Somatic Experiencing®
Somatic Experiencing® - Developed by Dr. Peter Levine
WHAT IS IT?
SE is a gentle, body oriented approach to resolve the distressing aftermath of trauma, or high stress.
SE supports your own capacity to ease
back into a baseline that is calm, connected,
and clear.
SE supports resilience.
Often clients want to try Somatic Experiencing® when other therapies did not work.
This therapy isn't dependent on your physical abilities or shape,
It's not anything like getting an adjustment or doing yoga.
Although we talk about how you're thinking about the problems,
we know that thinking alone doesn't change the problems.
Trauma -= Having experiences that were too much, too soon, too fast,
or not enough for too long.
The result is an out of rhythm body,
as it gets stuck in responses of fight/flight/freeze,
that at one time helped you survive.
"While trauma is a fact of life, it does not have to be a life sentence." - Dr. Peter Levine
Somatic Experiencing® is offered by Victoria Ford, LMFT , SEP
Somatic Experiencing Practitioner
Cultivate resiliency and regulation
We can get stuck in patterns of tension and high stress, or disconnection and numbness,
or we might be moving back and forth.
Somatic Experiencing helps the body to naturally reshape these patterns and feel restored, settled and balanced.
Somatic Experiencing® supports a sense of overall wellness, peace, and aliveness.
What symptoms do you treat?
Chronic Stress
History of Trauma -Psychological, Physical or Sexual
Medical trauma or Chronic Illness
Preparation for medical procedure
Birth trauma (your own or in giving birth)
Falls
Chronic Pain or Chronic Illness
Find out more general information here:
Link here to learn more about what is Somatic Experiencing®.
Contact Victoria Ford for scheduling.
Research article links for SE and PTSD
SE Session
What is a Somatic Experiencing® Session like?
Beginning Therapy:
At the beginning, SE will feel like familiar "talk therapy" where you might share about your current concerns and situation, what you'd like to be different, and what is going well in your life.
I'll teach what is important to know about the nervous system so that we have a common language and understanding of why it's relevant, and how this will help.
We will be curious about how you might be experiencing your emotions or thoughts in your body, such as tension, tight muscles, or a pleasant experience like breathing easily and feeling a sense of warmth in your face or chest. You may have no idea and feel nothing...and that is ok and not unusual.
You can't do this wrong!
We are supporting your nervous system to have some flow and flexibility, versus feeling "stuck" in states that feel rigid and tense, or kind of numb.
In session that will look like pauses to slow down experiences so you can move through and integrate a new experience, while you're observing and curious, and supported by your therapist.
You learn some methods we practice in session, and learn to use them more on your own. This is a gentle therapy.
What is NOT happening:
Somatic Experiencing does NOT include poses, yoga, massage, Physical Therapy, or any physical adjustments, chiropractic care, or Reiki.
Somatic Experiencing Touch Support:
The body holds trauma, and gently attending to the physical body in therapy sessions can be very helpful and restorative. This is especially true when working with adults who experienced childhood trauma. Our goal is working towards regulation first; supporting your own system's ability to find its rhythm.
Somatic Experiencing trains therapists to use support that includes physical contact, as one component of SE.
You may see a massage table in many SE therapist offices, as we are trained to provide nervous system support on a table. Clients are always fully clothed.
This specific approach is designed to help regulate the nervous system, with physical contact over areas of the body that are known to signal a stress response.
Common areas that relate to trauma are joints, kidneys and adrenals, musculature, and the digestive system. This develops as a result of stuck signaling in the brain/body.
Somatic Experiencing supports the body to naturally allow stored trauma to release, and stuck signaling to re-organize. This is true whether you have table work, or regular SE sessions.
There is hope. The brain and body are created with resilience; with a built in re-shaping system. Across the lifespan, changing the brain/body is possible.
I found it to be so freeing and gentle, and it's changed my life! I continue my own personal sessions to stay healthy - for you and for me.
Warmly,
Victoria
For Somatic Experiencing® Students and SEPs
If you are interested in a practice group, contact Victoria Ford.
You are welcome to join a local zoom monthly group of Somatic Experiencing® students for kind practice, improving skills, and sharing support and professional community.