Somatic Experiencing®

Dr. Peter Levine shares that, in a session with a client who was experiencing severe panic attacks and debilitating symptoms, an image came to his mind of a tiger pouncing. He told the client to run because there’s a tiger, and the client started to imagine, move and feel the impulse of her own body to get away. The client was able to engage with this process intuitively. Through the visualization and the sensation, they were able to access and release the client’s stored “flight” response that had been blocked and held in her body for so many years. After that session, both Peter and the client recognized a significant shift in her struggles and reduction in her symptoms. 

From there, and with his 50+ years of working in the field of trauma, Dr. Peter developed Somatic Experiencing® as a way to transform and release the stuck survival responses (Fight, Flight, Freeze) that cause many emotional, mental, psychological and physiological ailments.  

Somatic Experiencing® (aka "SE") uses the skills of mindfulness in a specific way to allow the physiology of the survival response to be accessed, shifted and released in a safe and titrated way. A primary aspect of SE is tracking sensation, impulse for movement, and using visualization to allow the body to do in the here and now, what it couldn’t do in the past. By completing stress and trauma responses, the physiology is able to reset and come back into it’s zone of optimal resilience – the rest digest state in which the body heals, rejuvenates and the person is able to respond and engage with life.