How does Somatic Experiencing work?

It is not necessary to relive an event to heal trauma. Somatic Experiencing addresses how the body continues to play out a habitual response to a past event. Trauma is healed through the process of discharging this excess survival energy.  By gently guiding you into the realm of body sensations through the SE process, you regain the ability to regulate the activity of your own nervous system.

This approach uses your own body awareness to track the responses of your autonomic nervous system. You learn to you become mindful of your body sensations, images, behaviors, emotions and thoughts. This encourages a heightened state of body awareness so that you become aware of how your nervous system, muscles, body and mind become tense to prepare for defensive action.

What is a session like?

Each session is unique depending on what might be missing in your body’s attempt to complete the fight/flight response and recover your sense of safety.  Ultimately, your nervous system needs to know the danger has passed and no longer has to be in high alert.

Common elements of this process are learning to find resources for safety, sensing your own boundaries and your ability to say no, being able to orient to danger and successfully completing defense responses of fight or flight. Through awareness we begin to recognize the unconscious reactions going on and also become aware of instinctual resources that may not have been available at the time of a trauma.  Equilibrium is restored to the nervous system by allowing the body to complete instinctual survival responses and discharge this intense survival energy.