Overview
Somatic Experiencing helps to assess where a person is “stuck” in the fight, flight or freeze responses so that related energy can be discharged and integrated back into the nervous system. This work is instrumental to resolving fixated physiological states resulting from acute, developmental and complex trauma.
Here is a video by founder Peter Levine PhD that explains his Somatic Experiencing work:
Benefits
Experiencing more aliveness and joy, and less reactivity and/or feelings of “stuckness” in life. A greater capacity to be present in our lives, instead of reenacting past traumas (consciously or subconsciously), by finding ways to move out of patterns of immobility, overwhelm and hyperarousal that constrict and limit our experience significantly.
Various traumas and their affects and numerous symptoms can be addressed and integrated using Somatic Experiencing, including:
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Motor Vehicle Accidents (MVAs)
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Pre and peri-natal trauma
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Medical/surgical procedures
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Inescapable attack
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Sexual abuse/rape
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Falls
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Choking/Near drowning
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Developmental Trauma