Somatic Experiencing® Trauma Therapy

Somatic Experiencing® is a potent psychobiological method for resolving trauma symptoms and relieving chronic stress. It resets the nervous system, restores inner balance, enhances resilience to stress, and increases people’s vitality, equanimity and capacity to actively engage in life.

Trauma is about loss of connection – to ourselves, to our bodies, to our families, to others, and to the world around us.
– Peter Levine

How does Somatic Experiencing Work

Dr Peter Levine developed Somatic Experiencing for healing trauma

Developed by Dr. Peter A. Levine, a pioneering researcher and practitioner of trauma healing, author of Waking the Tiger, Somatic Experiencing® assists the body in releasing pent up emotional charges that became trapped in the nervous system as anxiety and hyper-arousal states. While animals in the wild discharge trauma by shaking it off, the human nervous system is not trained in this way. We can become like a car with the accelerator and the brakes applied simultaneously, leading to hyper-vigilance and fear. The work of Somatic Experiencing teaches us that trauma is not in the event, it is in our nervous system. In Somatic Experiencing we use inner resources, body sensations and slowing down the process to find balance and equilibrium in the nervous system. This supports healing and “renegotiates” the trauma instead of reliving it.

In Somatic Experiencing® sessions, clients are encouraged to tune into physical sensations, which creates the space for our bodies to reconnect with our innate healing response. This naturalistic process can resolve symptoms by gently discharging the high levels of nervous system arousal associated with trauma, and helping our bodies return to a more manageable level of functioning.

Somatic Experiencing® titrates traumatic material with highly resourced states while maintaining awareness of the bodily “felt sense”. It allows time and space for the highly aroused survival energies to be safely experienced and gradually discharged.