What is it????
It is a body-based therapy that renegotiates how trauma sits in the nervous system.
What does this mean for me as a client?
When trauma happens to us at any age, our nervous system has a response. If you hear a car’s screeching tires your body has a response, this is a nervous system response. Fight, flight, freeze or fawn, these are the self-protection responses that can present. So, your heart can race, you feel energy in your legs, your body is getting ready to fight or flea. Or you feel that freeze response you cannot move or speak. Fawning is when you try and make the other person happy to defuse the situation. These responses are important, they happen to keep you safe. But sometimes the response does not get to complete and the energy from that is stored in the nervous system and changes can occur, you can start to be hypervigilant, always on guard, or you startle easily, or have emotions that are unexplained.
Somatic experiencing works with the nervous system through the body to allow the original self-protection response to complete, releasing the stored energy and allowing the system to return to a healthy state. This type of therapy moves slowly, at the speed of the nervous system and allows for integration of the information that you learn from your body. You can be present to process the emotions and the other information that comes up for you. It works whether you have a memory of the event or not.
Things to keep in mind, self-care is important with any kind of therapy, Somatic Experiencing is no exception. You can experience fatigue after treatment, so making sure you drink water, maybe have your favourite tea, a hot shower or bath, having some time to read and rest, these things will be important for after treatment.
Can a session be run online?
Yes absolutely. Here are some of the benefits of having a somatic experience session online. Part of the process of doing the work is building resources and having things in the environment that you find supportive or that bring you joy. If you are at home in a safe space where you feel comfortable this may be more supportive of your nervous system. Being at home allows you to have your own objects that bring you joy ready and available in the room with you during the session. Often after the session is complete there is a level of fatigue, if you are already at home, it is easy to crawl into bed and rest or have a soothing shower and use the things at home to take care of yourself. The session and the benefits of having the session remain the same whether in person or virtually.
