WHAT IS SOMATIC EXPERIENCING®?

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The Somatic Experiencing® method is a body-oriented approach to the healing of trauma and other stress disorders.

 

Trauma may begin as acute stress from a perceived life-threat or as the end product of cumulative stress. Both types of stress can seriously impair a person’s ability to function with resilience and ease. Trauma may result from a wide variety of stressors such as accidents, invasive medical procedures, sexual or physical assault, emotional abuse, neglect, war, natural disasters, loss, birth trauma, or the corrosive stressors of ongoing fear and conflict.

 

The processing of overwhelming experiences, shock trauma such as traffic accidents, falls, operations, serious illnesses, abuse, violence and threats, loss of a close person, natural disasters, war, etc. requires a special perspective for subsequent help or therapeutic measures. Somatic Experiencing® offers the opportunity to work with such experiences particularly gently and yet successfully in depth. Most therapy methods usually do not take sufficient account of the physical reactions that occur during a threatening event.

 

The model developed by biologist and psychologist Dr. Peter Levine for overcoming and integrating traumatic events is different in this regard. It is based on behavioral observations in the animal world. The underlying biological mechanism is based on the hunter-prey behavior, an original stimulus-reaction cycle with three options: escape, attack and dead reflex. Animals in the wild are often exposed to life-threatening dangers but are not sustainably traumatized because they have innate mechanisms that enable them to reduce the high stress energy mobilized in the struggle for survival.

 

Although we humans are fundamentally equipped with the same regulatory mechanisms, the functionality of these instinct-guided systems is often inhibited and overridden by the "rational" part of our brain. For us humans, this can lead to the fact that the survival energy provided by the body in the alarm state is only partially or partially released by the nervous system. The organism continues to respond to the threat of the past. In this case, the reactions, behavior patterns, beliefs, thoughts and feelings of the person to be observed in the present are often still coupled with the terrifying experiences of the past. 

 

The client is gently guided to develop increasing recognition and tolerance for bodily sensations and suppressed emotions to once again access their full creativity, spontaneity, and trust. It is suitable for adults and children of all ages.

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See Somatic Experiencing Trauma Institute for more information.