Somatic Experiencing developed by Dr Peter Levine
Somatic Experiencing, developed by Peter Levine, explores bodily sensations and protective responses associated with trauma. I am currently in training.
Trauma happens when any experience stuns us like a bolt out of the blue; it overwhelms us, leaving us altered and disconnected.
I have come to the conclusion that human beings are born with an innate capacity to triumph over trauma. I believe not only that trauma is curable, but that the healing process can be a catalyst for profound awakening—a portal opening to emotional and genuine spiritual transformation. I have little doubt that as individuals, families, communities, and even nations, we have the capacity to learn how to heal and prevent much of the damage done by trauma. In so doing, we will significantly increase our ability to achieve both our individual and collective dreams.
Who this therapy may suit
- You freeze or go blank in situations that do not seem threatening to you.
- You feel restless, tense or constantly on alert after an overwhelming experience.
- You have experienced a difficult birth.
- Big emotional work has overwhelmed you before, and you want something more measured.
- You tend to feel hypervigilant, constantly on alert, or unable to fully relax.
- You are living with ongoing health challenges or physical symptoms that affect your emotional well-being.
- You feel stuck, even though you understand intellectually why you feel or behave the way you do.
- You fear judgement, rejection, or abandonment.
- You tend to withdraw from relationships or find it difficult to feel close to others.
- You struggle to set and maintain healthy boundaries.
- You are highly self-critical or find it difficult to accept yourself.
- You are experiencing low mood, sadness, or feelings of depression.
- You find yourself repeating unhealthy behaviours, coping strategies, or relationship patterns.
- You feel stuck, even when you understand intellectually what needs to change.
- You find intense emotions difficult to manage, or notice strong responses to reminders of an accident, loss or violence.
- You experience physical pain.
- You find yourself relying on behaviours or coping strategies that may once have helped you survive but are now causing difficulties in your life.
- You have experienced traumatic or overwhelming events, such as losing your health, being involved in an accident, experiencing a medical event or diagnosis, surviving a natural disaster or assault, losing a loved one to suicide, or experiencing war or other forms of violence, etc.
- You experience involuntary movements.
Somatic Experiencing offers a space to explore how these experiences affect your body, emotions, and nervous system.
What to expect in a session
We work in small, manageable steps, sometimes called titration. Together, we notice sensations such as tension, warmth, or changes in breathing, with time to pause and settle. You don’t need to produce a particular response. The pace follows what feels manageable for you. We gently follow your internal experience, noticing the temperature, the braced shoulder, or the change in breath, approaching only a sliver of activation at a time. The work is quiet and measured, waiting for your nervous system to finally complete what it never finished. We stay with the sensation until the shift arrives: a shiver, an exhale, or the moment the grip of the past finally begins to soften.
In a Somatic Experiencing therapy session, we work with your experience in a gentle, collaborative way, paying attention not only to your story but also to what is happening in your body and nervous system in the present moment.
A session may involve noticing sensations, breath, posture, movement, emotions, impulses, and changes in your level of activation. Rather than pushing you to relive or retell overwhelming experiences, we work gradually, and at a pace your nervous system can manage.
You may be invited to notice moments of safety, support, strength, or calm alongside difficult sensations and emotions. This can help your nervous system develop greater capacity to experience and move through activation without becoming overwhelmed.
Over time, Somatic Experiencing can help you recognise and work with automatic survival responses, such as fight, flight, freeze, or shutdown, while supporting greater regulation, resilience, and connection with yourself.
The aim is to help you develop greater flexibility, a sense of safety and more choice in how you respond, without forcing you to move faster than you are ready for.
The Core Focus of SE Without Touch
In sessions without touch, we follow your internal experience through:
- Tracking: Learning to listen to the language of your body, such as noticing a shiver, a change in breath, or a shift in temperature.
- Pendulation: Moving slowly between the activation of the past and the steadiness of the present moment.
- Titration: Working in very small, manageable doses so your system can process what happened without becoming overwhelmed.
What this isn’t
Somatic trauma-informed psychotherapy is not about forcing you to relive your trauma, analysing every detail of your past, or trying to “fix” something that is wrong with you.
Somatic therapy is a talking therapy that uses your awareness of bodily sensations, breath, posture, movement, and nervous system responses as part of the therapeutic process. While breathing or other body-based practices may sometimes be used, the work goes much deeper than relaxation techniques.
- Reliving your trauma: You do not need to retell every detail of what happened or repeatedly revisit painful memories.
- Forcing emotional release: There is no expectation that you need to cry, shake, or have a dramatic emotional experience for therapy to work.
