What is Somatic Experiencing®?
Somatic Experiencing® (SE) is a gentle, effective, body-based approach to reduce or resolve uncomfortable emotions, memories, physical pain, stress and/or trauma.
“Somatic” means body-oriented. By exploring sensations, emotions, images and/or other aspects of the body, clients are able to reduce extra charge in their nervous system. During sessions clients learn tools they can use to help regulate their nervous system. The ultimate goal is to create a strong, holistic connection with oneself, others and the larger source of life. When this happens, people feel a deep, internal sense of well-being, confidence, clear-thinking and aliveness. This resiliency can lead to the elimination of physical or emotional pain, unwanted thoughts or behaviors, uncomfortable emotions and more.
What does a Somatic Experiencing session look like?
A client usually has some issue that is bothering them. Examples are: Residual pain from an accident, a disturbing memory, a phobia, anxiety, or a situation they are angry, upset or fearful about. Without frightening or re-traumatizing the client, we are curious and explore the “felt sense” – i.e. sensations, images, emotions, thoughts, impulses, movements, etc. We access the “survival energies” that got locked in the body. As we pay attention to and track them, sensations vanish or shift into something else. We find ways of “moving them through” to completion. The cost of having the charge remain in the body is too high.
SE is usually done seated in chairs, but sometimes can be done while we are doing bodywork, like Myofascial Release. The two can be very effective together for releasing past traumas, aches/pains, unwanted thoughts, beliefs or emotions and restoring a person to a sense of wholeness. It also helps to increase a person’s resilience and body awareness.
When something scary or overwhelming happened in the past, many times the person did not have the necessary tools or resources to be able to handle it or bring it to completion. The energy that was activated in that moment got stuck in the body. Using SE tools, the old, stored energy is allowed to come up in small pieces in order to complete the process, whether it was mental, emotional or physical. This frees up that energy so it is no longer weighting the person down or causing potential issues in the body. They are then free to create more of what they want in their life, instead of what they do not want.
There are no good, bad, positive or negative emotions. They are all simply information. When an emotion comes up, the body is telling the person something. The work is to tune in and discover what that is.
The somatic and trauma-related information offered at Unwinding Touch is for personal development and education. Lori is not a mental health provider nor a doctor. She does not diagnose or treat any issue. This work is meant for people who want to improve the quality of their life. If you have a medical or mental-health related issue, please consult a trained and licensed health professional.
“The body always leads us home… if we can simply learn to trust sensation and stay with it long enough for it to reveal appropriate action, movement, insight or feeling.”
~ Pat Ogden, PhD, Creator of the Sensorimotor Psychotherapy method
“Trauma is a fact of life. It does not have to be a life sentence.”
~ Peter A Levine, PhD, Creator of Somatic Experiencing®
“History is not the past, it is integrated as the present. We can’t change what happened, but we can change how it lives in us.”
~ Thomas Hübl, Austrian teacher, author, and international facilitator