Somatic Experiencing

The effects of trauma can result from “ordinary” events, such as injuries, car accidents, divorce, job loss, grief, perinatal, postnatal, post-partum, surgery and medical procedures.

It can also result from extraordinary events, such as violence, physical, emotional, sexual abuse, childhood or developmental adversity.

Sometimes, our bodies are able to “process” this trauma and let it go. In other cases, we get stuck in the body’s fight, flight or freeze responses.

You’ve probably heard of the “fight, flight or freeze” response. It’s the body’s natural way of responding to actual or perceived threats.

These responses are necessary and useful when the response is real and short lived. But they become problematic when we get stuck in these states or when they occur with no apparent stimuli.

When we’re stuck in one of these states, it can manifest in different ways.
These include:

• Anxiety

• Depression

• Chronic pain

• Relationship issues

• Fatigue

• Headaches

• Difficulty concentrating

• Startle response

• Rapid, disorganized thoughts

• Fibromyalgia

• Difficulty sleeping

• Digestive problems

• Changes in appetite

• Feeling helpless

• Perceived loss of control

• Low self-esteem

• Loss of sexual desire

• Nervousness

• Inflammation

• Frequent infections or illnesses.

Somatic Experiencing® provides a framework to assess where the body has become “stuck” as well as tools to get it “unstuck.”

This method of treatment also increases our tolerance for difficult body sensations and suppressed emotions. With increased capacity, we can better manage symptoms on our own.

Origins of Somatic Experiencing

Dr. Peter Levine developed Somatic Experiencing from his observations of how wild animals recover from repeated traumatic experiences like attacks by predators (imagine gazelles eluding a cheetah). What he noticed was, after a threat was gone, the animals experienced a physical release of their fight-or-flight energy by shaking, trembling, or sometimes running. He also saw that with completion of the physical release, they quickly returned to their normal state.

Dr. Levine believed that humans also possess the same ability to release physical energy from stress but often thwart it by “keeping it together” following trauma. We all probably have direct experience “keeping it together” through a difficult experience. Our ability to override what is an innate mechanism for self-care is for many of us what sets the stage for PTSD. By stopping this natural cycle of release, the energy becomes stuck, in effect keeping us in a perpetual state of fight-or-flight so that we are unable to return to our relaxed, balanced state.

It wasn’t until sometime later after his initial observations, however, that he was able to validate his thinking.It happened while he was in session with a client suffering from PTSD. His client began vividly reliving a traumatic childhood experience, and as he observed her agitated state, he had a flash of inspiration. He encouraged her to protect herself by running away from the threat, as if she was being chased by a tiger. She began kicking her feet, simulating escape, and with that action completed the natural release of traumatic energy that had been long trapped in her body.

Following this session, she experienced immediate and lasting relief from her PTSD symptoms, and Dr. Levine saw for the first time a human’s ability to enact the same physical release of trauma energy that animals do instinctively and regularly. With that, Somatic Experiencing as a therapy began.

What to Expect from a Somatic Experiencing® Therapy Session

Somatic Experiencing® doesn’t require clients to re-tell (or re-live) the traumatic event. Instead, it provides an opportunity to gently release the deeper survival energy states and supports the body’s self-protective responses to move out of its “stuck” state.

No two sessions are alike, but there is a set of activities that will typically happen, although no set schedule for when they should occur. The specifics of each step, what is discussed, when to move from one step to the next, are determined entirely by the client and their comfort level at each step.

The first step is getting comfortable in the therapy environment, both with the therapist and the physical space, to have a sense of trust. Only after that, when trust is established, will the process of addressing the trauma begin.

After that, it might start by the therapist asking a client to revisit the time around the traumatic event, but not the event directly. For example. Using the experience of a car crash as an example, instead of immediately exploring the trauma, the therapist might begin the process of revisiting it by asking what the weather was like the day of the crash before it happened. This gentle and indirect approach to revisiting the trauma allows our bodies to build the resilience needed and slowly release stuck traumatic energy, a bit at a time.

The pace of progress, though, is determined by the client’s comfort level at each step along the way. The gentle exploration continues until the client builds enough resilience to productively and completely engage and release the trauma energy.

Somatic Experiencing Therapy allows for more relaxation and resilience, less physical and emotional pain, greater expansion in the body and more nervous system regulation. As a result, feelings of anxiety, depression, anger or numbness can lift and the body can move and rest with greater ease.