Somaticexperiencingint

Somatic Experiencing® was developed by Dr. Peter A. Levine, a psychologist and researcher whose work explores how the body stores and releases trauma through the nervous system. His approach drew heavily on observations of how animals in the wild physically shake off stress after a threat has passed, applying those insights to human trauma recovery.

Yes, Somatic Experiencing International is a registered nonprofit organization based in the United States. Its stated mission is to transform lives through trauma healing and to spread Dr. Peter A. Levine's method to both individuals and licensed mental health professionals worldwide.

The felt sense is an internal, body-based awareness — a holistic, often vague physical impression of how you are feeling in a given moment — that SE practitioners guide clients to tune into during sessions. Working with the felt sense allows people to track where trauma responses are held in the body so those incomplete physiological responses can gradually complete and discharge.

Yes, Somatic Experiencing International actively offers professional training and continuing education resources aimed at therapists, counselors, and other licensed clinicians. The organization's content is specifically tailored for mental health professionals who want to integrate trauma-informed and somatic approaches into their existing practice.

Pendulation is a core SE technique that involves gently guiding a person's awareness back and forth between a place of activation or distress and a place of relative calm or inner resource. This rhythmic movement is designed to gradually build the nervous system's capacity to tolerate difficult sensations without becoming overwhelmed or shutting down.

To earn the Somatic Experiencing Practitioner credential, you complete a multi-year professional training program organized by Somatic Experiencing International that covers the theory, neuroscience, and hands-on application of the SE method. The SEP designation signals that a practitioner has met the organization's standards for delivering somatic trauma therapy.

Somatic Experiencing was specifically designed as a body-based approach to resolving PTSD and trauma by targeting the incomplete survival responses that the nervous system holds after overwhelming events. Rather than focusing primarily on the verbal narrative of what happened, SE works to gradually discharge the physiological activation that remains stuck in the body long after the threat has passed.

Traditional talk therapy works primarily through verbal processing of thoughts, memories, and emotions, while Somatic Experiencing treats body sensations, posture, movement, and breathing as the main entry points into trauma healing. The SE model holds that trauma is not purely a cognitive or emotional event but a disruption in the nervous system that must be addressed at the physiological level.

Somatic comes from the Greek word for body, and in the context of Somatic Experiencing it signals that the body — not just the mind — is the primary site of both trauma and healing. This distinguishes SE from purely cognitive or psychodynamic approaches by centering physical awareness and nervous system regulation throughout the therapeutic process.

Somatic Experiencing International posts nervous system education, body-awareness prompts, and trauma-informed resources across Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok, with Instagram being the platform where the organization has built its largest community. Content is aimed at a broad audience of curious individuals as well as licensed mental health professionals seeking practitioner-level guidance.