Somatic Experiencing® (SE) is a body-oriented approach to the healing of trauma and other stress disorders. The SE approach supports the release of traumatic shock, which is key to transforming PTSD and healing the wounds of emotional and early developmental attachment trauma.

The acute stress we experience from a perceived life-threat (accidents, birth trauma, invasive medical procedures, sexual or physical assault, war, natural disasters) or accumulative stress (emotional abuse, neglect, loss, or living with ongoing fear and conflict) can lead to traumatic shock. These types of stress can significantly affect an individual’s natural resilience and ability to live with ease when they habitually get “stuck” in hardwired physiological survival responses of fight, flight, fawn, or freeze.

The SE approach offers tools that help individuals remember how to mobilize out of these places of immobilization, where the survival energy is blocked and bound up in the body. SE practitioners gently guide clients to develop awareness of and increase tolerance for difficult bodily sensations and suppressed emotions in order to restore self-protective motor responses in the body, thus addressing the root cause of trauma symptoms.

My three year training as a Somatic Experiencing® Practitioner was fundamental to the evolution of Somanautiko. SE is the lifework of Dr. Peter A. Levine, bringing together his multidisciplinary study of stress physiology, psychology, biology, neuroscience, indigenous healing practices, ethology, bodywork, and medical biophysics. These links will open in new tabs.