Somatic Experiencing
“Trauma has become so commonplace that most people don't even recognize its presence. It affects everyone. Each of us has had a traumatic experience at some point in our lives, regardless of whether it left us with an obvious case of post-traumatic stress. Because trauma symptoms can remain hidden for years after a triggering event, some of us who have been traumatized are not yet symptomatic.”
― Peter A. Levine, Waking the Tiger: Healing Trauma
Somatic Experiencing is a body-centered therapeutic trauma healing modality created by Dr. Peter Levine. This internationally recognized approach focuses on helping you to release stored tension, stress, energy, and trauma that is held in the body. Unlike cognitive approaches like traditional talk therapy, Somatic Experiencing brings awareness to the sensations, fluctuations, movements, and responses of the body. This enables you to learn the unique language of your own body.
Somatic Experiencing places most of its emphasis on working with the nervous system to resolve trauma. The nervous system is responsible for how we respond to life every single day. If your nervous system is dysregulated, you may feel overwhelmed, anxious, stressed, depressed, or shut down. Somatic Experiencing directs our attention and awareness to our internal sensations, as well as to environmental awareness and imagery instead of mainly cognitive and emotional experience.
Through our work together I help you become literate in reading the signs of your body so you can feel more embodied, and empowered, experience life beyond survival mode, build confidence to advocate for your needs, have agency over your life, and build a strong and resilient sense of self that enables you to move through the ever-changing tides of life with ease.
Techniques Used In Somatic Experiencing
🔎Body Awareness
Identifying bodily sensations, including spaces of calmness and spaces of tension. Recognizing and connecting with things that bring more calmness, space, and capacity.
🔃Pendulation
After identifying spaces of calmness and tension, move your awareness slowly back and forth between the two states. Move slowly, and notice how the pain or tension changes.
❇️Resourcing
Recognizing and connecting to things in your inner and outer world that help you to feel safe, calm, relaxed, and capable.
🌳Grounding
Feeling a sense of stillness and deep connection to your body by connecting to the Earth, the surface beneath you, and to the space around you through your senses.
💫Titration
Working with small amounts of physical or emotional tension little bits at a time to prevent overwhelming the nervous system.
What Is Trauma Anyway?
Trauma is anything that is:
Too much
Too soon
Too fast
Trauma is now redefined as anything that makes us feel overwhelmed.
Trauma is any event that is overwhelming to us at the moment and keeps us from being able to integrate it emotionally or physiologically.
“Traumatic events are extraordinary…because they overwhelm the ordinary human adaptations to life.” Judith Herman
“Trauma originates in the nervous system, not in the event.” Dr. Peter Levine
“...trauma is a state of severe fright…when confronted with a sudden, unexpected potentially life-threatening event…to which we are unable to respond effectively…” Flannery
To clarify, the event does not necessarily need to BE life-threatening to create trauma, it merely needs to FEEL life-threatening to us in some way.
Examples of Things that the psyche or body may perceive as a threat
Daily Stresses
Anything new and unfamiliar
New people and situations
Life transitions
Work demands
Relationship issues
Health issues
Economic stress
Parenting or caregiving aging parents
Ongoing Experiences
Intergenerational trauma
Insecure attachment
Lack of early co-regulation
Mis-attuned parenting
Being unwanted or adopted
Growing up exposed to addiction, abuse, poverty, neglect, or homelessness
Racism, sexism, anti-semitism, discrimination, homophobia, transphobia, ageism, religious prejudice
Big “T”s
Rape/sexual abuse
Exposure to violence
Death, loss, divorce
Natural disasters
Childhood illnesses and trauma
Accidents, car accidents, serious injury
War/terrorism
Falls
Serious illness of self or loved one
Medical procedures
Difficult pregnancy/birth (for mother and child)
What Is Self-Regulation?
Self-regulation is the ability to track or access my internal state.
Self-regulation allows me to recognize what triggers me and notice when I am feeling overstimulated.
Self-regulation helps me to know what I need to return to a space of emotional regulation, or to a functional or comfortable range where I feel like myself.
It allows me to reconnect with the inherent, natural rhythm of my system.
“The capacity for self-regulation is what allows us to handle our states of arousal and our difficult emotions, thus providing the basis for the balance between authentic autonomy and healthy social engagement. This capacity allows us the intrinsic ability to evoke a sense of being safely “at home” within ourselves, where goodness resides.”
Dr. Peter Levine from “In An Unspoken Voice - How the Body Releases Trauma and Restores Goodness”
The Four Trauma Responses
Fight Response
Standing your ground; fighting to protect yourself and/or others
Neurochemicals are released for mobilization of fight to optimize survival
“I want to strangle her.”
Tension in muscles, hands, feet, jaw
The impulse to kick, shout, bite, push, claw, strangle, etc.
Rapid shallow breathing or holding breath
Narrowing of eyes
Aggression, anger, or rage
Flight Response
Minimizing risk/escaping threat when fight is not possible
Neurochemicals are released for mobilization
“I wanted to run away.”
High arousal in limbs; trembling, shaking, twisting
The impulse to run, back/turn away, fly, or evade
Holding breath or rapid, shallow breathing or panting
A sense of urgency
Fear, anxiety, and restlessness
Freeze Response
Feigning death to minimize the risk of a predator attack
Neurochemicals are released to produce a time-limited immobilized state to optimize survival.
Paralysis, shut down, frozen, still
The impulse to get small, hide, go away, disappear
Low oxygen state
Numbing
Dissociation
Shock, panic, overwhelm
When we are stuck in freeze, we:
Lose the capacity to stabilize and regulate ourselves, and may cycle a lot between hyper and hypo arousal)
Feel overwhelmed, helpless, out of control
React as if past trauma is happening now
Become vulnerable to other triggers
This can lead to debilitating physiological, cognitive, emotional, behavioral, and spiritual symptoms and stress-related disorders
Fawn/Appease Response
Appease - active pacification to de-escalate a threatening situation. This may look like people-pleasing or placating to “keep the peace.”
Fight and flight defense responses are designed to protect against predators, but they are less useful when the aggressor is:
Someone you know
If escape or banishment from the group is life-threatening, such as with children and childhood trauma
Dogs, non-human primates, and even bears show appeasement behavior
