Somatic Experiencing (SE)
What Is Somatic Experiencing®? (SE)
SE is a gentle and effective body-oriented approach that is designed to complement numerous occupational orientations.
SE enhances the work of anyone in a helping profession, such as therapists, psychologists, social service workers, bodyworkers, PTs, Ots, nurses, doctors, paramedics, teachers, play or art therapist, meditation and yoga instructors and others in the healing arts.
Developed by Dr. Peter Levine, author of best-selling books “Waking the Tiger-Healing Trauma”, and “In an Unspoken Voice”, SE is based on the study of how animals in the wild process and recover from stress and trauma.
There is a strong scientific component to the work, which includes the latest understanding of neuroscience, affect regulation and the polyvagal theory.
Somatic Experiencing®- The overview
"Trauma is in the nervous system, not in the event." Peter Levine
Somatic Experiencing® (SE) is a body-focused approach to treating trauma
being taught throughout the world. It is the result of over forty years of
observation, research, and hands-on development by Dr. Peter Levine.
Somatic Experiencing® offers a new and hopeful perspective on trauma. It
views the human as a unique being, endowed with an instinctual capacity to heal. It
asks and answers the question: “Why are animals in the wild, though routinely
threatened, rarely traumatized long term?” By understanding the dynamics that make
wild animals virtually “immune” to traumatic symptoms, the mystery of human trauma
is unveiled.
While studying animal behavior and the human stress response, Dr Levine
noticed that when under perceived threat, most mammals react in a predictable,
involuntary sequence.
He observed that when threatened, animals automatically mobilize a
tremendous amount of energy to enhance their chances of survival. An array of
chemicals and hormones are released from the adrenal medulla that increases
strength, perception, stamina and pain tolerance. Children and adults experience
identical bodily reactions when they too feel under threat- ie. being physically,
sexually or emotionally assaulted, when hit by a car or tossed from a bike, when
being approached by even a well-meaning surgeon or dentist, faced with tests or
public speaking, and of course in times of war or large scale disasters. The response
to trauma situations is a very physiological one.
The recovery process is also physiological. Once the threat has passed, or the
animal has successfully escaped, the body naturally “discharges” the accumulated
hormones, and their system returns to the pre-threat state.
Non- domesticated animals allow this organic process to occur without
interruption. They ‘reset’ the homeostasis in their bodies, demonstrated by gentle
shaking or trembling, sweating, panting, or bucking. Younger animals (and children)
discharge by replaying the trauma, often many times, by play fighting, tumbling and
chasing.
These responses occur involuntarily and are facilitated by the Autonomic
Nervous System (ANS) and the brain stem. By understanding the working of the brain
and ANS, Dr Levine developed a variety of effective techniques to get at the trauma
at the source.
Although humans possess regulatory mechanisms virtually identical to those in
animals, these instinctive responses are usually overridden or inhibited by our
complex neo-cortexes. This inhibition appears to have two essential problems: one- it
keeps the survival arousal trapped in the body, leading to a constellation of familiar
symptoms, including anxiety, panic, hyper-vigilance, flashbacks, emotional lability,
depression, pain, patterns of bracing and collapse, cognitive dysfunction, behavioral
problems, addictions, and an ongoing sense of intrusion and overwhelm. The body
responds as if the trauma is still occurring, and keeps the person in a state of
constant readiness and unnecessary reactivity.
Secondly, Dr Levine uncovered that the trauma survivor frequently “holds”
unfinished motor acts or protective or defensive responses in their bodies as well.
Since the organism is designed to respond to trauma by fighting or fleeing, when
these defensive actions are interrupted, the sympathetic nervous system stays primed
and ready to react.
Dr Levine developed a variety of gentle, somatic-based techniques designed to
re-regulate these deep-seated disturbances in arousal. Through the focal awareness
of bodily sensation, individuals are able to slowly access the restorative physiological
action patterns, allowing the highly aroused survival energies to be safely and
gradually neutralized. Unregulated arousal previously “locked in” the neuromuscular
and central nervous systems can be discharged and completed, thus resolving
traumatic symptoms.”
Rather than changing behavior, SE works with the physiology of the body,
and accesses the core, the “motor” that drives the debilitating symptoms of PTSD.
SE utilizes techniques that work directly with the brain and the ANS, which
gently restores the system to a regulated state. The traumatized individual returns to
a sense of aliveness, relaxation and wholeness; free of symptoms.
Peter Levine, and the hundreds of professionals trained in SE, have
successfully applied this work to combat veterans, rape or violence survivors,
Holocaust survivors, auto accident and post surgical trauma, chronic pain sufferers,
victims of natural disasters, childhood trauma and neglect, and even to infants
suffering traumatic births.