Mission
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Melbourne Integrative Psychotherapy & Counselling
Somatic Experiencing
Tiger, Tiger Burning Bright
SE does not focus on talking about or re-living trauma. SE works at the physiological level where traumatic activation is held in the body. Often, clients have had therapy to deal with their traumas and still have symptoms, physically, emotionally, and relationally. Or perhaps they have symptoms and don’t know why. Dr. Peter Levine found that by processing the body and guiding the discharge of stored energy in the body then homeostasis of the nervous system occurred and symptoms resolved. This seems to be the missing piece in trauma resolution, no matter how severe.
Key Concepts
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SE stabilises the client in a safe, resourced state before working with any traumatic material. An environment of relative safety is necessary for healing to occur.
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SE tracks the bodily “felt sense,” to allow the highly aroused survival energies to be safely experienced and gradually discharged leading to completion and self-regulation of the nervous system. Sensations such as warmth, trembling, expansion and contraction, softening and tightening are experienced. This helps people “renegotiate” and heal rather than relive or re-enact trauma
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SE integrates and expands a person’s tolerance of their bodily sensations and helps them to trust in the innate wisdom of the body, and begins to separate out, the fear and terror experienced during the event. In so doing a person’s capacity for self-regulation is enhanced.
-
SE “titrates” experience, working slowly within the client’s range of resiliency to facilitate the most efficient healing recovery rather than causing re-arousal of intense emotional states or painful physical discomfort.
-
SE works peripherally with the activation. Work begins away from the area of greatest discomfort, or the traumatic event is approached from what occurred before and after the primary core of that event. This allows a reduction of the bound charge and an increase in stability to tolerate the strong sensations and emotions contained in the apex of the event.
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SE “pendulates” the experience by first helping the client to recognise and expand their internal, external and missing resources. As activation increases the client can switch between working with the aroused and activated state back to their resourced state and not fall into the sensation of overwhelm.
-
SE works in the here and now and focuses on the sensations and body memories and resources occurring in the present.
Melbourne Integrative Psychotherapy & Counselling
Somatic Experiencing
Tiger, Tiger Burning Bright
SE does not focus on talking about or re-living trauma. SE works at the physiological level where traumatic activation is held in the body. Often, clients have had therapy to deal with their traumas and still have symptoms, physically, emotionally, and relationally. Or perhaps they have symptoms and don’t know why. Dr. Peter Levine found that by processing the body and guiding the discharge of stored energy in the body then homeostasis of the nervous system occurred and symptoms resolved. This seems to be the missing piece in trauma resolution, no matter how severe.
Key Concepts
-
SE stabilises the client in a safe, resourced state before working with any traumatic material. An environment of relative safety is necessary for healing to occur.
-
SE tracks the bodily “felt sense,” to allow the highly aroused survival energies to be safely experienced and gradually discharged leading to completion and self-regulation of the nervous system. Sensations such as warmth, trembling, expansion and contraction, softening and tightening are experienced. This helps people “renegotiate” and heal rather than relive or re-enact trauma
-
SE integrates and expands a person’s tolerance of their bodily sensations and helps them to trust in the innate wisdom of the body, and begins to separate out, the fear and terror experienced during the event. In so doing a person’s capacity for self-regulation is enhanced.
-
SE “titrates” experience, working slowly within the client’s range of resiliency to facilitate the most efficient healing recovery rather than causing re-arousal of intense emotional states or painful physical discomfort.
-
SE works peripherally with the activation. Work begins away from the area of greatest discomfort, or the traumatic event is approached from what occurred before and after the primary core of that event. This allows a reduction of the bound charge and an increase in stability to tolerate the strong sensations and emotions contained in the apex of the event.
-
SE “pendulates” the experience by first helping the client to recognise and expand their internal, external and missing resources. As activation increases the client can switch between working with the aroused and activated state back to their resourced state and not fall into the sensation of overwhelm.
