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Somatic Experiencing International
We are the leading authority on the SE™ method and is a major provider of training and educational programs. SE is a body-oriented therapeutic model that helps heal trauma and other stress disorders. Developed by Peter Levine, Ph.D., it is the result of the multidisciplinary study of stress physiology, psychology, ethology, biology, neuroscience, indigenous healing practices, and medical biophysics, with more than 45 years of successful clinical application.
Resources
Read, listen, watch, use. Our Resources section offers important content in different media on how professionals are using Somatic Experiencing, research on the effectiveness of SE, and Crisis Stabilization and Safety tools such as SCOPE. In addition, you’ll find COVID-19 and Anti-Oppression resources, as well as our archived SE Community Conversations.
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NEWS & UPCOMING EVENTS
| | FEATURED STORIES
Learn about the Operations team at SEI.
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| | FEATURED STORIES
Learn about the big strides these coordinators are making to help bring SE to Egypt.
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| | POINT OF VIEW
SEI Executive Director Marv Tuttle reflects on the SE Research Summit.
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| | FEATURED STORIES
SEI Developement Manager meets with Representative Bowman in New York, USA.
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| | POINT OF VIEW
SEI Board Chair, Michele Solloway, on the highs and lows of 2022.
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| | POINT OF VIEW
Have you heard these real SE stories?
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| | POINT OF VIEW
Learn the benefits of sponsoring the 2022 SE Research Summit
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| | POINT OF VIEW
SEI Development Manager shares her story.
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| | FEATURED STORIES
A recap of SEI's community forum on accessibility.
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| | FEATURED STORIES
Learn about the Training and Faculty Relations team at SEI.
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“I have patients who are off all of their medications….who no longer suffer from panic attacks….who are no longer haunted by traumatic visions. I am trained in other techniques…. SE is the only method I have found that consistently helps people reorganize their nervous systems and greatly reduce, if not completely erase, trauma symptoms. Although I understand that the SE™ techniques are grounded in biology, the results are nothing short of miraculous.”
SHIRLEY IMPELLIZZERI, PHD, PSYCHOLOGIST, AUTHOR, SEP
SE 101 - Somatic Experiencing® International
what is somatic experiencing®?
Somatic Experiencing (SE™) is a body-oriented therapeutic model applied in multiple professions and professional settings—psychotherapy, medicine, coaching, teaching, and physical therapy—for healing trauma and other stress disorders.
It is based on a multidisciplinary intersection of physiology, psychology, ethology, biology, neuroscience, indigenous healing practices, and medical biophysics and has been clinically applied for more than four decades. It is the life’s work of Dr. Peter A. Levine.
The SE approach releases traumatic shock, which is key to transforming PTSD and the wounds of emotional and early developmental attachment trauma. It offers a framework to assess where a person is “stuck” in the fight, flight or freeze responses and provides clinical tools to resolve these fixated physiological states. SE provides effective skills appropriate to a variety of healing professions including mental health, medicine, physical and occupational therapies, bodywork, addiction treatment, first response, education, and others.
THE SCIENCE
Trauma may begin as acute stress from a perceived life-threat or as the end product of cumulative stress. Both types of stress can seriously impair a person’s ability to function with resilience and ease.
Trauma may result from a wide variety of stressors such as accidents, invasive medical procedures, sexual or physical assault, emotional abuse, neglect, war, natural disasters, loss, birth trauma, or the corrosive stressors of ongoing fear and conflict.
HOW IT WORKS
The Somatic Experiencing approach facilitates the completion of self-protective motor responses and the release of thwarted survival energy bound in the body, thus addressing the root cause of trauma symptoms. This is approached by gently guiding clients to develop increasing tolerance for difficult bodily sensations and suppressed emotions.
Dr. Levine was inspired to study stress on the animal nervous system when he realized that animals are constantly under threat of death, yet show no symptoms of trauma. What he discovered was that trauma has to do with the third survival response to perceived life threat, which is freeze. When fight and flight are not options, we freeze and immobilize, like “playing dead.
” This makes us less of a target. However, this reaction is time-sensitive, in other words, it needs to run its course, and the massive energy that was prepared for fight or flight gets discharged, through shakes and trembling. If the immobility phase doesn’t complete, then that charge stays trapped, and, from the body’s perspective, it is still under threat. The Somatic Experiencing method works to release this stored energy and turn off this threat alarm that causes severe dysregulation and dissociation. SE helps people understand this body response to trauma and work through a “body first” approach to healing.
