Somatic Experiencing
Trauma Therapy
What is Trauma?
From an Somatic Experiencing (SE) perspective, trauma is anything which overwhelms us - any event or experience which is too much, too fast or too soon for us to make sense of and recover from.
It is also important to recognise that trauma is not a type of illness or disease. In fact trauma is actually a type of 'order' as it concerns the engagement of our biological survival mechanism.
What Is SE?
SE is a form of therapy designed to relieve the symptoms of trauma by restoring the normal functioning of the person's nervous system.
Why Does SE Work?
From an SE perspective, the symptoms of trauma are an indication of unresolved activation in the person's nervous system.
Although our physiology is similar, animals in the wild are not traumatised by their life and death experiences, whereas events that seem inconsequential to many of us can be traumatising for some people.
The difference is animals are able to complete their full physiological response to threat by noticing, reacting and recovering from danger, whereas this process is sometimes interrupted in people.
When in jeopardy animals will expend huge amounts of energy to escape and defend themselves and once the threat is over, the animal returns to its normal physiological baseline by allowing a chemical discharge to move through its body. This restores the normal cycle of the nervous system between rest and alertness.
How Does SE work?
SE focuses on the physiological responses that occur when someone experiences or remembers an overwhelming or traumatic event.
Although thoughts and emotions connected to the event are also important, the primary focus is on the sensations and processes occurring in the body. By allowing the physiological processes to complete, this can have a transformative effect on the thoughts and emotions connected with the experience.
Who Can Benefit From SE?
Anyone who is suffering from the effects of unresolved trauma can benefit from SE. This can take the form of mental health problems, including depression and anxiety, as well as physical health problems such as autoimmune conditions, stomach problems e.g. IBS and unexplained pain.
What Happens During Sessions?
Depending on the client's wishes, SE can be practiced in the form of more traditional 'talk therapy' or it can be a from of 'touch therapy' which means the Practitioner will place their hands over certain areas of the client's body (while the client is fully clothed and only when he or she has given consent). Sometimes it is a combination of the two.
When it is practised in the form of traditional talk therapy there will be more emphasis on what is called 'the felt sense' which is the client's own direct and moment to moment experience of what is happening inside their body, as well as what they are aware of in the environment and any images, feelings or thoughts that spontaneously arise.
Does the person have to relive or talk about the event?
SE is not a form of exposure therapy and the person does not have to reveal any information about the event or experience which they are not comfortable sharing. The aim is to help people learn how to regulate themselves as opposed to stirring up past hurts and trauma in a way that is destablising.
In SE we use a technique called 'titration' to process small amounts of trauma-related activation in the nervous system and we combine this with 'pendulation', which is a process that helps promote the natural biological cycle between rest and digestion and alertness and activation.
For many people the focus will be on helping them to find more resources to enable them to cope better with their everyday life and challenges so that they can become more healthy, happy and resilient.