Somatic Experiencing®, developed by Dr. Peter Levine, provides a naturalistic, body-oriented approach to resolving the effects of trauma. It acknowledges that all humans have experienced some trauma in their lives.

Dr. Levine based his work upon the observation that wild prey animals, though threatened routinely, rarely remain traumatized, and his exploration of how this observation can be of help in resolving human traumas.

Animals in the wild utilize innate mechanisms to regulate and discharge the high levels of energy arousal associated with defensive survival behaviors. These mechanisms provide them with a built-in ‘’immunity’’ to trauma that enables them to return to normal in the aftermath of highly ‘’charged’’ life-threatening experiences.

With somatic experiencing work, clients are helped to physiologically release traumas that have remained held in the body, through helping them to complete the biological responses that have been interrupted.