SE supports us in remaining with our felt experience, free from fear, and discovering new, more grounded ways of moving through life
Somatic Experiencing (SE) is a body-based approach to healing trauma and stress. Unlike approaches that focus solely on thoughts or memories, SE works with the body’s natural ability to regulate and release tension. Trauma and chronic stress can become “stuck” in the nervous system, leading to patterns of overwhelm, hypervigilance, or dissociation. SE gently supports the nervous system to complete these interrupted responses, helping restore a natural sense of safety, balance, and resilience. This process allows people to feel more grounded, connected, and at ease in their daily lives.
This approach was developed by Peter Levine, whose pioneering work highlighted how trauma is physiologically held in the body. By learning to track subtle sensations, movements, and shifts in the body, individuals can support the completion of incomplete defensive responses such as gestures, movements, unspoken words, or sounds, that were never fully expressed during the original event. As Levine writes, “Trauma is not what happens to us, but what we hold inside in the aftermath of what happened.” Through SE, the body can gradually release these held experiences, fostering healing, resilience, and a renewed sense of aliveness.
SE is valuable in supporting recovery from a wide range of experiences, including early adversity, abuse and neglect, blocked grief, medical and surgical trauma, car accidents, chronic fatigue and related syndromes, long Covid, generalised anxiety, and depression.
Somatic Experiencing (SE) is a body-based approach to healing trauma and stress. Unlike approaches that focus solely on thoughts or memories, SE works with the body’s natural ability to regulate and release tension. Trauma and chronic stress can become “stuck” in the nervous system, leading to patterns of overwhelm, hypervigilance, or dissociation. SE gently supports the nervous system to complete these interrupted responses, helping restore a natural sense of safety, balance, and resilience. This process allows people to feel more grounded, connected, and at ease in their daily lives.
This approach was developed by Peter Levine, whose pioneering work highlighted how trauma is physiologically held in the body. By learning to track subtle sensations, movements, and shifts in the body, individuals can support the completion of incomplete defensive responses such as gestures, movements, unspoken words, or sounds, that were never fully expressed during the original event. As Levine writes, “Trauma is not what happens to us, but what we hold inside in the aftermath of what happened.” Through SE, the body can gradually release these held experiences, fostering healing, resilience, and a renewed sense of aliveness.
SE is valuable in supporting recovery from a wide range of experiences, including early adversity, abuse and neglect, blocked grief, medical and surgical trauma, car accidents, chronic fatigue and related syndromes, long Covid, generalised anxiety, and depression.
SE supports us in remaining with our felt experience, free from fear, and discovering new, more grounded ways of moving through life