Somatic Experiencing (SE™) is a body-oriented therapeutic model developed by dr. Peter Levine, who closely studied stress on the animal nervous system. He came to realize that animals are constantly under threat of death, yet show no symptoms of trauma. What he discovered was that shock trauma has to do with the third survival response to perceived life threat, which is freeze. When fight and flight are not options, both animals and humans freeze and immobilize, like “playing dead.” This makes us less of a target. However, this reaction is time-sensitive, meaning that it needs to run its course, and once the danger passes, the massive energy that was prepared for fight or flight needs to be discharged. Animals do this through shakes and trembling.

If the imobility phase doesn’t complete, then that sympathetic charge stays trapped, and, from the body’s perspective, it is still under threat.

In Somatic Experiencing, the focus is on facilitating the discharge of the energy mobilized for fight or flight and turn off this ‘threat alarm’ that often causes severe dysregulation.

In Somatic Experiencing (SE™), we recognize the body's inherent wisdom in processing the stress and shock resulting from single-time traumatic experiences with clear begining and end.

Unlike traditional therapeutic models, SE places a profound emphasis on the body's role in storing and discharging the energy mobilized during traumatic events.

This approach enables individuals to navigate patterns of fight, flight, or freeze, unlocking the body's natural capacity to release, recover, and become more resilient after single-time traumatic experiences.

Similar to NARM, in Somatic Experiencing we don’t do ‘archaeological digging’ into the client’s life history either. What is important for the therapeutical process will emerge spontaneously as the session unfolds.

Furthermore, there’s no need recall or to share the details of the traumatic experiences you’ve experienced. On the contrary; to avoid the possibility of overwhelming the nervous system, we carefully navigate the stories in the sessions. Rather than talking about what happened, we bring awareness to the internal sensations and bodily impulses in the present moment.

In Somatic Experiencing, the symptoms associated to Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) are seen as consequences of undischarged sympathetic energy that could not find its way out of the system by means of successfully completing a defensive response.

Thus, SE's focus is on completing self-protective motor responses and discharging trapped survival energy stored in the body in the aftermath of traumatic experiences with clear begining and ends (car accidents, falls, unescapable attack, medical procedures, etc.)