somatic Experiencing

Somatic Experiencing is a body-oriented therapy designed to help unlock and move excess energy that can be trapped in the nervous system following highly stressful & overwhelming events.

When we encounter stressful events in our life, it can trigger what’s known as the fight or flight response. This is a very primal (and normal) survival response that mobilizes our body to fight or run in order to survive. However, sometimes we may be unable to fight or flee, due to circumstances or impulse override, and we can go into a state called freeze where all that energy that was mobilized in the body for protection becomes “frozen” or "stuck" in the nervous system. (Note: Freeze is also an important form of self-protection, more on that later). When a self-protection response is thwarted, the residual energy “stuck” in the nervous system can lead to trauma.

Trauma is not the event itself, it is the residual energy of an incomplete self-protection response that is trapped in the nervous system.

The purpose of Somatic Experiencing is to create a safe space so that the nervous system and body can renegotiate stressful events, returning that trapped energy to your body where it can once again be utilized as vital life-force energy. It is NOT focused on re-telling or digging into stories from your past. While stories and memories from our past can be part of our healing, it’s important to know that the memories stored in our mind can be different from the memories stored in our bodies. In Somatic Experiencing, the focus is on the body and what the body has to say in the present moment.

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The founder of Somatic Experiencing, Peter Levine, was inspired by watching animals in the wild. Animals in the wild don’t become traumatized because they do not override self-protection impulses OR their nervous systems will naturally come out of the freeze state when the threat is gone, and they will complete the self-protection response.

Humans however, have a tendency to remain stuck in the freeze state, or to override their self-protection impulses when they arise. If you can imagine, or maybe you’ve experienced, the immense amount of energy that is mobilized in the body when the fight/flight response is triggered (we’ve heard stories of mothers lifting cars to save a child). Now imagine that magnitude of energy staying trapped in your body instead of being used. And imagine if this not only happens once, but it continues to happen over a life-time in varying magnitudes. All the energy and resources that your body mobilizes for survival becomes trapped each time a thwarted response occurs. This slowly depletes your body’s energy and resources needed for basic bodily functions, and slowly basic bodily functions can begin to struggle or fail.

somatic resilience & regulation

Somatic Resilience and Regulation focuses on understanding the effects of developmental trauma and attachment difficulties on the child, as well as the developing adult. By understanding the neurochemistry of early trauma, and rebuilding developmental platforms through regulation, clients begin to move from a high-cost-of-doing-business system to a smoother and less stress-oriented system.

Some signs or symptoms of chronic unresolved trauma in the nervous system include:

• digestive problems

• anxiety

• depression

• Bipolar, OCD, PTSD

• headaches/migraines

• chronic pain

• brain fog/lack of clarity or focus

• chronic fatigue

• sleep issues

• apathy or “flat” emotions

• addiction

• repetitive negative patterns/behaviours

• inability to lose weight

• autoimmune conditions

• mystery illnesses