Somatic experiencing

Somatic experiencing is a method for treating trauma and stress, including post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and complex post-traumatic stress disorder (CPTSD). It focuses on sensations and experiences in the body when traumatic experiences are discussed or re-experienced. Somatic experiencing sessions can be led by psychotherapists and social workers, like traditional trauma therapy methodologies. However, yoga teachers, spiritual leaders, occupational therapists, and some coaches can also be trained in these methodologies and use them in their work as they encounter people dealing with trauma.

Somatic experiencing has some empirical support, though more research is needed to determine when to use these methods as opposed to more traditional trauma therapies. While somatic experiencing has shown promise in initial tests, it is unknown exactly how effective it is or if it is more likely to be effective in certain situations. Anecdotally, many people tell stories of how somatic experiencing has helped them overcome trauma and live productively again.

Background

Somatic experiencing was created by Peter Levine and is based on ideas about how emotion and stress are processed in the human body. During stressful experiences, including trauma, the body releases hormones such as adrenaline. These amp up its reflexes and put it into a state where it can effectively fight or flee to escape stressors. However, these responses are more appropriate for an ancient world when people often faced threats such as wild animals and fires. These responses are not always appropriate in today’s modern world.

Fighting or fleeing used to be the best possible actions to take to avoid most of the threats people faced, so the human body evolved to enable people to do these. It was survival of the fittest, and the fittest were those who could get away from a threat or fight it off. Dealing with the stressor also enabled the body to return to normal. Adrenaline and other hormones energized the body, it did what it needed to do to survive, and then hormone levels returned to normal.

Today, many stressors cannot be effectively handled by either fighting or fleeing. Stress such as financial trouble, problems at work, and relationship challenges require more sophisticated solutions. However, the human body is still primed to respond physically. When adrenaline courses through the veins, that response needs to be discharged. Otherwise, the body does not know that the stressful situation has ended, and it can return to normal.

Sometimes, people are under so much stress that they continually set off the body’s hormonal stress response without ever discharging it. Other times, traumatic events set off the response at a very high level. In these situations, the body struggles to return to normal because the overall stress response is too high for it to be able to discharge with everyday activities.

Somatic experiencing techniques aim to facilitate this discharge of stress and the energy that comes along with it, allowing the body to finally return to its original, relaxed state. According to somatic experiencing, when traditional methods of dealing with trauma do not work, it is because they are not including the body’s stress responses in the treatment.

Overview

Somatic experiencing involves a variety of techniques that will be used based on exactly what the person is experiencing and the nature of their stress or trauma. One technique often used is systematic desensitization. This involves exposing a person to what has traumatized them little by little, all while they are paying close attention to their body. The person gets to control how much of their experience they relive and how long they spend doing this, based on what the body is experiencing. When the experience begins to feel like too much or they fear being stuck there, they can simply come out of it, and the facilitator will help them regulate again. Over time, they will be able to experience more and more until they can fully integrate their stress or trauma without panicking or experiencing other symptoms.

During systematic desensitization, people also learn pendulation. Like a pendulum, they learn to let their experience swing back and forth between what has traumatized or stressed them and images that are happy, calming, and/or healing. Many facilitators will help people find these images ahead of time, so they know what they are returning to when they experience too much stress. These images can be memories, hopes for the future, or thoughts that bring calm and peace. When the person senses that their body cannot tolerate any more stress or trauma, they allow their mind to swing back to these images. This helps them gradually work with more stress and trauma because they know they can return to a safe place at any moment.

Somatic experiencing practitioners may also work to do what they call uncoupling. When someone is traumatized or under stress that does not relent, they may learn to attach a particular physical sensation or set of sensations to that experience. For example, a rape victim may stop being able to sense certain parts of the body after being raped. Somatic experiencing works to help people find these sensations that are coupled with their stress or trauma and detach them. Thus, the rape victim might learn how to stay connected to their body and physical sensations throughout a variety of circumstances, including sexual ones.

Research has shown that somatic experiencing may have positive benefits in both people diagnosed with PTSD and the rest of the population. However, because the techniques are relatively new, research is ongoing regarding when and if they are the best way to treat stress and trauma.

Critics of somatic experiencing argue that it is still largely unproven and believe that it is based more on New Age philosophy than on sound psychological and biological principles, since Levine, who created somatic experiencing, has also taught at a New Age retreat center.

As somatic experiencing becomes more common and is studied more in-depth, its benefits and drawbacks should become clearer. However, its popularity is growing and some claim that it has helped them overcome trauma.

Bibliography

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Bergner, Daniel. “Want to Fix Your Mind? Let Your Body Talk.” New York Times, 18 May 2023, www.nytimes.com/2023/05/18/magazine/somatic-therapy.html. Accessed 29 Aug. 2023.

Brom, Danny, et al. “Somatic Experiencing for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: A Randomized Controlled Outcome Study.” Journal of Traumatic Stress, 6 June 2017, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5518443/. Accessed 29 Aug. 2023.

Kuhfuß, Marie, et al. “Somatic Experiencing—Effectiveness and Key Factors of a Body-Oriented Trauma Therapy: A Scoping Literature Review.” European Journal of Psychotraumatology, 12 July 2021, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8276649/. Accessed 29 Aug. 2023.

Newberry, Laura. “Somatic Therapy: How Working with the Body Can Heal the Imprints of Trauma.” Los Angeles Times, 22 Nov. 2022, www.latimes.com/california/newsletter/2022-11-22/group-therapy-body-somatics-trauma-group-therapy. Accessed 29 Aug. 2023.

Payne, Peter, et al. “Somatic Experiencing: Using Interoception and Proprioception as Core Elements of Trauma Therapy.” Frontiers in Psychology, 4 Feb. 2015, www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00093/full. Accessed 29 Aug. 2023.

“Somatic Therapy.” Psychology Today, 2 June 2022, www.psychologytoday.com/us/therapy-types/somatic-therapy. Accessed 29 Aug. 2023.