so that the body can thaw and unfold, and respond flexibly. This reaching of regulation, when the body remembers how to do it again without guidance is biological completion. This is what we’re moving toward in SE. It is a journey and the process is meant to be noticed and invited as a main course or a dance (there’s plenty of room for metaphors here).
Currently, all sessions are taking place via Zoom. Not only have other practitioners, teachers, and space holders noticed how well it works virtually (over Zoom) despite being something typically done in person— I’ve also experienced the depth SE sessions can have over the internet. The energy and atmosphere that we call “the field” is flexible and limitless in that way! We can reach through and see one another, we can communicate, and feel resonance even over a zoom call.
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