Somatic Experiencing
What is Somatic Experiencing?
Our knowledge of trauma has grown immensely in recent years. Where before we thought of trauma as an event, it is now better understood as a response our bodymind carries with it after an event or a series of events. In other words, the events don’t dictate whether trauma occurs or not, it’s how each individual responds to them that is significant.
Peter Levine’s research provides the basis for a healing modality called Somatic Experiencing (SE) that works with trauma via the body. A practitioner of SE supports the process of completing “stuck” or “looped” responses in the body and nervous system.
Rather than diving into the center of painful memories, Somatic Experiencing uses a gradual, titrated pace to help make the healing process approachable. It gradually works around the edges of difficult psychological and somatic material, bringing awareness to responses that haven’t resolved in our nervous system from the past. By taking this slower, more measured approach, we build capacity for the charge or shutdown that comes when a trauma trigger activates. As this capacity, or trust, builds we learn that a trigger does not necessarily mean “danger!”, even if at a particular moment in the past, it did. Additionally, we learn how to care for the nervous system when a trigger occurs in a way where it can more easily settle.
SE sessions are conducted clothed and include some dialogue. The in-session dialogue will largely be about the present moment experience of the client, as a practitioner guides them deeper into what they are feeling, seeing, noticing etc. This process sometimes includes physical touch, and sometimes does not.
Details of a client’s trauma in question are not necessary, and don’t even need to be known to the client. By listening and following what the body is expressing we find our way to resolution of the stuck patterns in the body and nervous system, thereby restoring the vitality that was previously trapped in a trauma loop. The process leaves the receiver feeling a sense of “I can” even after having gone through life-altering difficulty.
All Somatic Experiencing requires is an openness to listening to the body’s messages. It doesn’t require having done therapy, having any particular outlook on life, or identifying as one who has been “traumatized”. If you’d like to know more or have further questions about the modality, concerns about safety, etc., please reach out for a complimentary consultation.
AG Massage - Licensed Massage Therapists
322 NW 5th Avenue Suite 305 • Portland, OR 97209 MAP
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