Somatic Experiencing
Stress in the body is stressful. Long periods of stress, traumatic events, birth traumas, disconnection and shock can create physical symptoms such as anxiety, irritable bowel syndrome, chronic fatigue syndrome, migraines and other types of headaches, fibromyalgia, depression, digestive problems, low libido, cystitis, and bladder issues to name a few. There can also be significant emotional symptoms such as shame, anger, sadness, grief, withdrawal, guilt, hyper-sensitivity, addiction and overwhelm.
Stress also affects our relational interactions.. How we communicate, love, trust, express ourselves authentically, use our intuition and experience a felt sense of safety with those around us and the environment we live in.
“The paradox of trauma is that is has both the power to destroy and the power to transform and resurrect”
DR PETER A. LEVINE
Somatic Experiencing: A Body-Oriented Approach to Healing
Somatic Experiencing is a talk-based practice that employs a body-oriented approach to facilitate healing from trauma.
The Somatic Experiencing practice explores the challenging sensations we might notice in the body, such as tension, heat, tingling, numbness, where those sensations are located and what triggers them. Through the Somatic Experiencing practice, we gently invite sensations, emotions, and impulses to be felt and experienced. We subsequently also explore where the body has access to sensations of warmth, connection, and safety.
Somatic Experiencing works with the body and mind’s innate survival instincts and wisdom and offers support and guidance to where the system may have gotten stuck.
Over time this process enables us to develop a greater capacity to tolerate discomfort and embrace the felt sensations of pleasure, safety and connection that are essential for our physical, mental, and emotional well-being.
The approach is characterised by its gentle and gradual nature, allowing the body to fully integrate at its own pace.
Sessions
Sessions are usually done seated but there is always the option to stand or move.
Through invitational questions and inquiry, we explore where there are triggers or overwhelm in your system. Working with these states of up-regulation (fight/flight) or down regulation (freeze, fawn, collapse) we become more familiar with patterns and where the body needs space to express and unwind in a safe and titrated process.
Over time you will develop the ability to track bodily sensations, emotions, thoughts and images without them hijacking you or taking you into overwhelm.
This work can be short or long term work depending on the individual but I usually recommend 6 sessions to start with. By the sixth session I like to do a review to see where we are at and if and where further work is needed. If we feel the work has settled you are always welcome to come back at any time for a check in or refining sessions.