SOMATIC EXPERIENCING
balance and clarity
WHAT IS SOMATIC EXPERIENCING THERAPY?
RELEASE & RESOLVE
Somatic Experiencing Therapy is a gentle body-centered approach to trauma that is based on the research and clinical work of Dr. Peter Levine. Assuming the belief that we all have the innate ability to heal from overwhelming events when the right conditions are created. SE restores physiological and emotional balance and helps individuals feel more alive, balanced, and whole. This work is experiential and is most useful with those who have difficulty regulating emotions, are unable to feel calm and relaxed and need more effective ways to manage stress. SE helps us resolve difficult experiences from the past that are affecting our ability to live life more fully in the present.
Certified practitioners complete a three-year training course (216 hours of instruction) and must complete 18 hours of case consultations and 12 hours of personal sessions.
Somatic Experiencing (SE™) is a body-oriented therapeutic model that addresses and resolves symptoms of stress, shock, and trauma that we hold in our bodies. Some of these symptoms include but are not limited to anxiety, hypervigilance, depressed mood, fatigue, restlessness, executive functioning issues, addiction and sleep disturbance.
When someone is exposed to a threatening or overwhelming event, the body can become stuck in patterns of fight, flight, or freeze. SE helps individuals release and recover from these states which leads to increased resiliency and an overall sense of well-being.
Join me in the journey for a more balanced and calm life
ABOUT SOMATIC EXPERIENCING & FOUNDER/DEVELOPER DR. PETER A. LEVINE
Somatic Experiencing (SE) is a theory and methodology for healing both shock trauma and developmental trauma, based on the neurophysiology of the autonomic nervous system.
In SE terms, trauma is characterized by the body's response to an overwhelming event (or accumulation of events). The arousal energy in the body from these original responses to threat has not been completely processed and remains lodged in the nervous system, often manifesting in a range of mental and physical health problems. This trapped energy occurs because the natural survival responses of fight, flight and/or freeze were unable to fully complete their cycle toward "release."
Somatic Experiencing was developed over a forty year period by Dr. Peter A. Levine. The theory is based on observations of animals in the wild, noting that while routinely threatened by predators, wild animals don’t hold and lock trauma in the body like humans do. He developed Somatic Experiencing as a clinical methodology to help people discharge the bound energy in the autonomic nervous system. Unlike some other methods of trauma therapy, Somatic Experiencing carefully and gently facilitates awareness of internal sensations and movement impulses to safely release and integrate thwarted survival responses. Peter Levine has said that the impact of trauma can be re-negociated in the body and not necessarily become a life sentence.
Somatic therapy theories and healing methods are based on the neurophysiology of the autonomic nervous system. This is the system which runs our most important bodily functions such as breathing, heart rate, digestion, pupillary response, urination and sexual arousal, automatically, without conscious involvement. The autonomic nervous system is also the location of our instinctual survival responses of flight, fight and freeze when threat is perceived.
A critical element in healing trauma is to utilize a memory of something positive, meaningful and/or pleasurable in a healthy way with focus on the physical sensations. Human beings (and all mammals) are biologically oriented to be on the look out for something unpleasant or threatening as a means of survival and we are less apt to consciously access a body memory of ease and well being.
Our body instinctually signals a perceived threat, usually by muscles tightening, heart rate increasing, chest compressing and breathing becoming shallow. The body is gearing up to protect in an action to flee or fight. Often, an emotional or physical inability to complete this action occurs and instead of discharging the bound energy, there is a shut down we call freeze. When animals in the wild face imminent threat, and fleeing or fighting is not possible, they go into a state of "tonic immobility," appearing to be dead to the predator. Once the threat has passed, they "shake" or "convulse" until the heightened energy under the freeze is discharged. The organic ability to "freeze" is a wonderful protective trait. Since humans, unlike wild animals, do not easily discharge the arousal energy after the threat is gone, often experience symptoms of unintegrated trauma for years or decades. The original purpose of the freeze is completely skewed and distorted. In SE we help a person to consciously practice the "felt sense" of positive physical sensations and then use this as an anchor to gradually and gently touch into the bound survival "fear," a step in facilitating a biological discharge in the cycle.
As a psychotherapist for so many years, these additional avenues for opening the nervous system have enabled rich and powerful dimensions to healing emotional and attachment wounds.
working together
SOMATIC EXPERIENCING
90 minute sessions: $200
Held in-person in St. Louis, Mo or via ZOOM
Somatic Experiencing is a therapeutic approach to trauma. If you are interested in working with me for Somatic Experiencing Therapy, email me or fill out the form below and let me know you are interested. If you would like to set up a consultation call beforehand to talk about what SE therapy looks like, in your email, please put your phone number and days/times you are available and I will reach out to you. If it feels like a good fit to the both of us then I will send you intake paperwork and we will get started!
Interested in Somatic Experiencing?
Fill out the form or email your information to hello@brookebrasfield.com
WHO AM I TO WALK ON THIS HEALING JOURNEY WITH YOU?
For a long time, I wasn't committed to myself or to my own inner work. I wasn't in a state of healing. I was in a state of fight, flight and/or freeze. I was burnt out in the work I was doing and it was affecting my career; my relationships; my whole life. I wasn't showing up, and if I was, it was from a place of burnout, of sadness, of anxiety, of fear. I wasn't showing up from where I do now ... heart, love, leadership, joy, peace, excitement.
This is what I want for you. For all of my clients. To know, deep down, you are guiding, leading, serving from a place of wholeness, of authenticity, of integrity. You know who you are and what you are here to do. You know exactly what you want and you call that to you. You are open to receive support, knowledge, guidance, abundance - of every kind.
I look forward to being with you