Somatic Experiencing™ (SE) & SE Touch Work
There are three important principles to SE™:
Trauma does not know time the way our brain’s do! That’s why we can have responses to certain events or people around us that might not totally seem to fit the circumstances. The good news is, that means we can work to heal where these challenges come from now, though they may have happened long ago.
Our bodies know what they need to heal themselves- they are remarkable systems! The challenging part is slowing down and listening to what is needed. Somatic Experiencing™ is a modality in which we work with the messaging from our bodies to renegotiate and release the trauma that has been stuck inside of us.
We need to be able to feel the ‘good’ in our lives, in order to be able to work with challenge. Foundational to SE is the necessity to build the capacity for feeling the good in our lives in order to build the nervous system’s capacity to experience challenge and feel safe navigating and exploring our depths. The idea of trauma work can seem massively intimidating and heavy, but at the end of an SE session, participants often walk away feeling grounded and empowered.
The result of this work is a resilient, flexible nervous system, greater capacity to rest and feel enjoyment in life, and a personal felt sense of safety and security amidst an unpredictable world.
SE Touch Work:
Some Somatic Experiencing sessions also include trauma-informed consensual touch work to support the body’s process of healing. This may be within a seated, more dialogue-based session, or it may be done as a session laying (fully clothed) on a massage table with the intention of focusing wholly on the touch work.
Touch work is a non-manipulative (meaning hands do not stroke, squeeze, or massage the participant) listening touch that allows the body and nervous system to better relax and feel safe, as well as feel and find stuck stories and places held within. This can be highly supportive to help the body’s stories reveal themselves and work themselves out directly, without as much need for the mind’s intervention.
*For cost information- please see Reciprocity page!