12/01/2025
Somatic Experiencing is a body-first way of healing stress, anxiety, and old trauma without having to re-live or re-tell the whole story.
Instead of only talking about what happened, we slow everything down and notice what’s happening in your body right now...the tightness in your chest, the flutter in your stomach, the heat in your face, the places that feel numb or frozen.
Why? Because your nervous system got stuck in survival mode (fight, flight, freeze, shutdown) a long time ago, and it’s still running that old program even when you’re safe. That stuck survival energy is what can show up as anxiety, chronic pain or fatigue, IBS, migraines, burnout, feeling numb, or like you can’t say no.
In SE, we do tiny, gentle experiments together:
You notice a sensation.
We let it move or change at its own pace (sometimes it gets bigger first, then it naturally settles).
Your nervous system finally gets to complete the self-protective responses it couldn’t finish back then (shaking, deep breaths, warmth spreading, tears, laughter, whatever wants to happen).
Each time that happens, your system learns: “Oh, I can feel this AND survive. I’m safe now.”
No forcing, no flooding, no cathartic meltdown required. Just little bites that add up to huge shifts.
Over a few sessions, people usually notice:
They can breathe all the way down into their belly again
Sleep gets deeper
Chronic pain or tension softens
Anxiety quiets down instead of running the show
They suddenly know what “yes” and “no” feel like in their body
Joy, desire, and pleasure start showing up again naturally
That’s it. The body already knows how to heal; SE just gives it the safety and space to do what it’s been trying to do all along.