What is Somatic Experiencing (SE)?
Somatic Experiencing is a type of therapy focusing on how we can release trauma and distress that is stored in our body. We can easily understand this idea when we think about tight shoulders from stress or nausea from anxiety. Our minds and bodies are tightly and intricately interwoven. One cannot exist without being affected by the other.
There is not a person on our planet that is untouched by trauma and distress. We all experience the emotional and physical symptoms of these experiences. Up until the last decade, most people were encouraged to keep their emotional issues silent. Now, people feel proud to say they go to therapy. Sadly, there is still stigma about how our mental health affects our physical health. We strive to remove that stigma and help people heal from the ways feelings, emotional pain, and trauma show up in people's bodies.
What does an SE session look like?
The main goal of SE is to bring nonjudgmental, curious observation to our felt senses. Depending on what is noticed when observing the sensations, we simply explore at a pace our clients are comfortable with. Connecting dots, addressing fears, discovering hope. SE sessions look like any other therapy session with the added benefit of acknowledging and honoring the way trauma has affected your physical body.
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