Somatic Experiencing® is a body-oriented therapeutic model that helps heal trauma and other stress disorders. Developed by Peter Levine, Ph.D., it is the result of the multidisciplinary study of stress physiology, psychology, ethology, biology, neuroscience, indigenous healing practices, and medical biophysics, with more than 45 years of successful clinical application. Essentially, Somatic Experiencing® helps people who have experienced trauma to regulate their own nervous systems and to process trauma, often after years of having experienced anxiety, stress, depression, and other disorders secondary to dysregulation from the unprocessed traumatic event(s) they experienced.

• Shock, being startled easily, being 'jumpy' or hypervigilant
• Denial and disbelief
• Changes in mental abilities, such as confusion or difficulty concentrating
• Anxiety and unexplainable panic, terror, or fear 
• Irritability, frustration, and being quick to anger
• Lethargy, depression, lack of motivation, fatigue
• Social isolation
• Overwhelming sense of guilt or shame
• Feeling hopeless or despondent
• Dissociation, feeling disconnected, empty, or numb
• Insomnia, nightmares, or night terrors
• Headaches, stomach aches, autoimmune disorders
• Dizziness, vertigo, balance issues
• Substance Use/Abuse

• Car accidents
• Falls
• Birth trauma
• Medical and Surgical trauma (preparation for upcoming surgeries or healing from past surgical traumas)
• Sexual trauma
• Emotional Abuse
• Domestic Violence
• Inescapable attacks (Sexual assault, physical assault/abuse, kidnapping)
• Developmental trauma
• War
• Natural Disasters
• Loss of loved ones, grieving
• Chronic Stress and Overwhelm
• Intergenerational Trauma
• Survivor Guilt

I have found Somatic Experiencing to be an incredibly powerful model for healing. First, people often feel overwhelmed by the ‘bigness’ of their past experiences and even making the first therapy appointment can feel daunting. Somatic Experiencing is a modality that focuses first on creating a safe place from which people can begin looking at their past experiences and traumas. Feeling safe and having good resources allows people to go deeper into their healing journey than they might otherwise be able to go.

Second, Somatic Experiencing is a body-centered trauma healing modality. This is important because trauma is experienced in the body, not cognitively—or in the brain. When we address trauma where it originates, we get right to the heart of the physical and emotional experience without having to necessarily re-tell the whole traumatic story over and over again. Many people find that working with traumatic experiences this way helps heal those experiences in a way that traditional talk therapy has not been able to.

Finally, once I teach my clients how to use the Somatic Experiencing skills in their own lives, they have a greater sense of independence, autonomy, and agency. As people learn to regulate their own nervous systems, they take their power back from the traumas that robbed them of that power for so long. Most importantly, as individuals heal from traumatic experiences, they create room for their most authentic selves to come online in a way that they may never have been able to before.