Somatic Experiencing Traumatic experiences are an unavoidable fact of life. At some point in life it is almost inevitable that a family member or a friend or yourself will suffer an accident or other traumatic experience. Until recently, it was a widely-held medical view that all trauma and uncontrollable stress were an irreversible disease. Now we understand that they’re natural survival processes gone awry. We’ve all heard of the flight or fight response. Less is spoken about the third primitive biological coping mechanism, freeze. When faced with what’s perceived as an inescapable or overwhelming threat, both humans and animals instinctively use the immobility response - a powerful surge of survival energy gets trapped, literally frozen, in the nervous system and muscle tissue. If this compressed residual energy isn’t allowed to discharge, we become traumatized and a part of us literally disconnects.’ Somatic Experiencing (SE) works by listening to the body to re-establish those powerful physiological mechanisms - allowing them to complete and restore us to perfect wellbeing. Blending psychotherapy with bodywork, SE works with the body’s self- healing intelligence to guarantee powerful new ways of coping with what you couldn’t before.

SE can be used by anyone, for almost any symptom, and alongside other therapy.

How does it work?

Using a few gentle, powerful techniques, we can support your body’s innate capacity for healing. By tuning into physical sensations with awareness, trapped life energy is released, and with it the stressful symptoms that keep us stuck in the past.

What does SE offer?

- Freedom from debilitating symptoms of stress and traumatic reactions through gentle, conscious body sensation rather than intense emotion.
- A direct understanding that the healing of traumatic stress often doesn’t, if at all, require sophisticated drugs or long hours of therapy.
- An education in how to work with your body and mind to increase vitality, wellbeing and enjoyment of life.
- A rational understanding and resolution of stressful symptoms and behaviours that conventional medicine and alternative therapies have failed to stop.
- Text Maggie Mahabha Richards