**Online Somatic Experiencing® (SE™) and Somatic Touch sessions now offered at Bodhisattva Bodywork!**

Somatic Experiencing®(SE)™/Somatic Touch

Have you ever experienced a car crash?  Surgery?  Extended illness?  Digestive issues?  TMJ pain?  Assault and/or abuse?  Sleep disorders?  Some physical/mental/emotional ailment that just won't go away?  These conditions and others may be helped by Somatic Experiencing®(SE™).

Somatic Experiencing®(SE)™ Trauma Resolution Therapy is a psychobiological method developed by Peter Levine, PhD. Dr. Levine noted that prey animals, whose lives are routinely threatened in the wild, are rarely traumatized. He discovered through observation that animals are able to readily recover by physically releasing the energy they accumulate during stressful events.

Like animals, we are hard-wired to respond to traumatic incidents as though we are in mortal danger—our sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems automatically engage to take us into the most effective physical response (fight, flight, freeze, or collapse) that will ensure our survival. Once safe, however, because of shame or other pervasive thoughts, judgments, or fears, we often override the healing physical release, and the unresolved stressors remain in the body. SE™/Somatic Touch offers the opportunity to connect with, complete, and resolve—in a guided and supported way—these unresolved stressors.

Touch is an extremely effective way to connect with a client’s nervous system, and SE™ Touch work is an important aspect of the three year SE™ training. Because I incorporate post-advanced SE™ touch trainings and my 22+ years of other touch training and experience into my sessions, I use the broader term “Somatic Touch” to describe this aspect of my work. I am also a certified Transforming Touch® and Transforming Intentional Touch® TEB Therapist.

These body-based approaches do not require the client re-tell or re-live any traumatic event, and although it is a tool often used by psychotherapists, SE™ is not talk therapy. With its focus on promoting a more regulated nervous system, it may be more correctly characterized as accompanied, supported physical self-discovery.  As such, SE™ is the perfect companion to bodywork.

Dialogue, movement, guided visualization, and/or supportive touch are tools used to encourage the client to become present in their body and to notice the presence of, and any changes to, sensations.  As I monitor and facilitate physical nervous system responses, the client is able to gradually access and witness more difficult bodily sensations and suppressed emotions.  This process expands nervous system capacity, creating a felt sense of safety and fostering equilibrium and good health. Clients may choose to remain seated or to relax fully clothed on a massage table for the session.

 Please click the button below with any questions.  If you're ready, you may also purchase a package and/or set an appointment.  I look forward to working with you, and Thank You!    

**One note:  I am a licensed massage and bodywork therapist, and I operate within my scope of practice.  I work with clients who are of generally sound mental health and who have good support systems.  If during our work together I feel you may benefit from the assistance of a licensed mental health professional, I will not hesitate to provide those referrals.