Somatic Experiencing® Therapy

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What is Somatic Experiencing®

Somatic Experiencing® is a therapy approach that uses the wisdom of your human organism to naturally address and heal the impacts of trauma that get stuck in our physiological body. Working with trauma can feel overwhelming and terrifying. It does not need to be. When the body is allowed to process emotions at a pace that is not overwhelming or scary. The best thing is that you are in control of the pace of the work and while I might challenge you at times, I will never push you to do something that feels too much to you.

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What does Somatic Experiencing® do?

• Somatic work is conducted with present feelings, sensations, and thoughts. Trauma often keeps us anchored to the past and the painful experience of trauma. We will work to build the ability to live in the present moment and experience safety in your life in new and greater ways.

• We will work to teach your nervous system to be able to tolerate present sensations and experience the release of the stress to allow healing and discharge of trauma that is stored in the body.

• Imagine that all of the emotions, thoughts, feelings, and sensation from your trauma experiences are stored behind the Hover Dam. Traditional exposure or cathartic type trauma work is like placing a bunch of dynamite at the bottom of the dam. Once the dam is breached you are swamped by everything the dam was holding back. It is retraumatizing at best. Somatic work is more like installing a faucet in the dam where we can let out small manageable amounts that slowly process the trauma in a safe way that may be fun as well as healing.

• You will learn to understand the source of survival responses, fight, flight, freeze, fawn, and build appreciation for keeping you alive and getting you to the current moment rather than as curses that are working to destroy you.

 

What are the benefits of somatic work?

• Somatic work addressing trauma that is stored in your body allows you to more fully engage in life, be present for those you love and enjoy activities again.

• It allows you to begin experiencing posttraumatic growth – This is the phenomenon where your life becomes better than it was before your trauma experience. You feel more whole, more alive, and find more meaning in life. Relationships thrive and you begin truly enjoying living.

• You begin to experience healing that goes beyond the cognitive and allows your whole being to feel whole.

• You begin to learn to be self-compassionate and love your wise body for it’s efforts to protect you resulting in increase self-love and decreased shame for your experiences and responses to trauma.

• You begin to recognize that you are not broken but acting in a predictable way to events that were stressful

• You will experience unconditional positive regard for your challenges and struggles as we work to build confidence in your innate ability to heal and move forward in a way that aligns with your values.

 

Trauma healing does not happen in isolation. Though many of us would like to go it alone having experienced so many incidents of rejection and abandonment that it feels like folly to trust again. Somatic work can shift that and help you find the support to be your own hero and truly heal past wounds.