What our practitioners are saying
“SE provides the basic natural healing and core nervous system skills for all the work I do, and its natural mindfulness as well. It helps clients attune to what's happening in their bodies, slow down and pause fast energies, wake up and balance sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems. Learning to consciously titrate gives clients a boost in self-awareness, and confidence in their capacity to change and heal.
These basic and natural SE practices and tools help clients re-enter a traumatized or dissociated body slowly, at their own pace, and gradually (for some) more safely.”
~Craniosacral Therapist from Huntington Beach, CA USA
SE 101 VIDEOS
In this 5-minute video, Dr. Peter Levine, founder of Somatic Experiencing, discusses how he came to create his powerful approach to trauma.
This video tells the compassionate story of the healing process of Ray, a Marine who had been injured by two improvised explosive devices (IEDs) and diagnosed with both severe PTSD and Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI).
Dr. Levine demonstrates the power of SE as a tool to heal the wounds of war.
Dr. Peter Levine uses his famous “Slinky” presentation to demonstrate the effects of trauma on the nervous system, and his philosophy of treating trauma, which involves slowly releasing (or titrating) this compressed fight-or-flight energy a bit at time to give the individual the ability to reintegrate it back into the nervous system.
SE VIDEO RESOURCES
Discover what’s new & what’s next in the world of Somatic Experiencing® from Dr. Peter Levine himself, plus experts like Stephen Porges, Dick Schwartz, Jack Kornfield, Diane Poole Heller, and many more in this video on-demand collection! Get lifetime access to the entire 40 video collection HERE.
HOW TRAUMA AFFECTS SUPPORT, SUSPENSION, AND BREATH – BETSY POLATIN
This experiential and informative workshop is a wonderful opportunity to discover the many different ways the undeniable unity of body, mind, and spirit shows up in life. During this course, I will offer guidance and simple exercises to enhance sensory skills by exploring the musculoskeletal, respiratory, and nervous systems, and how they relate …MORE
TRAUMA AND POLYVAGAL THEORY – STEPHEN PORGES AND PETER LEVINE
The Polyvagal Theory is a major scientific advancement in neuroscience with clinical applications to a new brain-body medicine providing insights into the treatment of trauma-related mental and physical health challenges. The theory describes how, via evolution, a connection emerged in the brain between the nerves that control the heart and … MORE
CO-REGULATING WITH SE – GLYNDIE NICKERSON
For many engaging in contemplative practices in modern non-collective societies, they are missing an important element to deepen one’s spiritual practice that is often unrecognized and unnamed: co-regulation.
Collective societies’ co-regulation practices throughout the lifespan teach the nervous system to settle …MORE
RESEARCH & ARTICLES
Visit our Research section to tap into the latest studies and articles on the effectiveness of SE.
VIEW rESEARCH
RESOURCES
Read, listen, watch, use. Our Resources section offers important content in different media on how professionals are using SE and Crisis Stabilization and Safety tools such as SCOPE.
VIEW RESOURCES
ABOUT OUR FOUNDER
Dr. Peter A. Levine received his Ph.D. in medical biophysics from the University of California in Berkeley and also holds a doctorate in psychology from International University. He has worked in the field of stress and trauma for over 40 years and is the developer of the Somatic Experiencing® method. Peter’s original contribution to the field of Body-Psychotherapy was honored in 2010 when he received the Lifetime Achievement award from the United States Association for Body Psychotherapy (USABP).
That same year he also received the honorary Reis Davis Chair in Child Psychiatry for his innovative contribution to therapy for children and adolescents.
Events with Dr. Levine
WAKING THE TIGER
The image of the tiger was invoked by Dr. Peter A. Levine during his first session with “Nancy,” who suffered from an array of symptoms, in an event that would define and shape his career. Without warning, Nancy suddenly froze, her pulse skyrocketing as she began reliving the moments before a traumatic childhood surgery, including being bound and anesthetized with ether. “I’m going to die! Please don’t let me die!” she repeated, helplessly. Amidst this chaos, Dr. Levine was compelled, by a seemingly prescient vision of a charging tiger, to say: “Nancy, you're being chased by a tiger. Run! Run for the nearest tree!” It was at this moment, as Nancy began kicking her feet, that Dr. Levine first witnessed the human animal’s innate ability to heal from shock and terror by completing the instinctual, self-protective act that had been overwhelmed and frozen into her body’s nervous system, over 20 years earlier.
