Somatic Experiencing is a naturalistic method for resolving post-traumatic stress responses. Somatic Experiencing is based on ethological observations of animals in the wild, which use innate homeostatic mechanisms to regulate and neutralize the high levels of arousal associated with defensive survival strategies.

Animals living in the wild have retained the ability to discharge extremely high levels of energy once the danger has passed, allowing their life energy to flow freely again. Humans possess the same capacity for discharge, although it can be significantly inhibited by our highly developed intellect.

As a result, accumulated survival energy can remain trapped in the system and become bound in the form of trauma symptoms. Through Somatic Experiencing, this bound survival energy can be released, creating an essential foundation for healing trauma and relieving its symptoms.

Somatic Experiencing is a body-oriented therapeutic approach aimed at providing lasting relief from the effects of shock and trauma. In a focused and mindful way, the body’s own healing impulses are supported, helping to restore psychological stability and open up new ways of experiencing and responding while resolving trauma symptoms.

The focus is on the present moment, strengthening personal resources and the connection to oneself.

In Somatic Experiencing, particular attention is given to building and strengthening supportive resources that can help a person cope with the traumatic experience itself (resource orientation). Somatic Experiencing specifically identifies resources tailored to the individual elements of the trauma.

These resources are stabilized and brought into a kind of dialogue with the traumatic event through a process known as pendulation, allowing a new inner experience to emerge and the energy bound within the nervous system to gradually release. Equally important is carefully regulating the intensity of stress throughout the therapeutic process, a process known as titration.

On the one hand, it is necessary to gently approach aspects of the trauma in order to release bound energy. On the other hand, too much contact with the trauma can recreate the original sense of overwhelm. Retraumatization is therefore avoided through a gentle, gradual approach.

The client learns to perceive and regulate the intensity of the experience, allowing client and practitioner to work together while remaining within a manageable range of traumatic activation.

Therapy is primarily conducted through conversation. Attention is given to the language of sensations and to bodily awareness, allowing the brain and nervous system as a whole to become part of the healing process. It is possible to work without directly recalling traumatizing situations.

The therapy focuses on the symptoms of trauma and follows what the body and nervous system reveal.Awareness, mindfulness, and a gradual pace enable highly detailed and focused trauma processing, with effects that can be felt directly in emotional experience, conscious awareness, and the balance of the autonomic nervous system. Regulation of the nervous system can in turn influence muscle tone throughout the body, circulation, and clarity of awareness.

The method is designed to support the body’s natural self-healing processes. Dr. Peter Levine compares trauma healing through Somatic Experiencing to peeling an onion: only as many layers are peeled away as the nervous system can tolerate, until it is stable and strong enough for the core of the trauma to emerge.