In somatic work, soma is described as the living, sentient and moving body as experienced from the inside out, and treats the mind and body as one. Thoughts, sensations, and emotions are one connected system - our thoughts & emotions change our physical state, and our physical sensations shape how we feel and think. It invites in restoration and resolution with the relationship with yourself and with others. With this approach, you are invited to be curious about the language of your body and tend to the relationship with yourself and your body, opening up a compassionate path towards emotional healing and self-awareness.

Developed by Peter Levine, Somatic Experiencing (SE) is a body-centered approach to trauma resolution and stress recovery, created to help your body and nervous system discharge survival stress, or life force. It is experiencing the body in the present moment, recognizing that healing and recovery happen in the here and now. Trauma resolution is as much about restoring what was taken from us, safety, choice, aliveness, and joy, as it is about resolving the past.

SE is rooted in observation of the natural world; in nature, wild animals face life-threatening stress daily, yet they naturally release that fight or flight energy, or surge of adrenaline through trembling, shaking, or deep breaths, returning to a calm state once the danger passes. As humans, our analytical minds often override the natural physiological release mechanisms. When survival impulses get interrupted, pushed down, or trapped, they leave lingering patterns of tension, anxiety, or numbness in the nervous system. Somatic Experiencing creates the precise conditions needed to help your body safely finish those interrupted self-protective responses, allowing your system to finally realize that the threat has passed. As we gently restore your ability to feel grounded and curious inside your skin, we unblock the natural flow of energy through your entire system. Healing begins when protection turns back into presence.

Trauma isn't just about the story and what happened to you; trauma can be recognized as any moment that was too much, too fast, too soon, a moment that overwhelmed your nervous system's capacity to respond. Trauma could also be what we didn’t receive - support, unconditional love, the chance to respond. These patterns became encoded through repetition, impulse, and sensation and stored as procedural memory. Whether it stems from a single overwhelming event or smaller, repeated stressors layered over time, trauma is a physiological response to stress.