What is SE?

SOMATIC EXPERIENCING (SE™) is a powerful psychobiological method for resolving trauma symptoms and releasing chronic stress.  SE was developed by Dr. Peter A. Levine through the study of stress physiology, psychology, ethology, biology, neuroscience, indigenous healing practices, and medical biophysics, brought together into a potent clinical practice. The SE approach releases traumatic shock, which is vital to transforming trauma, PTSD, and the wounds of emotional and early developmental attachment trauma.

The Science of SE

Through his studies, Dr. Levine found that animals in the wild rarely experience trauma despite regularly experiencing threat and yet human beings are often traumatized. Since humans and other animals possess similar brain- and body-based survival mechanisms, Dr. Levine became curious about what was interfering with the human threat-recovery process and began to develop tools for restoring people’s innate capacity to heal following overwhelming experiences.

Although humans are similarly designed to rebound from high-intensity survival states, we often override the natural discharge of excess survival energy. Through rationalizations, judgments, shame, and fear of our bodily sensations, we may disrupt our innate capacity to self-regulate, and thus remain in the cycle of disabling terror and helplessness. When the nervous system does not reset after an overwhelming experience, sleep, cardiac, digestion, respiration, and immune system function can be seriously affected. Unresolved physiological distress can also lead to an array of other physical, cognitive, emotional, and behavioral symptoms.

How Does SE Work?

In SE, we teach that trauma is not caused by the event itself, but rather that it develops through the inability of the body, psyche, and nervous system to process adverse events. SE facilitates the completion of self-protective responses and the release of stuck survival energy in the body, thus addressing the root cause of trauma symptoms. This is approached by gently guiding people to develop increasing tolerance for difficult bodily sensations and suppressed emotions.
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SE does not require the person to re-tell or re-live the traumatic event. Instead, it allows the person to engage, complete, and resolve the body’s instinctual fight, flight, freeze, and collapse responses in a slow, supported way.  People locked in anxiety or rage can then relax into an increasing sense of peace and safety. Those stuck in depression can find their feelings of hopelessness and numbness transformed into empowerment and life force. SE activates corrective bodily experiences that contradict those of fear and helplessness. This resets the nervous system to restore inner balance, enhance resiliency, and increase vitality, equanimity, and capacity to actively engage in life.