About Somatic Experiencing
Somatic Experiencing (SE) is a body-oriented approach to help resolve how we have coped with traumatic, stressful and threatening situations. From a bodyworker’s / Rolfer’s point of view, often what we see can appear to be just stuck tissue, or habitual bracing and tightness, or a sense of chronic tension or chronic wear and tear, or an inability to relax. It can be all of those, but it also can be our system being still stuck in a response to previous traumatic or intense experience. The more extreme forms of this are often diagnosed by medical professionals as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).
SE is the work of Dr Peter Levine, a psychotherapist and also one of Ida Rolf’s early students. He began developing SE in the 1970’s to help clients deal with the aftereffects of traumatic experiences, and has been practicing and teaching it worldwide for over 40 years.
Levine based his work in part on long-known observations of animals in the wild, who can experience life-or-death threats but who rarely exhibit the debilitating aftereffects and signs of post traumatic symptoms. Levine believed – and countless naturalists and scientists have observed – that prey animals will instinctively discharge and “shake off” the tremendous buildup of fight-or-flight energy that occurs in highly stressful situations. Their systems naturally guide them to discharge the energies that would otherwise lead to post-traumatic symptoms.
Humans have the same innate ability to do this. Our nervous system is very similar to other mammals in this regard. But for any number of reasons, including modern societies that often don’t allow time for the unfreezing or “discharge” phase, or personal situations that aren’t safe enough to navigate through it, this energy can get frozen in our systems, and days, weeks, months, years or decades later, can manifest in a wide array of symptoms.
Levine believed that it is possible, even much later, for the sufferer to begin to release this frozen energy, slowly and safely, so their system can re-find its natural vitality. The key is that it happens slowly enough to that it doesn’t “re-overwhelm” your system. SE is slow and patient work, and involves allowing the client to gradually track body sensations, movements, emotions, or imagery that may have long been in the background. He believed that the body remembers, even if our cognitive memory doesn’t, and if we listen patiently and respectfully, in a safe situation, we can gradually experience and release, bit by bit, that trapped energy.
SE is taught to and practiced by psychotherapists and counselors, by bodyworkers, and by movement therapists such as yoga practitioners. We are all trained and certified to work as SE practitioners through SETI, the training and membership organization that Levine founded
The SE and Rolfing worlds have long had a connection. Levine was influenced by his training in Rolfing and in other hands-on approaches. Over the years (decades), many Rolfers and structural integration practitioners have trained in SE. As a 30+ year Rolfer, I believe that the move over the decades towards Rolfing being less invasive (ask a Rolfing client from the 1970’s if it was painful!), is at least in part due to Levine’s influence on our understanding of how our bodies change. My SE training, and my personal experience as a client and a practitioner, has certainly changed my approach and sensibility as a Rolfing practitioner.
I was exposed to SE over 20 years ago, in my Rolfing Advanced Training. After finding and seeing an SE-trained therapist for my own journey / recovery, I entered the SE training in 2017, in the first SE class held in the DFW area, and graduated in late 2019. It has been a wonderful addition to my practice. I will do “pure” SE sessions, and “pure” Rolfing sessions, but each has influenced how I do the other, so my sensibilities have blended the two to some degree. Having also seen an SE trained counselor for many years for my own work, I know the SE process from both sides. A description of both an “SE First Aid” moment, and a session that I received, during my training, is available here.
I plan to add more on the SE process to my site, as well as links for more reading. I also will see clients who are working with counselors trained in trauma resolution. The combination of therapy-based with hands-on approaches can be particularly effective. I’m also happy to refer to counselors and therapists who are SE trained here in the Metroplex.
Somatic Experiencing Training Institute (SETI)
Extensive information about SE and the SE training.