-
SE works in the here and now and focuses on the sensations and body memories and resources occurring in the present.
Melbourne Integrative Psychotherapy & Counselling
Somatic Experiencing
Tiger, Tiger Burning Bright
SE does not focus on talking about or re-living trauma. SE works at the physiological level where traumatic activation is held in the body. Often, clients have had therapy to deal with their traumas and still have symptoms, physically, emotionally, and relationally. Or perhaps they have symptoms and don’t know why. Dr. Peter Levine found that by processing the body and guiding the discharge of stored energy in the body then homeostasis of the nervous system occurred and symptoms resolved. This seems to be the missing piece in trauma resolution, no matter how severe.
Key Concepts
-
SE stabilises the client in a safe, resourced state before working with any traumatic material. An environment of relative safety is necessary for healing to occur.
-
SE tracks the bodily “felt sense,” to allow the highly aroused survival energies to be safely experienced and gradually discharged leading to completion and self-regulation of the nervous system. Sensations such as warmth, trembling, expansion and contraction, softening and tightening are experienced. This helps people “renegotiate” and heal rather than relive or re-enact trauma
-
SE integrates and expands a person’s tolerance of their bodily sensations and helps them to trust in the innate wisdom of the body, and begins to separate out, the fear and terror experienced during the event. In so doing a person’s capacity for self-regulation is enhanced.
-
SE “titrates” experience, working slowly within the client’s range of resiliency to facilitate the most efficient healing recovery rather than causing re-arousal of intense emotional states or painful physical discomfort.
-
SE works peripherally with the activation. Work begins away from the area of greatest discomfort, or the traumatic event is approached from what occurred before and after the primary core of that event. This allows a reduction of the bound charge and an increase in stability to tolerate the strong sensations and emotions contained in the apex of the event.
-
SE “pendulates” the experience by first helping the client to recognise and expand their internal, external and missing resources. As activation increases the client can switch between working with the aroused and activated state back to their resourced state and not fall into the sensation of overwhelm.
-
SE works in the here and now and focuses on the sensations and body memories and resources occurring in the present.
Melbourne Integrative Psychotherapy & Counselling
Somatic Experiencing
Somatic Experiencing is a somatic trauma psychotherapy model that focuses on the activation of the autonomic nervous system, physiological survival responses and processes in the body when experiencing a traumatic event or threat to life. Somatic Experiencing arose from Peter Levine's seminal research of studying animals in the wild when under threat from predators and the instinctual biological processes to survive. He then applied these principles to human beings when experiencing potential life threat, and the normal physiological activation for survival in the face of life/death experiences. By understanding the trauma physiology, activation cycles that is encoded on the nervous system and by processing these cycles through titration & pendulation- guiding the body's natural impulses to process the traumatic events without overwhelming the system, it then supports the nervous system to return to a state of homeostasis and reduction in symptomology. Often clients have experienced psychological talk-based therapy for many years, however they may feel as if there is something that is still unresolved, although it is difficult to articulate or verbalise this - thing and that is, due in part to the trauma physiology that lies within their bodies that has not been processed towards resolution and integration.
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Somatic Experiencing tracks the bodily-felt sensations - sensing into the high arousal states of energy in a safe therapeutic environment, the stored energy is discharged and released.
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Somatic Experiencing expands a person's tolerance of their bodily sensations and to trust the innate wisdom of the body to differentiate between - states of anxiety, fear, terror, rage or collapse and work towards a re-negotiation of emotional states that encompasses expression of energetic life forces.
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Somatic Experiencing titrates experiences working within the client’s capacity to facilitate optimal healing and recovery, rather than activating intense emotional states or painful physical discomfort.
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Somatic Experiencing pendulates the experience by enabling the client to recognise and expand their internal/external resources which could also lead to revealing unknown or under-utilised resources to support their recovery towards more embodied self.
Sharon has trained in Somatic Experiencing, with Somatic Experiencing Australia.
