You know you’re safe. Logically, you’ve got the facts straight: the situation is over, the person’s gone, and the danger has passed.
But your body is still acting like it didn’t get that memo.
Maybe you find yourself on high alert in situations that have nothing to do with the past. You might even flinch at a raised voice, a sudden and unexpected (but totally benign) movement, or a certain tone. You might even feel fine sometimes- until you suddenly don’t: you go from “fine enough” to a full-body shutdown out of nowhere, or a wave of shame that you know has nothing to do with what’s happening right now.
In case you’re wondering: no, you’re not being dramatic, and you’re not broken! Your nervous system is still reacting to an old and familiar pattern, and needs help recognizing when it’s okay to let the guard down a little.
Somatic Experiencing (SE) is a body-based approach to trauma developed by Dr. Peter Levine. “Soma” means body, so “somatic experiencing” is based on the idea that trauma doesn’t just live in your thoughts, it also lives in your physiology:
Symptoms like this reflect a nervous system stuck in or super-quickly reactivating a fight, flight, or freeze state long after an actual threat is gone.
SE’s take on trauma responses is that those stress responses get “stuck” when they don’t get to finish what they started, like a fight response that didn’t get to throw a punch or a flight response that never got to bolt and run for cover. Our system holds onto the memory of that incomplete action, and it shows up later as tension, hypervigilance, or shutdown that seems to come out of nowhere.
Here’s what that can look like in the real world:
Let’s say someone- Suzy Randomperson- survived a physical assault by shutting down- something that happens quite often, actually, but she doesn’t know that. Suzy’s too ashamed to tell anyone, afraid she’ll be asked why she didn’t fight back and not be able to answer, because even she doesn’t know.
Years later, her body might still be bracing: chronic tension in her shoulders, her arm flying up when she’s startled, like it’s trying to block a hit that… isn’t coming. She might feel like this is silly or stupid of her, and notice a heavy wave of shame every time she overreacts. The shame can sometimes hit so hard she finds herself almost literally folding over, like her body is trying to protect itself all over again… and she probably feels ashamed of that, too.
None of that is a character flaw, or a sign that proves Suzy did something wrong by not doing enough. Suzy may just be experiencing her memory’s felt sense of an unfinished survival response, still trying to play out.
Emotions and sympathetic nervous system responses are how our bodies keep us alive and as safe as possible, and sometimes not doing is exactly what we need to do to survive. Often, our brain makes the call without waiting for our conscious opinion.
SE works with those stuck responses that keep reappearing when they seem irrelevant. It’s gentle and paced according to each individual’s need, and doesn’t ask or require you to retell the whole story in detail. It brings attention and curiosity to what’s actually happening in the body right now when you recall the event from back then– neck tension? bracing in the chest? breath you didn’t realize you were holding?- and helps those stuck responses finally feel like they did their job.
SE can also be more movement-oriented than standard talk therapy. The arm wants to raise as if to block a punch? We can let it, and see what happens next. Legs suddenly feel a lot of energy, an urge to run? Let ‘em move and notice how the energy shifts.
The freeze gets to thaw.
While SE is often about processing traumatic stuff, a very important part of that is being able to process pleasant or neutral things, too. SE helps you learn or improve your ability to notice what safety, calm, and other ‘positive’ emotions and mood states feel like. Your system might be very good at noticing danger and fear, but let’s also make sure your system can recognize “things are okay in this moment.”
SE helps you learn to “track”- or notice and let your attention follow- changes in various aspects of your experience, such as emotions, the sensations in your body, the type or quality of thoughts going through your mind, etc. The idea is to build your tolerance for all aspects of your experience when you’re not actively in danger, and to strengthen your ability to consciously address difficult experiences.
SE doesn’t expect you to just relax and be chill 25/8, as if nothing dangerous could ever happen. Instead, SE invites you to be curious about what might be possible if you let yourself experience ‘okay-ness’ when it’s present, and trust your fight/flight/freeze response to kick in when it’s truly needed.
SE isn’t talk therapy in the traditional sense, and it’s not quite your typical exposure therapy either. It’s slower, more body-awareness-based, and more about you & your body relearning safety, than it is about learning to face and tolerate the narrative of what happened.
SE tends to be a strong fit if:
SE can be used on its own, but it also pairs well with EMDR and other methods when a more integrated approach makes sense for your particular history.
*chronic fatigue or other chronic symptoms warrant a check-in with your primary care provider. It’s very important to get annual wellness checks and/or sick visits when you have new or newly changed symptoms. For example, thyroid dysfunction can cause depressed mood, and when thyroid or any other organs/hormones are playing a role, medical intervention is vital to check in on. We can’t talk therapy, SE, or EMDR your way out of an under- or over-functioning thyroid!
I’m a Somatic Experiencing Practitioner (SEP™), which means I’ve completed the full three-year SE training, consultation, and have done many of my own SE sessions to experience the method as a client. I work with high-achieving, overthinking, and often neurodivergent women who are tired of white-knuckling their way through recurring triggers and shame spirals.
Clients often start therapy because they want to know why they have certain feelings, thoughts, and knee-jerk reactions that are disrupting their lives- and how to stop them. My approach leans into noticing what a feeling is doing in your body before we start asking why it’s there. And over and over, clients find that- paradoxically- the ‘why’ often shows up on its own once they’ve stopped expecting it upfront. Clients become better able to catch frustration before it becomes an explosion of rage, or name what they need in the moment instead of after the fact.
Format: Individual sessions, in person in Little Rock or virtual across Arkansas.
Session length: 50-minute sessions possible, but longer options are recommended if workable.
Standalone or integrated: SE can be its own focus, worked into ongoing weekly therapy, or built into a trauma intensive if your concerns are workable in a condensed time frame. We can explore best-fit options during your consultation.
Fees: Standard fees apply: $250 per 50-minute session, $375 for 90-minute, $500 for 110-minute session. Intensives start at $1,800.