I am trained in Somatic Experiencing (SE™). SE is a trauma treatment model developed by Peter Levine.  Peter observed that animals in the wild, while faced with imminent danger on a regular basis, move through fight, flight and freeze responses, and do not develop PTSD.  He observed that animals allow their systems to complete responses that are natural and innate in all of us, but that we humans aren't always as succesful at doing this, due to the "higher" functioning parts of our brains that can get in the way.  Luckily, our systems have an innate capacity for healing.  Utilizing body awareness, sensation, and "felt sense", trauma can be renegotiated and the system can be restored to optimal health and wellbeing.

As an SE therapist, I can help you move through responses your nervous system may not have had time to digest and process.  I will help you bring your body-mind being up to date, so that you can fully sense the difference between was true "then" and what is true "now".  As strange as it may sound, often times the brain may know the trauma is over, but the body does not. We may feel jumpier, generally anxious, distracted, or have a variety of feelings as "past" and "present" get tangled together.

The beautifully compassionate gift of SE is that you don’t have to just talk and taik about what happened.  As we work together to build in what your system didn’t have time to process, and as we allow unfinished responses to complete and untangle pieces of your experience, the trauma energy drains off.  Eventually, the experience is renegotiated in a way that leaves you knowing it happened in the past, and it is over, and you will feel more and more like your true, present-day self. 

SE can be done as a primary therapy modalitiy, or as an adjunctive therapy for those with an already-established treatment team.