Somatic Experiencing® - Scottsdale, Arizona 85258

Somatic Experiencing

Renegotiating stress and trauma from the past so you can live fully in the present.

Somatic Experiencing (SE) is the groundbreaking work of Dr. Peter Levine, one of Dr. Ida Rolf's early students. He observed that animals in the wild, although routinely subjected to life threats, do not suffer the debilitating after effects that humans often experience as a result of overwhelming experiences or even seemingly benign events such as medical procedures.

Life in nature is dictated by cycles. If they survive, prey animals pause to shake off the intense energies that arise in response to threat. Human beings have the same innate ability to self-regulate, but modern societies no longer allow time for these natural healing sequences to complete. We often find ourselves unable to return to the balanced flow of life after an event.

We survive seemingly unscathed the surgery, fall, car accident, earthquake, etc. and yet have lost a sense of well-being and resiliency. A difficult situation has passed, but our thoughts return over and over to the same old story. We feel "stuck", and that "stuckness" has a physiological basis. Even the joys of life can, at times, be overwhelming.

Palo Verde. SE sessions utilize conversation, tracking of sensation, orientation to the here and now, and sometimes gentle touch to gradually re-establish rhythmic movement in the nervous system leading to deactivation of the stored survival energies of the past. The nervous system responds by expanding and deepening the range in which it can comfortably function.

The gift of trauma is that the very act of surviving and returning to balance leaves us with a greatly increased capacity to be present in our lives.

“Trauma is a fact of life but it doesn't have to be a life sentence.” Peter Levine