Somatic Experiencing

When I deliberately set about to get help in my healing journey it was right after I learned about somatic experiencing. It might have been a podcast where I heard about it for the first time. It definitely could have been Beyond MeToo. What struck me about it was that it addresses the problem or stress held in a specific place in your body and sort of uses that as a doorway that can lead to a traumatic event when it began. For me, it’s the tension I hold in my jaw–especially while I’m sleeping.

I couldn’t find very many therapists who practice it and none who were available. So I dove into Peter Levine’s book Waking the Tiger. He’s the guy who really came up with it, and that’s the comprehensive book, but he has a small book with an audio component that guides you through exercises. 

I know that everyone is tossing around the word trauma these days, but Levine was one of the first to explicitly go after traumatic events trapped in our bodies. (In the 1990s) The explanation he gave that stuck with me involved an animal being hunted…I think a deer, and the scientists studied its response after nearly escaping an attack on its life–high stress! It went into a frozen state, and then it came back with shuddering motions–shaking off the trauma and leaving the incident in its past and going on with its day. 

Levine explained that our minds are TOO evolved now, and that we don’t simply shudder trauma off our backs but store it. And it can stay stuck in that frozen state inside of us and can  continue to be triggered to a fight or flight response. It’s an interesting overlap of our basic animalistic nature and our evolved humanity.

That’s my interpretation, but here is the official website https://www.somaticexperiencing.com/somatic-experiencing

So, I never did find a somatic therapist. My last two therapists are both familiar with it. My current therapist uses what I consider a version of this in her “parts work” or Internal Family Systems therapy…I suppose that’s another topic.

In the meantime, I still clench my jaw while I sleep. If I eat breakfast too early, my jaw doesn’t want to unlock enough for me to open my mouth to get the granola in there. 

I’m a work in progress.