Reclaim your authentic self and rejoice with aliveness
"the body, with its innate capacity to heal, melts the iceberg created by deeply frozen trauma." — Peter A. Levine
What is Somatic Experiencing?
Somatic Experiencing is a body-centered approach to healing trauma. Unlike traditional psychotherapy, it does not define trauma as a memory of the past; it treats trauma as a “freeze” in the nervous system in the present moment. Do you feel like you don’t have access to your full expression? Have you ever felt like a zombie living day to day without a sense of joy? Chances are your nervous system shut down at one point in order to protect you, just as how animals freeze their bodies when they sense a threat. But whereas animals can typically shake off their fears and come back to a regulated state, humans have more difficulty returning to homeostasis. The brain’s alarm system can stay on even after the threat has passed, resulting in a prolonged sense of hypervigilance and fatigue. Somatic Experiencing helps the body to come out of such a freeze by allowing your system to complete the movement it wanted to make in the moment of threat. It thaws the nervous system back to health so that the body can feel fully alive again, thus reclaiming its life force and awakening you from trauma’s deep slumber.
"I believe not only that trauma is curable, but that the healing process can be a catalyst for profound awakening—a portal opening to emotional and genuine spiritual transformation." — Peter A. Levine
What does a session look like?
A Somatic Experiencing journey can feel like entering a labyrinth. You first gather all your resources before taking your first steps—your favorite memory, a soft blanket on your lap, energetic connection to a nature spot, ancestral spirits or just noticing the strength in your legs—anything that make you feel safer before entering. The therapist will use these resources to make sure your nervous system is calm enough to enter.
Then the journey begins. You might be asked to recall your most recent trigger. Maybe your friend got a cute, fluffy puppy but when you were petting it, you remembered when you were bitten by a dog? You will be asked to tune into your body while you think of the puppy, and the therapist will track your felt sense with you. The path will take you to what may feel difficult: the freeze, your wound, the inner child who never got attention, old chronic pain, unexpected memories. But unlike a maze, you are never lost, as you are guided this time by a therapist who knows the labyrinth and is following your body’s inner wisdom. The therapist makes sure that your nervous system does not get overwhelmed by the journey and intervenes to titrate your experience if you become too activated.
After you track your body’s felt senses for some time, your body may feel ready to thaw the freeze. In this moment, you might feel an impulse to act or move—to growl, to push away a pillow, cry, run around the room, or just sigh. All of these are signs of the nervous system thawing and letting go of the energy that it held in order to survive. The therapist will guide you to follow through with these impulses and offer support as your body experiences the discharge of these energies. Finally, you will be guided out of the labyrinth to integrate the Experiencing.
Would you like to connect?
I offer a free 15-min consultation call for prospective Somatic Experiencing clients to see if we are a good match. If you are interested, please fill out the form or email me at miri.ritual@gmail.com.
