Somatic Experiencing (SE) Therapy
A body-oriented approach to healing trauma by releasing stored physical tension.
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Understanding Somatic Experiencing
Somatic Experiencing (SE) is a body-oriented therapeutic approach designed to heal trauma and alleviate chronic stress by focusing on your perceived body sensations, often referred to as the "felt sense." Developed by Dr. Peter A. Levine, SE is based on the principle that trauma symptoms arise from dysregulation in the autonomic nervous system where survival energy, mobilized during a perceived threat, becomes "stuck" or incomplete.
SE aims to facilitate the completion of these self-protective motor responses and release of this bound survival energy within a safe relational context, helping you access your body's inherent capacity to heal and return the nervous system to regulation, balance, and resilience.
Core Principles
- Felt Sense: Your internal experience of body sensations—temperature, tension, movement, pressure—provides the primary data for understanding where trauma is held and how to release it.
- Incomplete Responses: Trauma symptoms often result from fight, flight, or freeze responses that couldn't complete during the threatening event, leaving survival energy bound in the body.
- Nervous System Regulation: Rather than focusing on the traumatic event itself, SE works directly with the nervous system to restore balance and resilience.
- Body's Healing Capacity: The body has an inherent ability to heal from trauma when given the proper support and safe conditions.
How Somatic Experiencing Works
The therapeutic approach involves guiding your attention to internal physical sensations, imagery, emotions, behaviors, and meanings related to the traumatic experience—conceptualized through the acronym SIBAM: Sensation, Image, Behavior, Affect, Meaning, with primary focus on bodily sensations.
Titration
Titration involves touching upon small amounts of traumatic activation and then shifting focus, preventing overwhelm. Rather than diving into the full intensity of traumatic material, SE approaches it gradually, like slowly diluting a strong solution, preventing nervous system flooding and allowing manageable processing.
Pendulation
Pendulation guides you to gently shift attention between sensations associated with distress or trauma and sensations associated with safety, resource, or calm within your body. This oscillation builds nervous system tolerance, demonstrates that activation naturally rises and falls, and develops your capacity to be with difficult sensations without becoming overwhelmed.
Additional SE Techniques
- Tracking Sensations: Careful, moment-to-moment observation of internal bodily sensations as primary data.
- Resourcing: Helping you identify and access internal and external sources of safety and strength.
- Discharge: Supporting the body's natural release of bound survival energy through trembling, shaking, deep breaths, warmth, or other involuntary physiological responses.
- Completing Defensive Responses: Slowly and mindfully allowing incomplete fight/flight movements to emerge and complete.
Evidence Base
Somatic Experiencing is considered an evidence-informed practice with a growing body of research and strong theoretical grounding in neurobiology, particularly relating to trauma and the autonomic nervous system (often referencing polyvagal theory).
Research Support
While large-scale randomized controlled trials specifically isolating SE are still emerging, preliminary studies, clinical case reports, and theoretical validation support its potential effectiveness for PTSD and trauma-related symptoms. Studies have shown promising results in populations such as disaster survivors and individuals with chronic pain.
Theoretical Foundation
SE's theoretical foundation is rooted in neuroscience related to the autonomic nervous system, polyvagal theory, and animal models of instinctive behavior. The approach builds on observations of how animals in the wild successfully discharge survival energy after threat encounters—something humans often fail to complete due to social conditioning or circumstances.
SE is increasingly recognized within the trauma treatment field for its unique focus on physiological resolution and is often used alongside other evidence-based approaches.
Integration with Other Approaches
SE principles and techniques can be readily integrated into various psychotherapeutic modalities, particularly those working with trauma, attachment, or mind-body connections.
Complementary Applications
Therapists trained in other approaches (like psychodynamic, EMDR, or CBT) may incorporate SE techniques such as tracking the felt sense, titration, or pendulation to help you process traumatic material somatically and manage activation levels during therapy. SE can complement talk therapy by providing tools to work directly with the physiological aspects of emotional distress and traumatic memory that may not be fully accessible through cognition alone.
Age Adaptations
SE principles can be adapted for use across the lifespan. With children, SE often involves play, movement, and art to help them connect with and process bodily sensations related to stress or trauma in a non-verbal way. Adaptations also exist for working with infants and their caregivers by focusing on co-regulation and sensory processing.
Additional Support
Looking for more guidance? Visit our Learn center for information about starting therapy, or explore helpful resources including crisis support, recommended reading, and wellness tools.
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