SE®

What is SE…

Somatic Experiencing® is a body-oriented approach to regulating the nervous system and resolving the physical and psychological symptoms of stress, shock and trauma. Through awareness of sensations in the body SE® aims to gently re-establish the natural flow of life energy, supporting the safe release of symptoms from the nervous system, putting the past where it belongs, and restoring body, heart and mind to a relaxed wholeness.

SE can be helpful for many individuals who have experienced either overwhelming traumatic life events or periods of continual stress. A traumatic event is an experience that causes physical, emotional or psychological distress. It is an event that is perceived and experienced as a threat to one’s safety or to the stability of one’s world.

If the traumatic experience is too great, or we have inadequate support, our nervous system becomes overwhelmed and cannot return to its healthy place of resilience and equilibrium. We may stay either in a state of high arousal, reacting adversely to the slightest sound or movement and being hyperactive, or we may move into a state of shutdown, disassociation and depression.

The consequences of these experiences can have deep psychological and physical effects on the body causing a variety of traumatic symptoms. These symptoms are not caused by a traumatic event itself but by the leftover survival energy that has not been resolved and discharged from the system and therefore has got stuck. Each time we are not able to return to a relaxed settled state our nervous system becomes more hypersensitive or unresponsive and we are more likely to be affected by events, actions or experiences. 

SE works with the ‘felt sense’ of the body, at the physiological (functioning) level where traumatic activation is held in the body.  

SE helps us to self-regulate our nervous system and reconnect with our own innate capacity to recover. Thus returning us to experience greater peace, vitality, a sense of wholeness, self-confidence and self-empowerment. As these shifts happen there are naturally changes in the way we respond both consciously and unconsciously to stressful situations.

 

“The body-oriented psychotherapy approach, Somatic Experiencing® (SE), developed by Dr. Peter A. Levine, teaches clients how to track sensation in the body through sensate focus to elicit the intrinsic healing capacity for self-regulation and healing that all humans share. Connecting the client to the experience of their innate healing wisdom supports mastery and restores self-confidence and the inner experience of core intactness regardless of previous experiences.” ~Dianne Poole-Heller MA, LPC, NCC, Ph.D, SE Practitioner.

 

 

 

I am offering one-to-one SE sessions from South Golden Beach…
please contact me directly to book a session.