Somatic Experiencing® is… a short-term naturalistic approach to the resolution and healing of trauma developed by Dr. Peter Levine. For very good healthy reasons which ensure our survival, we have fight, flight, freeze mechanisms. These are healthy self-protective responses. However, there are times when those responses are thwarted or cannot be expressed, and the energy is retained in our nervous system. During a bodywork session, the energy which has been held by the nervous system from these charged experiences is released (very slowly and very gently).
The focus in the session is on the physiology and sensations in your body in the here and now, and allowing stored tension to dissolve (rather than any stored emotion or memory). Generally, you will be in a very relaxed, almost meditative state and any release or discharge will feel very gentle, almost subtle. This release, discharge and integration into your every-day state of being allows you to increase your capacity for maintaining relaxed and open states of awareness (feeling good). Chronic tension patterns may release, (for instance shoulder tension, lower back pain) and there can be a lasting sense of fluidity and flow throughout the body. Somatic Experiencing can augment the healing from other practices of massage therapy.
I have received my certificate as an SEP (Somatic Experiencing Practitioner) from the Somatic Experiencing Trauma Institute (http://www.traumahealing.org)
