Trauma lives in the body.

Somatic Experiencing (SE) is a body-oriented approach to trauma resolution and stress recovery developed by Dr. Peter Levine over more than four decades, drawing on stress physiology, neuroscience, biology, and ethology. Where most approaches work top-down, beginning with thoughts and language, SE works bottom-up: it begins with the body's sensations rather than cognitive or narrative content.

The core insight is that trauma is not held primarily in the story of what happened. It's held in the nervous system as incomplete survival responses — activation, bracing, collapse, and freeze states that never had the opportunity to complete their natural cycle. Animals resolve threatening encounters through physiological discharge; humans, whose cognitive and social capacities often override these responses, frequently remain stuck in incomplete activation. SE restores the nervous system's capacity to complete those responses gradually and safely, without requiring narrative re-exposure.

SE sessions differ structurally from most therapy. There's no requirement to describe or re-tell a traumatic event. The work begins with the present-moment experience of the body: sensations, impulses, areas of tension or heaviness, breath quality, temperature. I track the same signals through careful observation.

From there, the work moves through titration — engaging with small, manageable amounts of activation rather than pushing the system into the full intensity of traumatic memory. This prevents retraumatization and builds capacity to process incrementally. Pendulation is another core process: moving between sensations of activation and relative ease, allowing the nervous system to experience its natural rhythm between contraction and expansion. For a broader look at trauma-informed work, see the blog.

SE is primarily indicated for trauma-related presentations: complex PTSD, developmental trauma, single-incident trauma, and the chronic nervous system dysregulation that follows prolonged exposure to threatening conditions. It's particularly effective where trauma is held somatically — where the person already understands their trauma intellectually but still experiences hypervigilance, intrusion, dissociation, chronic tension, or an inability to feel settled in the body.

Beyond trauma, SE is useful for anxiety driven by chronic activation, burnout with significant physiological depletion, and substance use maintained in part by the need to regulate an otherwise unmanageable internal state. A 2017 randomized controlled trial found significant reductions in PTSD symptoms and depression among adults who received SE compared to a waitlist control.

I trained in SE because of a clinical gap I encountered repeatedly: clients who understood their trauma, had completed significant cognitive work, and still couldn't shift the physiological experience of it. The understanding was present; the relief was not. SE is designed precisely for that gap. I'm a second-year student at Somatic Experiencing International, whose program spans three years and requires ongoing clinical application, peer supervision, and personal SE work.

I integrate SE with Internal Family Systems and psychodynamic therapy rather than using it as a standalone protocol. SE addresses the physiological layer of what IFS addresses relationally. Parts identified through IFS can be discharged somatically through SE, accelerating resolution that either approach reaches more slowly on its own.

Alchemy Psychotherapy is a private-pay, out-of-network practice. A reduced fee is available in limited circumstances based on financial need and current caseload. I do not bill insurance directly, but I provide a Superbill on the first of each month for clients with out-of-network mental health benefits, and HSA and FSA cards are accepted. Under the No Surprises Act, you have the right to a Good Faith Estimate of expected charges before treatment begins.