Merriam-Webster defines somatic as “of, relating to, or affecting the body…” so, by its name alone, Somatic Experiencing telegraphs its difference from other therapeutic models.

Rather than just focusing on the story of what happened, SE allows the practitioner and client to work together with the nervous system and the stuck energy that is trapped in the body.

SE expands the focus of therapy to include the bodily energy created by trauma and seeks to repair and complete the natural cycle our bodies possess to release it. It also follows a less direct and more incremental approach to revisiting trauma, especially in comparison to Exposure Therapy.

According to Kate Pabst, a Certified Somatic Experiencing Practitioner, SE helps people “build awareness, coherence and self-regulation. The result is a deeper understanding of the body/mind connection with improved ability to release and regulate emotions. It also helps manage stress, resolve issues related to trauma, heal from and navigate life transitions, relationships and build resilience.”

I am currently in year 3 of the Somatic Practitioner Certification program developed by Dr. Peter Levine.

Dr. Levine developed this modality 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. The trauma energy that was released from their bodies allowed the animals to return to their lives unaffected by the past trauma. 

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. Unlike animals, we tend to thwart the natural flow that our bodies experience due to trauma by trying to 'keep it together' or by stifling or compartmentalizing the trauma. 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.

For more information please see his publication - Waking the Tiger, Dr. Peter Levine

No two sessions are alike, and you will find that Somatic Experiencing is very different than traditional therapy.

Some things that you can expect to happen, though not in any specific order:

* Rather than focusing on story - there is a focus on building an inner felt sense of safety, helping the client to learn how to orient to safety. It in only after safety and trust is established that the session will then continue to add more content.

* There is less talking and more feeling. SE sessions truly help you to build the capacity to be with strong emotions and sensations in your body. Often trauma stays stuck because the sensation in our body happened at a time when we could not handle them, so we gradually help clients to build capacity to be with the stuck emotions and energy that are often the cause of our trauma responses, addictions, body pains, and other symptoms that accompany the side effects of trauma.

* You will find that rather than diving into the trauma by revisiting what happened, the Practitioner will slow things down. You may wonder why you are being asked questions about what happened prior to the trauma, or after. Often times we have a deep desire to dive right into what happened but in an SE session there is a gentle and indirect approach to revisiting the trauma which allows our bodies to build the resilience needed to slowly be able to address and release stuck traumatic energy at a pace that's comfortable to the body. Trauma gets stuck in the body when too much happened, too fast and with too little support - so as the Practitioner slows things down - this also helps your nervous system to release stuck energy and reorganize itself.

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.

Many clients have expressed that one somatic experiencing session did more than years of traditional talk therapy - where the focus was just on talking about what happened. In an SE session you are working with the mind and body together, which often helps clients see faster and lasting shifts.

"Before finding Thrivers, no amount of talk therapy or self-help work had been successful in helping me to fully understand the nature of my trauma and how it influenced my everyday life.  The missing piece that Michele brought to me was somatic experiencing, which has opened up a much deeper and more compassionate connection with my body, the trauma patterns that my body has been stuck in for a long time, and what I can do on a daily basis to help release that trauma and build a healthier and more loving presence with what my body needs to feel safe in the moment.  I feel eternally grateful to Michele and the Thrivers community for bringing the gift of somatic experiencing to my life."

"I will be honest, the thought of being with the sensations that I had been running from my whole life was absolutely terrifying. But Michele let me know that we would always honor the boundaries of my bodies capacity. I'm a person that always tried to force myself forward, to heal, taking on way more than I could manage. Through somatic experiencing I learned how to listen to my body, how to be curious without judgement, how to support it and as I changed my relationship with my body, my body changed its relationship with ME. It began re-organizing, letting go of maladaptive coping skills. I began to feel more connected to myself, having more resilience. Healing wasn't about not feeling pain, sadness, abandonment/ nor was it about only feeling joy and passion; rather it was about building my bodies capacity to be with the full scale of human experience. With Michele's help I've gone from checked out, numb, disconnected, frozen to feeling well, everything!!! I am so grateful.