“Trauma is not what happens to you, but what happens in side you as a result of what happened to you”.
~Dr. Gabor Maté, famed Canadian physician and author
The term « trauma » seems to be used a lot these days. But it is often misunderstood, people often believe it is onlay associated with accidents, physical abuse, and catastrophic events. On the other extreme, it has become trivialized on social media platforms such as TikTok.
But as experts such as Drs. Peter Levine, Bessel van der Kok, and Gabor Maté note, trauma is properly described in terms of changes in the body that result after an event or series of events that overwhelm our capacity to respond.
Think of the expressions such as “I was frozen in place” ,or “I couldn’t move” ; or “I panicked”.
If these reactions are not resolved and the associated energy in the body is released, then over time, even small incidents, when they occur over and over again..for example, such as what is experienced in a « toxic » work environment, or when a child is repeatedly bullied at school, can lead to a loss of the ability to respond, and can show up as chronic anxiety, or depression.
Somatic Experiencing (SE™) was created by Peter Levine (author of the best-seller book “Waking the Tiger”), after his realization that wild animals did not seem to be stuck in trauma, but were able to quickly resume their normal routine even after a threat and attack by a predator.
But for many of us, the experience of trauma – even if only seen as a « disagreeable incident », such as a conflict at work or at home, does not get resolved through a healthy release of the energy that is mobilized.
The core of SE is based on helping a client to connect with and recognize body sensations that may have been overlooked or dismissed at the time the event occurred, and through this recognition, to find their own resources to integrate their experience(s) of the event(s).
It’s like reducing the static background on an old analog TV set so that the « show » of life can be seen and experienced more clearly.
The practice and certification of the 3 year training in Somatic Experiencing is governed by a code of ethics in the US (https://traumahealing.org), Europe (https://somatic-experiencing-europe.org) and other geographies, with regional governing boards in different regions of the world.
I bring the methods and tools of SE to the work I do with Transformational Breath and with the Tamalpa Life Art Process.
