More on Traumatherapy Somatic Experiencing® (SE)

(Please note: this is not a comprehensive discourse on SE or Trauma.)

Man is an animal of prey
From a biological viewpoint, humans are animals of prey. Their chances to survive before the development of weapons was dependent on man´s ability to quickly assess the potential for danger in a given situation. Also, his body system needed to quickly make the right choice between three possible ways to react: Fight, flight or freeze.

Human beings in the industrial age
These very old mechanism are still active within us. But other things have changed: We have developped a bigger brain (a cortex that even allows us to suppress reflexes) and we have moved far away from a natural lifestyle. So our brain stem still signals danger in a dangerous situation and our bodies still want to react for instance by flight- but the safety belt in our car renders our efforts futile. The safety belt is of course helpful or we would not survive the situation in the first place. The problem is that in case of lifedanger the body provides a large amount of energy very quickly. If this energy is not used, it stays “locked” in our nervous system and may also create new behaviour patterns or neuronal tracts.

Superfluous energy and the consequences
This energy can create a lot of unpleasant symptoms like nightmares, recurring unwanted memories, pains, dissociation (the feeling of not really being in one´s body, of detachment, or the inability to feel parts of the body), irritability, hypervigilance, apathy, emotional numbness, passiveness and avoiding the situation, feelings or activities related to the event. The person might experience sleeping problems, changes in appetite, feelings of despair and hopelessness, trouble concentrating or guilt feelings. If these symptoms last longer than a month after an incident, we call the condition Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).

Trauma is in the body, not in the event
It is our nervous system that produces these symptoms due to unused surplus energy. This is so regardless of what event has traumatized the person. Whether a person is actually traumatized by an event or not will depend on their personality structure, on previous experience, genetic disposition, their social environment and their overall shape. That is why one of SE´s paradigms is: Trauma is in the body, not the event.

Why the gazelle doesn´t get traumatized
A gazelle which is attacked by a lion and narrowly escapes via flight will try to find a safe spot. There it will remain still for a while and then a wave of shivers will run through its entire body. Afterwards it will go on with its life. We claim that it is not traumatized as it can fully react to the next danger, it doesn´t loose sleep or appetite, it doesn´t behave differently socially. This is because the entire amount of energy was used up by the muscles- first in flight, then in shivers.

How SE can support the nevous system
For modern human beings that means that our brain stem and our nervous systems need a little support to be able to do what they need to do. The aim of Traumatherapy SE is to cut the amount of trauma energy into tiny, digestible pieces and to release the energy carefully from each and everyone of those little pieces.
Finding ressources is crucial in every session. A ressource is an image, a thought, a person or an ability that holds nourishing, strengthening or comforting value in a given situation. A good ressource can give security, confidence and grounding while a certain section of the experience is being renegotiated.

How energy is discharged
Discharge of energy is felt in many different ways: Sensation of warmth in a limb, tingling, shaking, taking a deep breath, cool sensation, sneezing, yawning, laughing or crying can all be expressions of energy release. Also, unfinished movements like a fight response can be completed in very slow, small inner movements.
All of this is instigated by means of very quiet and simple conversation while the client is completely awake and has complete control over the situation. The therapist aims at broadening the clients perception such that they become aware of their body, but also their ideas, their values, thoughts and images that might cross their mind or emotions that might appear.

The aims of SE
If SE was applied successfully, the client can usually remember the incident(s) but there is no arousal connected to this memory anymore. Also, all vital functions like orienting reaction, fight or flight reaction should be at the clients disposal. A natural curiosity may then take the place of constant anxiousness.

The founder
This form of therapy was developped by Dr. Peter A. Levine and others. It is heavily based upon the method of “Focussing” created by Richard Gentlin. Also, results and findings made by modern stress, trauma and brain research have influenced Somatic Experiencing and still do. SE is being taught since the early 1990s in the US, since 1999 in Germany.
More on Somatic Experiencing: http://www.traumahealing.com

If you would like to read about SE

Peter A. Levine: Healing Trauma: A Pioneering Program for Restoring the Wisdom of Your Body [With CD], Sounds True Inc; Auflage: Pap/Com (October 2008)

Dr.’s Larry & Diane Heller: Crash Course, A Self-Healing Guide To Auto Accident Trauma & Recovery © 2001