On repeated follow up, this single session had a dramatic impact on Nancy's life, including the dissolution of her agoraphobia, cessation of her migraines, and a renewed, sustained vigor in living. The tiger has become a symbol of our aliveness, our innate nature.
BEST SELLING AUTHOR
Dr. Levine is the author of the best-selling book Waking the Tiger: Healing Trauma, which was published in 24 languages and sold over 250,000 copies. His other published work includes:
About somatic therapy
Trauma leaves a strong imprint, both on our personal life and on the whole human segregation in general. Of course, the reality of trauma is constantly being redefined in various social approaches, politics, education, health care and mental health. But what is surprising is that when they talk about it, they always seem to miss the most important component of psychic trauma. It is pain, mental pain, and often physical pain.
When we write books, formulate approaches, give lectures, we fill our concepts with words all the time and thus distance ourselves from the immediate reality, from reality.
We constantly think in words, speak in words, create abstract ideas that fit into some kind of linguistic constructions that fit information.
A word-based theoretical framework is of course very important for us to understand the essence of the issue, it allows us to better understand, see the big picture and navigate the subject, but it takes us very far from seeing a real person with a real psychological trauma. How can we help a person if we are based solely on abstract ideas, knowledge and theories, we are distracted from the living details of human existence?
Feelings are the most immediate reality of human existence, therefore, without a balance of verbal and non-verbal methods of psychotherapy, real psychotherapy is impossible. When we talk about the verbal aspect, about verbal psychotherapy, we are talking about only one aspect of our existence - this is the semantic aspect. But it is no secret that in trauma the semantic centers are not activated and do not participate in the processing of experience.
Therefore, it is very important to include in trauma therapy such parts of experience as images, feelings and sensations, and not just ideas that distance us from the real experience of experiencing trauma.
In psychotherapeutic attitudes that focus primarily on words, thinking, discussing the situation, in these attitudes we remain on the surface levels, so the trauma may not be resolved. In my experience, I often come across the fact that people come with surprise that after several years of therapy, the trauma remains. This all comes from the fact that the emphasis in their therapy was on the logical, verbal, thought process.
Absolutely no attention was paid to sensations, a holistic approach to trauma therapy, to reducing stress and restoring self-regulation functions.
The central idea of somatic experience is the idea of integration. And, as you know, it is integration that lies at the heart of our existence, our entire existence is based on this.
The integration of the various parts of our experience links the various elements of our being into a functional whole. Integrating the various elements of our experience. We become more flexible, more adaptive, more adequate, we have more energy and more stability. Without this integration, our stream of consciousness becomes distant from our experience. From reality, makes us more rigid, more chaotic.
Therefore, trauma can only be considered in an integrative approach.
Post-traumatic states are distinguished precisely by rigidity and disorder in relationships, boundaries, in thoughts and in relationships with oneself. People in these states stop spontaneously reacting to circumstances and act according to patterns that preserve their energy and protect them from events that are dangerous from their point of view: limit social connections, interfere with risk and creativity.
By means of combining, linking, integrating the various parts of our experience within our perception, awareness, we develop greater coherence and harmony in our activity, link the work of our hemispheres.
And thus, we have a greater awareness of what we are doing. Mindfulness, in turn, starts the process of self-healing, which is blocked after trauma.
The process of self-healing is our natural ability, it is important to release this process and give it the opportunity to influence us. This is the goal of trauma therapy, to start the processes of self-regulation and self-healing. By doing so, we release a free flow of energy within our body.
This, of course, affects both the quality of our life and the quality of our mental activity.
Restoring the process of self-perception, a person restores not only the freedom of his body, not only releases his muscles, but all this affects his behavior, the functioning of internal organs, interaction with other people, his activity. Thus, his consciousness becomes more open and accepting, if you like, more loving and warm, which naturally cannot but affect the quality of a person's life and his destiny.
Therefore, another feature of somatic therapy is empathic communication, that is, the entire psychotherapeutic process is built on a relationship of trust and respect. This is very important, because any work with the body in psychotherapy involves a fairly high, critical level of intimacy between the therapist and the client. It is because of this that the awakening body awakens our consciousness, following the wisdom of the body awakens mental wisdom.
