What is Somatic Experiencing®

Somatic Experiencing® (SE) is a counseling approach that helps to resolve and heal trauma. Peter Levine, Ph.D. has worked in the field of trauma resolution for over 45 years. He discovered that animals in the wild have a natural and instinctive way of managing traumatic events. When the physical body gets stressed as a result of a perceived threat, the survival instincts take over in the form of a fight or flight response. It is critical to clarify that the individual’s perception is what determines whether there is the experience of threat, therefore triggering the survival response.

If the body is not able to express the fight or flight energy, the nervous system enters a state of freeze. This often happens when an event takes place almost instantaneously, allowing no time for a response. This results in the survival energy becoming “locked” or frozen into the nervous system. This is where the phrase “frozen in our tracks” comes from. In nature, animals are able to release this energy once the threat has passed by allowing their bodies to complete the threat response cycle and discharging the excess energy from the nervous system.

We humans also have this capacity to discharge survival energy once the threat has passed. You may recall a time of being shaky after a near miss from a potential car accident. However, with our advanced analytical brain – the frontal lobe – humans are able to repress this natural process of releasing this activated survival energy. For example, when we trip and fall and twist an ankle, we are inclined to get up and dust ourselves off, to keep moving along, as if nothing happened. As a result, the energy created by the adrenaline surge from the event remains stuck in the nervous system and will lead to complications in the healing of the ankle. This phenomenon is very common in car accidents. As a result of the suddenness and intensity of the impact, the individual is in a mild or moderate state of shock, which is essentially a state of freeze.