How does Somatic Experiencing® work?
SE® doesn't focus on talking about or reliving trauma, or even have to involve touch or body-work, rather it listens to and uses the ‘voice’ of the body referred to as the felt sense.
Examples of this voice would be physical sensations such as warmth, tingling, and contraction. Paying attention to these sensations moment-to-moment supports the powerful self-healing mechanisms we’re born with to do their miraculous work. Trapped stress energy can be safely discharged, helping to restore equilibrium to the nervous system.
The SE® process is also supported by 'resources', unique to the client. Resources bring about a sense of safety to the body and mind, and can be internal e.g. sense of humour, your back’s contact with the chair, or external e.g. an object in the room, a much-loved family member, a place.
By working slowly, step by step in this way, the distressing cycle of symptom escalation can potentially be reversed, and a you can gain a steady confidence in your ability to work with your trauma in a safe, conscious and life-affirming way.
SE® is as much an education as therapy. You can expect to learn why your mind and body are behaving the way they are, and how you can support them in working together to create new, healthy patterns.
SE® doesn't focus on talking about or reliving trauma, or even have to involve touch or body-work, rather it listens to and uses the ‘voice’ of the body referred to as the felt sense.
Examples of this voice would be physical sensations such as warmth, tingling, and contraction. Paying attention to these sensations moment-to-moment supports the powerful self-healing mechanisms we’re born with to do their miraculous work. Trapped stress energy can be safely discharged, helping to restore equilibrium to the nervous system.
The SE® process is also supported by 'resources', unique to the client. Resources bring about a sense of safety to the body and mind, and can be internal e.g. sense of humour, your back’s contact with the chair, or external e.g. an object in the room, a much-loved family member, a place.
By working slowly, step by step in this way, the distressing cycle of symptom escalation can potentially be reversed, and a you can gain a steady confidence in your ability to work with your trauma in a safe, conscious and life-affirming way.
SE® is as much an education as therapy. You can expect to learn why your mind and body are behaving the way they are, and how you can support them in working together to create new, healthy patterns.
