What is a Somatic Experience (SE)?
Somatic experience is a powerful psychobiological therapeutic approach for the treatment of mental, emotional trauma, which is oriented to work through awareness of sensations in the body. It can help alleviate the physical, psychological, emotional and physiological effects of acute and chronic stress, and PTSD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorders). Somatic experience is a naturalistic approach to treating trauma, developed by Dr. Peter Levin. SE is the work of Dr. Peter A. Levin’s life, the result of his multidisciplinary study of the physiology of stress in the fields of psychology, ethology, biology, neurology, medical biophysics, and local healing practices.
According to him, the symptoms of trauma are the result of a highly activated but incomplete biological response to a threat. “Frozen”, unused energy for protection traumatizes a person for a long time. However, the somatic experience can – completely safely activate this response, release the locked energy and thus restore balance in the body.
The method is based on the observation that wild animals, which, although regularly threatened by the danger of being prey, are rarely injured. Animals in the wild use innate mechanisms to regulate and release the high levels of energy arousal associated with survival behavior – by trembling the body to completely expel the accumulated energy. These mechanisms provide animals with a built-in “immunity” to symptoms resulting from trauma, which allows them to return to normal after extreme, life-threatening situations.
Although humans are born with almost the same regulatory mechanisms as animals, the function of these systems is interrupted or suppressed, among other instincts, by the rational part of our brain. This restraint stops the release of prepared energy for survival and prevents the nervous system from regaining its balance. That is, the traumatic symptoms are not caused by the dangerous event itself, but by the retained “survival energy” left in the “trap” of the body and nervous system. The various symptoms of trauma are the result of the body’s attempt to manage and control this unused energy.
