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What
is Somatic Experiencing®?
By Peter Levine, Ph.D.
Somatic Experiencing® is a naturalistic approach to the resolution of
traumatic stress reactions. It is based upon the ethnological observation
that animals in the wild utilize innate homeostatic mechanisms to regulate
and neutralize the high levels of arousal associated with defensive survival
behaviors. Somatic Experiencing normalizes the symptoms of trauma,
which bind this arousal, and offers the steps needed to resolve the
activation and heal trauma. Although humans possess regulatory
mechanisms virtually identical to those in animals, the function of these
systems is often overridden by neo-cortical inhibition (by the rational
mind). This restraint leads to the formation of a constellation of symptoms,
including pain, patterns of bracing and collapse, intrusion, anxiety and
cognitive dysfunction. Through the focal awareness of bodily sensation, individuals
are able to access these restorative physiological action patterns, allowing
the highly aroused survival energies to be safely and gradually neutralized.
Unregulated arousal previously "locked in" the neuromuscular and
central nervous systems can be discharged and completed, thus preventing and
resolving traumatic symptoms. NOTE: For a more detailed discussion
of trauma, see Peter Levine's book Waking The Tiger (readily
available in bookstores or through MCHI
Press). For more information on Somatic Experiencing (including
articles written by Peter Levine) you can click on http://www.traumahealing.com.
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