Quick answer: Somatic Experiencing (SE) is a body-based approach to trauma healing that works by regulating the nervous system. Trauma can leave us stuck in fight, flight, or freeze responses, disrupting our ability to feel safe and connected. SE helps the body complete these responses, restore balance, and build resilience by engaging the nervous system’s natural capacity for healing.
Rooted in neuroscience, Somatic Experiencing (SE) draws on polyvagal theory and neuroplasticity to support lasting change.
Research supports the effectiveness of SE. A randomized controlled study demonstrated that SE significantly reduced posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms and depression in participants, indicating its potential as an effective therapy method for PTSD.
Trauma isn’t just something we think about—it’s something we feel deep in our bodies, our nervous systems, and our daily lives. While traditional talk therapies often focus on exploring the mind, they sometimes miss the profound impact trauma has on the body. This is where Somatic Experiencing (SE) offers a powerful and transformative alternative: a trauma healing approach that engages both mind and body.
The Nervous System: Our Trauma’s Silent Partner
When we experience trauma, our nervous system can get stuck in high alert (fight or flight) or shut down (freeze). Somatic Experiencing directly addresses this dysregulation by helping the nervous system reset itself. Through gentle, guided techniques, SE allows the body to recalibrate, restoring balance between activation and relaxation.
🔹 Did You Know? Your nervous system is constantly scanning for danger—even when you’re not aware of it. This process, called neuroception, happens automatically, shaping how we feel and respond to the world.
Polyvagal Theory: Why Safety is the Key to Healing
At the heart of Somatic Experiencing is Polyvagal Theory, which emphasizes the vital role of the vagus nerve in regulating our emotional states. The vagus nerve helps us feel safe and connected—two essentials for trauma recovery. When we’re stuck in trauma, the vagus nerve can become dysregulated, leaving us feeling disconnected, isolated, or overwhelmed.
🔹 Did You Know? Humming, slow breathing, and gentle movement can stimulate the vagus nerve, shifting your body into a state of calm and safety.
The Body Remembers: Trauma Stored in Sensations
Trauma often lives not just in our minds but in our bodies, stored as implicit memories—those deeply ingrained sensations we may not be able to put into words but that shape our responses to the world. This is why trauma recovery isn’t always about “talking it out”—it’s about feeling it, about reconnecting with the somatic experiences that hold the story of what happened.
🔹 Did You Know? Even if you can’t recall a traumatic event, your body still remembers. Research shows that trauma can be stored as body sensations, muscle tension, and autonomic nervous system responses.
Neuroplasticity: Rewiring the Brain for Resilience
Trauma, though it can disrupt neural connections, doesn’t have to be permanent. Somatic Experiencing helps shift the brain away from reactive, survival-based patterns (like those triggered by the amygdala, which governs fear) toward more regulated, thoughtful responses. With practice, we create new pathways that help us respond to stress with calm and resilience instead of being stuck in fear or panic.
🔹 Did You Know? Every time you experience a moment of calm after stress, you’re actively rewiring your brain thanks to neuroplasticity, the brain’s ability to create new neural pathways.
Completing the Cycle: Healing the Frozen Stress Response
When trauma occurs, our natural stress response doesn’t always get completed. We might freeze, unable to act, and that incomplete response gets “frozen” in the body. This leaves us stuck in a cycle of unresolved survival responses.
🔹 Did You Know? Animals in the wild naturally shake off stress after a life-threatening event. If a gazelle escapes a predator, it trembles to release the excess energy before calmly returning to its herd. Humans have this same ability, but we often suppress it—keeping trauma stuck in the body.
Somatic Experiencing helps us complete these stress cycles by gently guiding the body through the responses it couldn’t fully express during the traumatic event. Whether it’s shaking, releasing a held breath, or allowing a physical gesture, SE encourages the body to finish what it started, releasing the pent-up energy and emotions that have been trapped for too long.
Integration: A Holistic Approach to Healing
What sets Somatic Experiencing apart is its ability to integrate the mind and body in a way that’s both gentle and transformative. It’s not just about “talking it out” or focusing solely on the body—it’s about using both to promote deep, lasting healing.
🔹 Did You Know? Trauma healing isn’t about erasing memories—it’s about changing your relationship to them. As we process trauma in the body, it shifts from being a triggering, overwhelming experience to something we can hold with greater ease.
As trauma is processed in the body, it begins to shift from an implicit experience to a conscious one. The body, once a place of holding and tension, becomes a space of freedom and safety.
Trauma Recovery: A Journey, Not a Destination
Healing from trauma is a journey, not a destination. Somatic Experiencing offers a pathway.
💡 Additional Resource for a Deeper Dive Into this Topic
🔹 Somatic Experiencing for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: A Randomized Controlled Outcome Study
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