As a psychotherapist, I use a somatic approach to mental health and well-being because so many of our stress responses run deep, often to early childhood and preverbal experiences, that are hard to access in therapy without somatic component. When you slow down and invite awareness of sensations, you can, with the help of a Somatic Experiencing® practitioner, track, understand and change your response patterns to alleviate your symptoms and cohere with your authentic self. 

What is Somatic Experiencing® (SE)?

Somatic Experiencing® is a widely respected, innovative, body-centered approach to emotional healing, stress reduction and trauma resolution developed by Peter Levine, PhD, based upon over 35 years of research and study on how our autonomic nervous system responds to threat.

Humans and animals alike have an innate ability to self-regulate in the face of stress or physical threat. Only humans, however, override this innate response. That inhibition causes the stress activation to remain trapped in our bodies, causing symptoms such as pain, anxiety, anger, depression, intrusive thoughts, and cognitive impairments.  

Somatic Experiencing® provides the steps needed to reconnect you with the innate wisdom of your body. Through focused conscious awareness of bodily sensations, you are able to access these restorative physiological patterns, resolve your traumatic symptoms, and re-engage in life with renewed optimism, creativity, passion, and joy.