- Ignoring the mind and emotions: Somatic therapy does not replace talking or psychological exploration. We work with your thoughts, emotions, memories, relationships, and body together.
- Making you feel good all the time: Healing is not about eliminating difficult emotions. It is about developing greater capacity to experience them without being overwhelmed or disconnected.
- Fixing or changing who you are: You are not broken. The patterns and protective strategies you developed often made sense in the context of what you experienced. Therapy helps you understand them and discover whether they still serve you.
- Pushing beyond your capacity: We work gradually and collaboratively, adjusting the pace to what feels manageable for you.
Common questions
- Do I have to talk about what happened?
Not necessarily. Somatic Experiencing can work with how an experience is showing up in your body and nervous system now, without requiring a detailed retelling of the event. You remain in control of what you share and what you are ready to explore.
- Is Somatic Experiencing the same as somatic therapy?
No. Somatic therapy is a broad term for therapeutic approaches that include the body and embodied experience in the work. Somatic Experiencing (SE) is a specific, trauma-focused approach developed by Peter Levine, with its own principles and methods.
- Is Somatic Experiencing just body exercises?
No. SE is not simply a collection of exercises for relaxation. The work involves carefully tracking sensations, emotions, impulses, and nervous system responses while staying connected to the present moment. Talking, reflection, and meaning-making can also be part of the process.
- Will I have to relive my trauma?
No. SE does not require you to relive or repeatedly describe traumatic events. Instead, the work is gradual and uses titration, approaching difficult material in small, manageable amounts—to reduce the risk of becoming overwhelmed.
- What if I dissociate or go blank during a session?
That is something we can work with. Dissociation can be a protective response, not a failure. Rather than pushing through it, we can slow down, notice what is happening, and support your ability to reconnect with the present moment and your body.
In SE, the work is not usually about pushing someone deeper into the traumatic experience. Instead, the therapist helps the person gradually notice signs of dissociation, overwhelm, or disconnection and gently reconnect with present-moment sensations, resources, and their environment. By working slowly and in manageable amounts, the person can gradually build a greater capacity to stay present without becoming overwhelmed.
- What if I become overwhelmed or emotional?
Difficult emotions can arise, but the intention is not to push you beyond your capacity. We pay attention to your nervous system and adjust the pace as needed, working in manageable steps so that you can remain as present and connected as possible.
- Can Somatic Experiencing help with anxiety or feeling constantly on alert?
SE can be helpful when stress or past experiences are accompanied by patterns such as hypervigilance, tension, shutdown, or difficulty settling. We explore how these responses show up in your body and nervous system and work gradually toward greater capacity and regulation.
- Can Somatic Experiencing help with childhood or developmental trauma?
SE can be used alongside other therapeutic approaches when working with childhood and developmental trauma. The focus is not on forcing a complete reconstruction of the past, but on gently exploring how earlier experiences may continue to influence your body, nervous system, emotions, relationships, and patterns today.
- How is SE different from traditional talk therapy?
Talk therapy often emphasises thoughts, memories, language, and insight. SE includes conversation and reflection but also pays close attention to your moment-to-moment bodily sensations and nervous system responses. The aim is to bring together what you understand cognitively with what you are experiencing in your body.
- Do you use touch during Somatic Experiencing?
SE can sometimes include touch in some practitioners’ work, but touch is not required. My approach can focus entirely on your awareness of your sensations, movements, emotions, and nervous system responses.
- How long does Somatic Experiencing take?
There is no fixed number of sessions. The timeframe depends on your goals, circumstances, history, and what you are working with. Some people seek support around a specific event, while others choose longer-term therapy for more complex or developmental patterns.
- Will I feel something during every session?
Not necessarily. Somatic work is not about producing a particular sensation, emotional release, or breakthrough. Some sessions may involve subtle shifts or increased awareness, while others may focus more on stabilisation, understanding, or simply building your capacity to notice what is happening.
Before we start, one important thing
This therapy is not a substitute for crisis or safety intervention. It isn't appropriate if you are currently in an unsafe or dangerous situation, or if you are at immediate risk of harming yourself or ending your life. In those circumstances you need crisis, emergency or specialised support first.
Somatic psychotherapy is also unsuitable for people who have recently faced, or are currently facing, legal allegations.
You might also be looking at
Somatic Trauma-Informed Psychotherapy
Somatic Counselling
Compassionate Inquiry
Sensorimotor Psychotherapy — Pat Ogden
Ready to start?
Book a first session, or write to me if you'd rather ask something before you do.