"The bodies of traumatized people portray 'snapshots' of their unsuccessful attempts to defend themselves in the face of threat and injury. Trauma is a highly activated incomplete biological response to threat, frozen in time. For example, when we prepare to fight or flee, muscles throughout our entire body are tensed in specific patterns of high energy readiness. When we are unable to complete the appropriate actions, we fail to discharge the tremendous energy generated by our survival preparations. This energy becomes fixed in specific patterns of neuromuscular readiness. The person then stays in a state of acute and then chronic arousal and dysfunction in the central nervous system. Traumatized people are not suffering from a disease in the normal sense of the word - they have become stuck in an aroused state. It is difficult, if not impossible, to function normally under these circumstances. "

- Peter A. Levine (Founder of Somatic Experiencing)

What is Somatic Experiencing?

Somatic Experiencing (SE) is an integrative form of healing that will help settle and release physiological activation from the body. Very often, this process helps people to reduce stress and return to a sense of regulation and mastery in their lives. SE will support you in learning how to attend to uncomfortable sensations in your body and gently unwind them through your conscious attention. SE is particularly useful in managing stress because so many symptoms you may experience in relation to stress are physiological.

The SE approach releases traumatic shock, which is key to transforming PTSD 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.

What is Somatic Experiencing used to treat?

​- Abuse and/or Violence
- Attachment Wounds
- Birth Traumas
- Developmental Ruptures
- Discrimination and Hate Crimes
- Inescapable Attacks
- Medical Traumas
- Motor Vehicle Accidents
- Natural Disasters
- Near Death Experiences
- Neglect
​- Sexual Assaults
- Syndromes, including some Auto-Immune Conditions
- Transgenerational Trauma

How does Somatic Experiencing Work?

SE works under the understanding that trauma is not caused by the event itself, but rather develops through the breakdown of the body, psyche, and nervous system in processing adverse events.  SE facilitates the completion of self-protective motor responses and the release of thwarted survival energy bound in the body, thus addressing the root cause of trauma symptoms. This is approached by gently guiding clients to develop increasing tolerance for difficult bodily sensations and suppressed emotions.

SE does not require the traumatized person to re-tell or re-live the traumatic event. Instead, it offers the opportunity to engage, complete and resolve — in a slow and supported way — the body’s instinctual fight, flight, freeze, and collapse responses.  Individuals locked in anxiety or rage then relax into a growing sense of peace and safety. Those stuck in depression gradually find their feelings of hopelessness and numbness transformed into empowerment, triumph, and mastery. SE mobilizes corrective bodily experiences that contradict those of fear and helplessness. This resets the nervous system, restores inner balance, enhances resilience to stress, and increases people’s vitality, equanimity, and capacity to actively engage in life.

Team Members Trained in Somatic Experiencing
Click the photos below to learn more.

Kim Rate
Megan Thomas