Body-oriented Schock-Trauma Therapy: Somatic Experiencing®
Somatic Experiencing – Overview
Somatic Experiencing® (SE) is a modern trauma therapy approach. The method is a body-oriented approach to resolving post-traumatic stress and treating post-traumatic stress disorder. SE has been developed since the 1970s by trauma researcher and therapist Dr. Peter Levine.
Somatic Experiencing is characterized by a particularly gentle approach. Reliving the traumatic situation is not necessary. The aim of the method is to gently release survival energy stuck in the body by noticing bodily sensations and completing impulses for action. By gradually releasing the energy held in the body, symptoms can be resolved and a sense of well-being restored.
Overview
For which topics is Somatic Experiencing suitable?
Origin of trauma related syndroms
Traumatic situations (so-called shock trauma) are situations in which it was objectively or subjectively about survival. In such survival and shock situations, the emotional states are often so unbearable that they are split off from consciousness.
Shock trauma results from the body’s and nervous system’s response to the event: the shock event triggers a high level of activation to allow for either fight or flight. If this high activation is not released, the energy can remain bound in the nervous system and lead to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD / trauma symptoms) symptoms (see below).
“Trauma is in the nervous system and body, and not in the event. …
Trauma is a highly activated incomplete biological response to threat, frozen in time.”
Somatic experiencing: using interoception and proprioception as core elements of trauma therapy
Somatic Experiencing aims to restore the natural self-regulation in the nervous system that has been lost as a result of the shock of the traumatic situation. To this end, the trauma therapeutic approach of SE aims to overcome the psychological and physiological consequences of trauma:
- Psychological consequences of trauma:
Emotional states that arose during the trauma are made accessible again to consciousness. They become perceptible and tangible again and are then processed in small steps. - Physiological consequences of the trauma:
High states of excitement remaining in the body or in the nervous system, which arose in the traumatic situation, are gradually discharged or metabolized at the level of the body.
SE is a method for dealing with stress states based on shock trauma and can be used as a complementary method for developmental trauma or complex traumatisation:
Trauma Symptoms / Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
Trauma symptoms relate to a previous event. Such an event can be conscious – and the memory forces itself on unintentionally. However, some events are also unaware of them. Traumatic events in early childhood in particular are often not accessible to memory.
Symptoms of trauma-related disorders include:
- Intrusive memories / Images / Flashbacks
- Nightmares
- Avoidance of certain situations
- Physical states of overarousal
- Unexplained bodily symptoms
- Depressive moods
- Withdrawal from social contact
Post-Traumatic Stress (PTSD) as a result of single shock events
- Accidents (e.g. car, motorcycle or bicycle accidents, falls)
- Experiences of physical violence / crimes
- War experiences
- Surgery (e.g. insufficient anaesthesia)
- Natural disasters
- Drowning
- Severe turns in the life history (diagnosis of an illness, job loss, divorce, etc.)
Complex traumatizations (complex PTSD) as a result both of shock and developmental trauma
- Difficult childhood experiences
- Experiences of abandonment / loneliness in childhood (e.g. hospitalisation without a care-giver)
- Childhood abuse/violence
- sexualized violence
- Loss of a parent or other important caregiver
- Shock experiences in general (see above) in essential development phases (childhood)
Complex traumas often require the use of different methods in order to deal with the combination of shock and developmental trauma.
How does a Somatic Experiencing session work?
Safe setting and safe contact
Somatic Experiencing sessions take place in a particularly safe setting. Secure social contact creates the safety to address difficult topics. The starting point of a session is either a concrete trauma (i.e. the event is known) or a symptom, a typical trauma consequence. The aim is to change the current experience and the evaluation of the event – without going into the details of the event.
Gradual, gentle approach
The SE approach works gently and gradually. Reliving the situation or acting out intense emotions are expressly not required. Rather, the discharge takes place in small, easily processable steps.
Somatic Experiencing is a gentle approach to dealing with post-traumatic stress. A renewed reliving is avoided by proceeding cautiously.
Body and mind as one
As in other body psychotherapy procedures, in an SE session the topic is explored less through conversations and more through consideration of the physical experience. Cognitive transformation (new insights, new beliefs, new consideration of the past) often comes at the end of a chain that starts with changing sensations, emotions and body awareness and movement.
In a Somatic Experiencing session, thoughts and emotions are transformed through working with the body.
Tools
The aim of the Somatic Experiencing method is the gentle discharge of high energy states / stress levels that are stuck in the body due to unprocessed traumatic experiences.
- Resource work – making resources tangible in the body
- Self regulation – Supporting the development of self-regulation skills to manage stress and anxiety
- Tracking body sensations – sense how your body sensations change moment by moment
- Titration – Gentle discharge of trauma energies
- Pendulation – between resource and stress condition in order to process the conditions well.
- Completing self-protective responses – work with action impulses hat were thwarted during the traumatic event and gently work on completing them
- Building resilience and coping strategies to better handle future situations and trauma triggers.
