Somatic Experiencing (SE™) aims to resolve symptoms of stress, shock, and trauma that accumulate in our bodies. It is a body-oriented therapeutic model for healing trauma and other stress disorders. Somatic Experiencing is based on a multidisciplinary intersection that include physiology, psychology, biology and neuroscience. It is the life’s work of Dr. Peter A. Levine.

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Trauma may begin as acute stress from a perceived life-threat or as the end product of cumulative stress. Both types of stress can seriously impair a person’s ability to function with resilience and ease. Trauma may result from a wide variety of stressors such as accidents, invasive medical procedures, sexual or physical assault, emotional abuse, neglect, natural disasters, loss, birth trauma, or the corrosive stressors of ongoing fear and conflict.

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The Somatic Experiencing approach is effective in releasing traumatic shock and the wounds of emotional and early developmental attachment trauma. It offers a framework to assess where a person is “stuck” in the fight, flight or freeze responses and provides clinical tools to resolve these fixated physiological states.