What is Somatic Experiencing & How Does It Work?
What Is Somatic Experiencing ?
Somatic Experiencing (SE) is a healing modality that is focused on the body, primarily the nervous system, even more specifically the Autonomic Nervous System.
The Autonomic Nervous System is unconscious and is responsible for our rest, digest, breathing; the things we do naturally without thinking about it, including our fight,flight,freeze,fawn responses that happen throughout our lives and even in our day-to-day lives.
Where Did Somatic Experiencing Come From?
Founded by Dr. Peter Levine in the early 1970s when he noticed that humans, unlike our animal counterparts, have stopped naturally discharging our trauma. Wild animals after they get hunted/experience trauma will shake, huff or whatever their bodies unconsciously, naturally, lead them to do to let the full experience complete. This natural completion is unconscious and is led by their autonomic nervous system. This discharge allows the animals and their nervous system to get back into the present moment where there is safety, even if that safety is only 5 minutes old.
Humans in the modern world no longer allow that natural discharge to happen, leaving that experience incomplete or still open in our nervous system. This incompleteness gets set as a default or an open loop keeping us in a cycle of fight, flight, freeze, fawn in our adult daily lives even if it is not the appropriate response (i.e. think of a reaction that doesn’t match the situation, regressing into child self, etc). Somatic Experiencing works with your autonomic nervous system to allow these incomplete (open loops) to complete (loops to close), resetting our nervous systems to the calm, healthy awareness that allows us to rest, digest, connect and act.
Why Is It Important To Work With Your Autonomic Nervous System?
Working with your Autonomic Nervous System allows you to live a more joyous, comfortable and optimistic life that is more “Ventral Vagal” forward. Our Ventral Vagal System is the part of our nervous system that allows for connection. To be able to connect with others there must be trust, slowness, openness, compassion, curiosity and confidence (to name a few).
Remember your autonomic nervous system is responsible for your rest, digest, and react responses which are all core to how we show up in our day-to-day lives. When we are not able to rest, or digest our food well this affects our biology which is the battery that runs our emotional states. By working with your autonomic nervous system this allows the batteries to start to be recharged as these systems (rest, digest and react) start to work better and even come back into their natural functioning state.
*Please note that just because a modality has the word somatic in it does not mean you are working with a certified Somatic Experiencing Practitioner (SEP). If you want to work with an SEP it is important to ask for their certification and ensure that it is from Somatic Experiencing International (SEI). Somatic means to view the body as separate from the mind. Meaning it is a form of body work and there are a lot of different modalities that work with the body so even physical therapy is a form of somatic work but it is not Somatic Experiencing.
What Do Somatic Experiencing Sessions Look Like?
Working with your autonomic nervous system is what happens in a somatic experiencing session. Most somatic experiencing sessions are an hour long and require a quiet place, a chair where your feet can comfortably be on the floor and a video call if the session is not in person.
Somatic Experiencing focuses on the sensations (feelings) in the body (ie, tightness, loose, open, disconnected, connected etc) not the story. The story keeps you in your head and we need you in your body.
Your practitioner will guide you back into your body using the language of sensations and different techniques. As you come back into your body, memories, images, emotions will come up and your practitioner will guide you to allow these experiences to complete and new meaning to emerge.
**Please note, your practitioner will not guide you straight to the eye of your trauma. You will start from the outside and work our way in to ensure that your nervous system is ready to complete and not re-traumatize you.
***Please note, the length of each grounding is dependent on the state of our clients nervous system and their capacity to come back into their bodies. For some people it may feel extremely unsafe to be in the body allowing them to experience only 2-3 minutes before leaving (dissociating) again. For humans, it can be much easier to be in the brain constantly reasoning or thinking. If this is you, be patient as you rebuild your embodied connection.
What Can You Bring Into a Somatic Experiencing Session?
Anything and everything! From big, overwhelming experiences, to strange belief systems or patterns you may have, to chronic illnesses induced by stress, shock, natural disasters, in-utero/birth trauma, medical, sexual abuse, etc - we hold space for all of it.
Think of your session as a way to get curious about a story or experience you’ve had in a way that is embodied and not just mental.
As a practitioner, part of my training was to undergo my own personal sessions and after 10+ years of self development work, Somatic Experiencing was the missing piece, which was my body and more specifically my nervous system. I have seen my own relationships improve, my confidence become more calm and embodied. I feel like I finally came into my adult self, an embodied adult, which is why I call my practice the Joy of Adulting. There are many Somatic Experiencing Practitioners (SEPs) out there and you can find a list here:
To book a session with me, visit my bookings page here.
I look forward to meeting you and know your whole self is welcome.
