Somatic Experiencing
Somatic Experiencing: More Resilience and Ease...
Dr. Peter Levine's Somatic Experiencing™ (SE), a body-oriented approach for healing trauma, to regulate the nervous system and to release traumas held in the body. Our organismic self is designed to thrive, survive and to orient towards resilience and health.
SE can support capacity and containment so we’re not overwhelmed by activations both negative and positive... If there’s been shock traumas like physical and sexual abuse, car accidents, falls, war, etc, supporting the nervous system to complete naturally wired self-protective responses is vital to allow disempowering internal states to shift.
I'm especially grateful to SE for how to work with folks who have Global High Intensity Activation (GHIA). In my blog (on my website) about this topic, these clients can, "go from zero to 100 quickly with reactions like fear, anxiety, crying and rage that take a long time to settle. It can feel uncontrollable, endless and inconsolable. For self-preservation, they shut down/freeze." They sometimes have physical symptoms like migraines, IBS and fibromyalgia.
SE can help us to have more flexibility in our nervous system so we can come back to rest/digest/repair after high activations which are part of life. Building our window of tolerance for goodness little by little allows our life force to flow with more ease, rather than contracting fast after expansions.
I've learned from my SE teachers that trauma is in the nervous system, not the event which means that working with one trauma can help resolve other traumas- we don't need to work through every trauma to regain coherence in our nervous system.
I offer clients stabilization tools which they can do on their own to help down-regulate uncomfortable high-charge states, to retrain their nervous system for safety bit by bit.
"Trauma is not what happened to us, but what we hold inside in the absence of an
empathetic listener. "
“I have come to the conclusion that human beings are born with an innate capacity to triumph over trauma. I believe not only that trauma is curable, but that the healing process can be a catalyst for profound awakening—a portal opening to emotional and genuine spiritual transformation.”
Peter A Levine, PhD
Developer of Somatic Experiencing®