Somatic Experiencing (SE) ...
Somatic Trauma Resolution (STR) ...
Self-Regulatory & Body-Centered Experiencing ...
somatic so·mat·ic (sō-māt'ĭk) adj.
1- Of, relating to, or affecting the body, especially as distinguished from a body part, the mind, or the environment; corporeal or physical.
2- Of or relating to the wall of the body cavity, especially as distinguished from the head, limbs, or viscera.
These are all different names for a technique (Somatic Experiencing - originally developed by Peter Levine, Ph.D.) and its spin-offs (taught by different teachers - in different schools), but the concept is the same: the re-regulation of the nervous system as an integrated body/mind approach to healing. Simply put: SE & STR deal with the impact of the event on the nervous system. It is a short term therapy!
Somatic Experiencing (SE), Somatic Trauma Resolution (STR) means that this work is NOT about words, story, or meaning of the story; rather, it is about focusing and tracking the (somatic/physical) sensations felt/experienced in the body! By telling our story over and over again, it rarely resolves anything at a body level, or it would take *7 times as long because the trauma is stuck in the body - and not the mind!
* The language of sensation is 7 times slower than the neo-cortex ("mind").
Self-Regulating & Body-Centered Experiencing is the trusting of our body’s self-regulating intelligence and its innate ability to heal. Body-centered experiencing is the grounded experiencing of our bodily sensations in relations to thoughts, images, metaphors, memories and other information we connect to, as we scan what type of charge might be present in our system … so that it may then be discharged and let go from the body! This work is not about the intellectual or rational story; rather, it is body-centered, as we listen to what the body has to say and wants to do, as opposed to transcend or bypassing it.
SE & STR bypass both the intellectual and emotional brain to deal with the part which governs our nervous system and our fight/flight/freeze responses: the reptilian brain! In the same way WORDS are the language of the frontal brain (intellectual/rational), SENSATIONS are the language of our hind brain (instinctive/reptilian). And THAT is why we want to keep the words simple, using the mind to observe the sensations (and out of the story) - keeping this work grounded in the body ... because that is where we hold our stress/shock/trauma!
The goal of SE & STR is to re-regulate the nervous system, keeping the work grounded - in the body - as this is a body/mind approach! The work is gentle, and avoids big dives into the emotional and meaning aspects of what happened. Trauma happens when our system gets overloaded: when we experience shock/trauma, the ‘charge’ happens in the body and remains there until we are able to ‘discharge’ it on a physical (somatic) level. By communicating with our nervous system through our hind (reptilian) brain (the language of it being ‘sensations & instincts’), we are allowing the body to let go of traumas in a safe and gentle way … layer by layer, as trauma cannot be resolved just by talking alone! As we track the discharges happening in your system, trusting your body’s own self-regulating intelligence, memories might come up as well as answers, metaphors, new and/or suppressed sensations, breathing might change, etc…
TRAUMA is just another word for overwhelm!!! Trauma manifests when the fight/flight response(s) were uncompleted and its energy undischarged ... remaining in the system where it wreaks chaos (just like a child crying out for attention). EX: When you have an indigestion of food: you can feel the sensations telling you your digestive system is not happy, you ate too much and/or can't seem to digest what you ingested earlier. The sensations are 'in your face' ... and because we are so used to recognizing them, they're hard to ignore. Well ... the same goes for trauma: the body/nervous system can only handle so much at a time, and all those symptoms you have been experiencing are just residual trauma-bound energy trapped in your system.
Stress, developmental trauma, and shock trauma are different categories of overwhelm, and of course, there are sub-categories in each of them as well. SE & STR are techniques that help the body release and discharge the excess trauma-bound energy locked in your system: which in turn helps the nervous-system re-regulate.
Some examples of symptoms and emotions that can be helped with an SE or STR approach are PTSD/PTSR*, cumulative stress, insomnia, falls, grief, anger, addiction, fears, and many MANY more. Remember, it’s not about the intensity of the shock/trauma experienced, but rather how intensely the shock/trauma affected your nervous system!
* ‘PTSD = Post Traumatic Stress Disorder’ should be changed to ‘PTSR = Post Traumatic Stress Response’ because your symptoms are a normal response to what happened to you (in an abnormal circumstance) and they are NOT a ‘disorder’!”
– Peter Levine, Ph.D.
In life, everything has a polarity (an opposite). Think of male & female, positive & negative, day & night, life & death, hope & despair, hot & cold, joy & grief, black & white ... and so forth: at the very moment trauma happens, as it forms a (trauma) vortex, it also forms a healing vortex along with it. This is what really happens in nature - it is not a metaphor - but can be used as one! SE & STR are based in resourcing: what we are trying to achieve with this work is to build up the resource(s) vortex (aka healing vortex) until it is large enough to "digest" the trauma vortex - it's that simple!
