Somatic Experiencing
Somatic Experiencing is a body-oriented therapeutic approach that treats stress patterns by unwinding interoceptive and proprioceptive sensations from the ways they adapted to survive. We use language of sensations like tension, warmth, or movement rather than just talking about thoughts and getting stuck in narratives. This work helps you become more resilient and present in your daily life, rather than just staying stuck in the past.
This approach is different from psychotherapy because it helps you to shift from talking about your problems to engaging in your own bodies wisdom to interpret your sensations so that you can tend to your nervous system, expand your capacity for being with your lived experience, and develop a new way of being in your body that aligns with your whole self.
I am not here to diagnose, pathologize, or fix you. This work is relational and collaborative where you lead and we are able to co-create a container for you to sense into and feel supported to approach the edges of your experience that might have otherwise seemed too intense to explore. By doing so, your body takes in the new experience, with a new capacity, and already the pattern has been interrupted and something new has emerged.
My approach to Somatic Experiencing is a little different than the average practitioner. Like many things sold to us by wellness culture, there are ways that tools can be used that feels out of alignment with my values in social justice, disability justice, gender inclusivity, and liberation. I am critical of the ways that systems of power can subversively impact the way that we relate to our very own nature in order to dominate and control us for their benefit. I feel very protective of us, and it is my mission and what fuels me to approach somatics with a liberatory lens so that we all can be free.
definitions
Body-oriented is a holistic approach that integrates the body’s wisdom to unwind stress patterns by focusing on physical sensations, movement, and bodily experiences rather than analyzing our experience from our mind only.
Interoception is the sensing and interpretation of internal bodily signals
Proprioception is the sensing of movement, position, and force mediated by sensors in muscles, joints, and tendons.
Relational describes a therapeutic approach where the practitioner and client co-create a safe, present, and co-regulating relationship