somatic experiencing®

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Somatic Experiencing® is a body-oriented therapeutic model for resolving trauma.

Trauma is not what happens to us. It is the way our autonomic nervous system responds to what happens to us. When we are overwhelmed with too much, too fast or experience lack from too little, too long, our nervous systems intelligently and instinctively choose the most protective response to help us survive. (Thank you body!)

These responses (flight, fight, freeze) are meant to be time-limited. In humans these responses often become stuck, creating chronic states of hypervigilence, hypertonicity (tension patterns in the body), or hypotonicity (numbness or disconnection from the body), and constant exhaustion.

Somatic Experiencing (SE) is not a cathartic approach. It respects the pace of the body and what the body can hold and process at any given time. SE is the life’s work of Dr. Peter A. Levine and is a multidisciplinary intersection of physiology, psychology, ethology, biology, neuroscience, indigenous healing practices, and medical biophysics that has been clinically applied for more than four decades.

In our sessions I will teach you how to settle and release physiological activation from your body.  If you have been using yoga to regulate your system or ease muscle tension that continues to return, SE can 

help untangle and reorganize the nervous system from the bottom up. This is because muscle tension created as a result of emotional suppression cannot be “stretched” out. It needs a different kind of organic movement that SE allows for. Very often this process helps people to reduce stress and return to a sense of regulation and mastery in their lives. 

Somatic Experiencing can be a beautiful support for grief, allowing the body’s story of grief to be heard and supported and processing any traumatic impacts of loss so that the grief can rise and settle with more ease.

CREDENTIALS: I am a trained Somatic Experiencing Practitioner® (SEP). I am not a therapist and this work is not a substitute for mental health care. Our work together is body-oriented. I suggest you have a trauma therapist you can reach out to for any cognitive therapy needs.

SESSIONS: Our sessions are 50 minutes, $90-$120/session sliding scale. I offer in person sessions locally in Carlsbad, CA, as well as online. 

SCHEDULE: Schedule a free consult or session here. SE is something I embody and am passionate about. It has allowed me to be at peace without having to constantly “regulate” or move my body. I look forward to sharing it with you!