Trauma is experienced in the body, not just the brain. Our body knows what is happening before the brain does and responds before the brain.

Everything we experience in the brain, we experience in the body, including emotion and memory. Following an upsetting event, we might feel like our body is not our own and is not a safe place to be. Somatic Experiencing allows you to build a relationship with your body once again, understand what is happening in the body when you experience trauma triggers or emotion, and use the resources already within to heal through access to the body.

I believe integrating the body is imperative for trauma treatment because of all it holds. When it has been a stranger for a long time, it can feel scary to access it once again. Somatic Experiencing uses the inner wisdom you hold to allow healing to unfolds as it needs to, at the pace you are ready for.

In this modality, we recognize the body’s natural resilience and capabilities for healing. We follow sensations, images, behaviors, affect, and meaning related to past distressing events to move through the ways they are showing up in the present.

When we learn to follow the body’s natural impulses, we can more easily allow distress to move through us, rather than become stuck within.