Somatic Experiencing

Somatic Experiencing is a highly effective yet gentle way of resolving trauma. Developed by Peter Levine, PhD in the 70s, it has helped hundreds of thousands of people worldwide to free themselves of the ongoing limitations of unresolved overwhelms.

It focuses on the body’s inherent fight or flight responses, and not so much on the analysis of the story. It is appealing to those who have done a great deal of talk therapy yet know the benefits have plateaued without complete resolution of their pain, fear or adaptive management mechanisms.

In the first few sessions, one realizes that the sensation sequences are authentically their own and arise unscripted. They are always processed within current levels of capacity, never past the point of overwhelm which would reinforce a sense of trauma. Curiosity replaces dread, and one watches a growing sense of competency about navigating life emerging in addition to the thorough relief experienced. Emotionally charged memories become merely memories.

Many have heard of the reptilian, mammalian and prefrontal cortex brain functional divisions of the brain. Reptilian function deals with survival – will I eat it or will it eat me? The mammalian adds emotion to interactions. The prefrontal cortex allows us to analyze what has happened.

Somatic Experiencing starts with the reptilian level of response to an unfinished overwhelm. It focuses on tracking the sequence of physical sensations that arise when bringing up a traumatic memory (if guided well by the Somatic Experiencing practitioner). It becomes apparent that something in one’s being knows exactly how to unravel the persistent knot if allowed to do so. These sensations are autonomic reactions, still active in one’s nervous system even years after an event. As the go into action responses (sympathetic) response run their course, then the calming and resolving (parasympathetic) responses can emerge and finish a normal cycle of resolution. Everyone has done exactly this countless times in their life, but if the trauma was too much, protective shut down mechanisms step in and the activation energy becomes embedded with hypervigilance or withdrawal predominating. Once the physical autonomic sensations have discharged, a sense of safety is reestablished and then higher brain functions step into the process for their resolution. Emotion arises and drains away in a welcome and tolerable way and then meaning is processed.

New possibilities of action arise, unburdened by the strains and adaptations of lifes random overwhelms. Who you were meant to be can emerge as such impediments are gone.