Created by Peter Levine, Somatic Experiencing supports the regulation of the nervous system and one’s further embodiment. As a physically oriented approach to trauma resolution, it can help clients get to the root of places of stuckness and challenge in their life and allow experiences to process through the body in a way that talk-only oriented therapies cannot alone. Along the way as we encourage the nervous system towards more health and vitality and freedom in its own time and way, clients will gain more body awareness and learn tools to support their own self-regulation. Sunil’s approach to this is to start by building language, skillset, and resources for the client so that they are well equipped to explore their trauma and bonding patterns. Rather than see them as enemies that must be conquered, we’ll communicate with them under the premise that they are an intelligent part of our life story that will, when related to, support us in becoming more fully ourselves.
In SE International’s Own Words
The Somatic Experiencing approach facilitates the completion of self- protective motor responses and the release of thwarted survival energy bound in the body, thus addressing the root cause of trauma symptoms. This is approached by gently guiding clients to develop increasing tolerance for difficult bodily sensations and suppressed emotions and working to complete defensive responses previously thwarted from bringing resolution to the nervous system and, therefore, to the individual.
Dr. Levine was inspired to study stress on the animal nervous system when he realized that animals are constantly under threat of death yet show no symptoms of trauma stuck in their systems. What he discovered was that trauma has to do with the third survival response to a perceived life threat, which is freeze. When fight and flight are not options, we freeze and immobilize, like “playing dead.” This makes us less of a target. However, this reaction is designed to be time-sensitive, in other words, it needs to run its course, and the massive energy that was prepared for fight or flight gets discharged, through shakes and trembling. If the immobility phase isn’t complete, that charge stays trapped, and, from the body’s perspective, it is still under threat. The Somatic Experiencing method works to release this stored energy and turn off this threat alarm that causes dysregulation and dissociation. SE helps people understand this body response to trauma and work through a “body first” approach to healing. Within their scope of practice, SE Practitioners work with these responses in a way that supports their ongoing work with clients.