Thus, the fundamental principle of somatic therapy is addressing the body simultaneously with a general awareness of oneself in the "here and now" and through the integration of various parts of experience. Through this principle, healing becomes possible.
Through this accepting awareness, opening, nonjudgmental attention, exploratory attitude towards life, our consciousness can move from chaos and rigidity to coordinated functioning with the body. Such awareness of one’s body, or somatic experience, is capable of immersing a person in archetypal states of self-healing, fullness of energy, activity, without including those usual psychological defense mechanisms that interfere with experience and interfere with a person’s inclusion in life, interfere with spontaneous response to circumstances.
Moreover, thinking with its defense mechanisms often simply cannot realize the somatic state, cannot realize feelings and needs, since they are very closely connected with sensations.
Recently, we have forgotten this most important factor in human well-being and health - the relationship of bodily sensations, physical condition and psychological health. Fortunately, modern science has again turned to the central role of the body in creating emotions and meanings, and therefore needs, because it is the body that is the source of all this. It is the body that resonates with our emotional state and reflects it, so it would be completely unfair to forget that our psyche is corporeal.
These aspects are taken into account by somatic therapy, therefore the focus of its work is the so-called somatic consciousness, the integration of all elements of human experience. This is a very good practical, effective tool in healing trauma.
Excerpt from the book Step Out of the Past.
Trauma Psychotherapy Manual
Author: Sviridkina Tatyana Leonidovna
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what is somatic therapy – HEROINE
It is not in vain that scientists advise you to cope with stress through movement - this not only releases endorphins, but can also help you work through your emotions. Somatic therapy is based on this belief. We will tell you what you need to know about the psychotherapeutic practice that treats mental problems through the body.
What is Somatic Therapy
Somatic therapy is a form of psychotherapy practice that combines talking therapy with physical methods. It is based on the idea that the mind, body, and emotions are inextricably linked and cannot be considered one in isolation from the other. According to proponents of somatic therapy, stress from past emotional trauma affects the central nervous system and can cause changes in the body.
Sometimes this is reflected in the person's body language. The simplest example is slouching, which is associated with constriction, the desire to hide, isolation.
Somatic therapists imply that this also works the other way around: if you get rid of chronic tension and learn to feel your body, then this will help to cope with mental problems. The goal of therapy is to help a person get rid of stress and pain with the help of various physical practices.
The belief that trauma or any psychological state exists solely in the "mind" is false. Every thought and impression is a complete experience of mind and body. You cannot have one without the other.
, naturopath Brad Lichtenstein tells HelloGiggles.
As an example, the expert suggests trying to get angry without tensing a single muscle or thinking about the subject of anger - this is almost impossible.
Thus, we realize that by changing our posture, muscle tension and breathing, we can change our emotional and cognitive state.
- notes Liechtenstein.
Stanley Kaleman and Peter Levin are considered the founders of somatic therapy. They were among the first to consider the mental trauma of a person as a result of his inability to cope with stress and an attempt to escape from it.
Problems Physical Therapy Can Help With
Physical therapy can help people suffering from stress, anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder and other mental problems. According to Brad Lichtenstein, the benefit of somatic therapy is that it can sometimes help avoid re-triggering of trauma. One way to treat victims of PTSD in psychotherapy is to help the person replay the traumatic event and relive it in a safer environment. This method is effective, but painful for the patient. Somatic therapy can alleviate the condition of a person in cases where he is not ready to talk about trauma at all.
People suffering from chronic pain, eating disorders and other physical conditions that are difficult to respond to conventional treatment can also benefit from somatic therapy.
Somatic therapy is applied both individually and in a group format.
Read Related: Smell Healing: Does Aromatherapy Work According to Science
How Somatic Therapy Works
Somatic therapy can be integrated into other psychotherapeutic practices. The sessions are different. For example, they begin with talking therapy, during which the specialist discusses with the patient his traumatic experiences and draws attention to the physical reactions with which the patient accompanies the story of them. To alleviate the state provoked by traumatic memories, the therapist offers the patient physical practices: meditation, breathing exercises. There are also many ancillary physical techniques that can be used as somatic therapy - yoga, dance therapy, massage, acupuncture, tai chi and other body practices. The main thing is that all of them provide not just physical relaxation, but teach you to listen to your body, sensations and emotions that arise in response to movements.
