How can Somatic Experiencing® relieve trauma or stress?

• You normal inner calm is triggered by old emotions, traumas or memories.

• You experienced an accident or injury previously, and are now experiencing a return of aching or pain from the additional stress.

• You are home alone, feeling cut-off, isolated and feeling the distance that may create extreme loneliness.

• You are secluded with your children and trying to work your usual full-time job. You are also parenting, teaching, playing and providing for your children simultaneously. You are overwhelmed. There is no moment for self-care.

• There are medical issues that prevent you from going to the grocery store, even with a mask and gloves for protection, causing compounded fear and isolation.

• Family members are sick, and you can't be with them. Closure isn't possible when a loved one dies. You don't have an opportunity to truly grieve and be together.

• As an essential worker, you may feel overwhelmed by the amount of work that is required of you.

• As someone who is required to work as your state reopens, stress levels can elevate. You may wonder if you will succumb to this pandemic at any moment.

Somatic Experiencing® addresses the resulting stress of trauma accumulated in the body and nervous system. The guiding principles are safety and containment. 

During a Remote Trauma Healing™ session, utilizing the principles of Somatic Experiencing®,

we slow down the experience, in a titrated way (one drop at a time). This allows the body and nervous system to process events in the present moment. We then come to view our body as an ally.

The autonomic nervous system (ANS), includes the sympathetic nervous system (SNS), the  parasympathetic nervous system (PNS), and the enteric nervous system (ENS). The ANS is triggered into action when we’re faced with adversity or trauma, and it governs the fight, flight, or freeze instinct. 

Although designed to be self-regulating, the ANS can become dysregulated, particularly when full expression of one’s response to stress and trauma is repressed. As a result, the body can continue to respond as if it were under threat, long after the trauma is past. 

Somatic Experiencing® believes that negative symptoms of trauma - such as anxiety, hyper-vigilance, aggression, pain, and shame - can result from the freeze response, preventing the opportunity to fully process and release those stressful or traumatic events. 

Resources are defined as anything that helps you return to a balanced, or regulated internal state. For you, it might be a special place in nature, the memory of a supportive person, an animal, or a vacation that you enjoyed. We use these resources to help counterbalance your past trauma, and this facilitates allowing your body to return to a regulated state. 

Release of the trauma may be in the form of trembling, twitching, shaking, getting hot or cold, crying, laughing, digestive sounds, or a deeper breath. The intention of Remote Trauma Healing™ is to help you self regulate. 

Another aspect of Somatic Experiencing® is the concept of titration. Remember at the beginning on the Home page, "one drop at a time"? That comes out of Dr. Levine's observations based in chemistry. If you put two chemicals together really quickly, they can explode. However, if you take one chemical, and add it to the other chemical, one drop at a time, they integrate. 

This is exactly what we do in a session; we work with the traumatic bits, one - drop - at - a - time, so that you're not overwhelmed, and this starts to create a resourceful bridge into your life.

We work over the phone together where we start by establishing safety.  I ask that you can find a place that is comfortable, and without interruptions, as much as possible.

Then, I may ask you what you like, what makes you happy, or what was your favorite vacation. I'm looking for resources for you, and help you experience these resources within your nervous system. We want these resources present to help counterbalance any trauma. I may then ask your intention for the session.

Somatic Experiencing® employs awareness of body sensations to help renegotiate and heal, rather than re-live or re-enact trauma. I will listen closely to your story, and follow the pacing of your language to help you resolve and integrate your experiences in an empowering way.

Following your body's inherent wisdom, I will led you very gently to experience and complete what didn't get to happen during the traumatic event. If you've never experienced a Remote Trauma Healing™ session, which includes Somatic Experiencing ® with me before, we'll develop a common language as we work together.