Somatic Trauma Resolution (STR) ...
Self-Regulatory & Body-Centered Experiencing ...
somatic so·mat·ic (sō-māt'ĭk) adj.
1- Of, relating to, or affecting the body, especially as distinguished from a body part, the mind, or the environment; corporeal or physical.
2- Of or relating to the wall of the body cavity, especially as distinguished from the head, limbs, or viscera.
These are all different names for a technique (Somatic Experiencing - originally developed by Peter Levine, Ph.D.) and its spin-offs (taught by different teachers - in different schools), but the concept is the same: the re-regulation of the nervous system as an integrated body/mind approach to healing. Simply put: SE & STR deal with the impact of the event on the nervous system. It is a short term therapy!
Somatic Experiencing (SE), Somatic Trauma Resolution (STR) means that this work is NOT about words, story, or meaning of the story; rather, it is about focusing and tracking the (somatic/physical) sensations felt/experienced in the body! By telling our story over and over again, it rarely resolves anything at a body level, or it would take *7 times as long because the trauma is stuck in the body - and not the mind!
* The language of sensation is 7 times slower than the neo-cortex ("mind").
Self-Regulating & Body-Centered Experiencing is the trusting of our body’s self-regulating intelligence and its innate ability to heal. Body-centered experiencing is the grounded experiencing of our bodily sensations in relations to thoughts, images, metaphors, memories and other information we connect to, as we scan what type of charge might be present in our system … so that it may then be discharged and let go from the body! This work is not about the intellectual or rational story; rather, it is body-centered, as we listen to what the body has to say and wants to do, as opposed to transcend or bypassing it.
SE & STR bypass both the intellectual and emotional brain to deal with the part which governs our nervous system and our fight/flight/freeze responses: the reptilian brain! In the same way WORDS are the language of the frontal brain (intellectual/rational), SENSATIONS are the language of our hind brain (instinctive/reptilian). And THAT is why we want to keep the words simple, using the mind to observe the sensations (and out of the story) - keeping this work grounded in the body ... because that is where we hold our stress/shock/trauma!
The goal of SE & STR is to re-regulate the nervous system, keeping the work grounded - in the body - as this is a body/mind approach! The work is gentle, and avoids big dives into the emotional and meaning aspects of what happened. Trauma happens when our system gets overloaded: when we experience shock/trauma, the ‘charge’ happens in the body and remains there until we are able to ‘discharge’ it on a physical (somatic) level. By communicating with our nervous system through our hind (reptilian) brain (the language of it being ‘sensations & instincts’), we are allowing the body to let go of traumas in a safe and gentle way … layer by layer, as trauma cannot be resolved just by talking alone! As we track the discharges happening in your system, trusting your body’s own self-regulating intelligence, memories might come up as well as answers, metaphors, new and/or suppressed sensations, breathing might change, etc…
TRAUMA is just another word for overwhelm!!! Trauma manifests when the fight/flight response(s) were uncompleted and its energy undischarged ... remaining in the system where it wreaks chaos (just like a child crying out for attention). EX: When you have an indigestion of food: you can feel the sensations telling you your digestive system is not happy, you ate too much and/or can't seem to digest what you ingested earlier. The sensations are 'in your face' ... and because we are so used to recognizing them, they're hard to ignore. Well ... the same goes for trauma: the body/nervous system can only handle so much at a time, and all those symptoms you have been experiencing are just residual trauma-bound energy trapped in your system.
Stress, developmental trauma, and shock trauma are different categories of overwhelm, and of course, there are sub-categories in each of them as well. SE & STR are techniques that help the body release and discharge the excess trauma-bound energy locked in your system: which in turn helps the nervous-system re-regulate.
Some examples of symptoms and emotions that can be helped with an SE or STR approach are PTSD/PTSR*, cumulative stress, insomnia, falls, grief, anger, addiction, fears, and many MANY more. Remember, it’s not about the intensity of the shock/trauma experienced, but rather how intensely the shock/trauma affected your nervous system!
* ‘PTSD = Post Traumatic Stress Disorder’ should be changed to ‘PTSR = Post Traumatic Stress Response’ because your symptoms are a normal response to what happened to you (in an abnormal circumstance) and they are NOT a ‘disorder’!”
– Peter Levine, Ph.D.
In life, everything has a polarity (an opposite). Think of male & female, positive & negative, day & night, life & death, hope & despair, hot & cold, joy & grief, black & white ... and so forth: at the very moment trauma happens, as it forms a (trauma) vortex, it also forms a healing vortex along with it. This is what really happens in nature - it is not a metaphor - but can be used as one! SE & STR are based in resourcing: what we are trying to achieve with this work is to build up the resource(s) vortex (aka healing vortex) until it is large enough to "digest" the trauma vortex - it's that simple!
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~ B R E A T H E ~
~ B R E A T H E ~
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