SOMATIC EXPERIENCING
What is SE and how does it work?
SE understands that trauma is a natural and normal part of life.
SE holds the attitude that the body-mind is designed to heal intense and extreme experiences.
The therapeutic approach of SE focuses on empowerment, mastery, expansion of choice, self direction, and self-determination.
SE works within our range of resiliency to facilitate the most efficient healing recovery, instead of pushing through “resistance”, or promoting emotional catharsis or painful physical discomfort.
Content of a story is used to track activation, rather than to search for memories.
Symptoms represent bound activation; they show exactly where to deactivate excess charge left over from the traumatic event. Symptoms are not a disease state, although they may be associated with an actual disease.
SE works predominantly with the “felt sense”, accessing physical sensations, imagery and motor patterns, with less emphasis on cognitive and emotional processes.
SE helps us to recognize and expand the internal, external and missing resources to aid in the healing of the traumatic event.
SE stabilizes the client in a safe, “grounded”, resourced state before working with any traumatic material.
SE helps facilitate the re-regulation of the autonomic nervous system by restoring gentle cycles of sympathetic and parasympathetic interplay.
SE works with “just enough” activation to allow discharge, integration and/or completion within our current range of resiliency.
SE works peripherally with the activation. This means we may begin our work away from the area of greatest injury, or we may examine the traumatic event from what occurred before and after the primary core of that event. This allows us to reduce some of the bound charge, and build enough stability to tolerate the strong sensations and emotions contained in the apex of the event.
SE works in the here and now and focuses on the sensations and body memories and resources occurring in the present.
SE helps to complete incomplete trauma responses, such as fight, flight and freeze which has gotten stuck in the system.
Expanding our tolerance of feeling bodily sensations helps us to trust in the innate wisdom of the body, and begins to uncouple, or separate out, the fear and terror experienced during the event.
As explained by SOSI