Somatic Experiencing® Therapy

in Colorado Springs

In-person and online throughout Colorado.

What is Somatic Experiencing® Therapy?

Somatic Experiencing (SE™) is a body-oriented approach to healing trauma, chronic stress, and nervous system dysregulation. Developed by Dr. Peter Levine, it focuses on helping the nervous system recover from overwhelming experiences rather than relying on insight alone.

What can SE™ help with?

  • Trauma and PTSD

  • Anxiety and panic

  • Chronic stress and burnout

  • Attachment wounds

  • Feeling disconnected from yourself

  • Difficulty relaxing or feeling safe

How does SE™ work?

When something overwhelming happens, your nervous system automatically prepares to protect you. It may mobilize for fight or flight, or shut down into freeze when escape isn't possible.

In a perfect world, once the threat has passed, the nervous system settles back into balance. But sometimes that process gets interrupted. In this case, the body can continue carrying the stress long after the event is over, leaving us feeling anxious, disconnected, on edge, exhausted, or stuck in patterns that don't seem to make sense relative to our current situation.

Somatic Experiencing® helps your nervous system complete what it wasn't able to complete at the time. Rather than focusing only on thoughts and memories, we pay attention to the body's responses that are (very much) still present. By working slowly and gently with sensations, emotions, and nervous system states, your body can begin releasing stored survival energy and experience a sense of safety.

As the nervous system becomes less stuck in patterns of fight, flight, or freeze, many people experience greater calm, resilience, connection, and freedom in their daily lives.

What actually happens in a Somatic Experiencing therapy session?

Somatic Experiencing® Therapy sessions often feel similar to traditional therapy, with one important difference: we'll pay attention not only to your thoughts and emotions, but also to what your nervous system is communicating through your body.

As we talk, I’ll invite you to notice sensations, tension, movement, or shifts in your energy and emotions. While we'll both be paying attention to subtle experiences in the body, I will be tracking a wide range of information in real time: patterns of activation and regulation, shifts in attention, signs of safety or protection, and the ways your nervous system is attempting to move toward resolution (catching those interrupted defense responses mentioned in the last question).

What we track may seem simple on the surface, but there’s a great deal happening behind the scenes. The questions we ask are informed by a framework of understanding how the nervous system responds to stress and trauma. My role is to help guide the process, noticing opportunities to re-route the nervous system to a new pattern that would otherwise be easy to miss on our own.

You don't need to relive traumatic events or have a detailed understanding of what's happening in your body. My role is to help you slow down, notice patterns, and support your nervous system in finding more balance, flexibility, and capacity.

The goal isn't to analyze every symptom and find the hidden meaning of each sensation. It's to help your body learn that it no longer has to stay stuck in survival mode.

For more of a detailed description of what to expect from a Somatic Experiencing® session

For research, articles, and resources on Somatic Experiencing® check out the website.

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