126 Pearl St, Fort Collins, CO 80521, US
Appointments: (970) 229-1617
SOMATIC EXPERIENCING
When a friend asked janet how much has se Contributed to her effectiveness as a physical therapist, she confidently shared that she felt she was at least 25% more effective having Somatic Experiencing (SE) as a treatment tool despite already having been known for getting good results prior to her SE training. In some cases it is a dramatic solution to chronic pain as the following story illustrates.
Adrianne was a runner but she had not been able to run without pain in her left hip for years. She had seen multiple practitioners for her hip pain. On the first visit to Janet, Visceral Manipulation was used to correct the visceral and resultant pelvic and spinal misalignment. When she returned for her third visit, her pelvis and lower back was in alignment but there was no change in her pain.
Now suspecting Autonomic Nervous System (ANS) dysregulation, using palpation and perceptual awareness, Janet was able to notice a “freeze” in her left hip area. She asked Adrianne to put her attention on her left hip and “from a felt sense standpoint,” see what she noticed in her hip area. Adrianne reported, “It feels like a deer in headlights.” Janet asked her to put her attention there to see what came next.
Adrianne had a memory of a horse, which fell on her there years earlier. She had disembodied that area as a result of the intensity of the experience. It is interesting to note that Adrianne did not report this event when her physical impact history was taken in the initial evaluation, most likely because the memory of the event was frozen in time in the "trauma vortex".
As the horse was falling toward her she believed she would die or be severely maimed. Using SE principles, a “renegotiation” of this event was therapeutically navigated and Adrianne felt an immediate rush of sensation down her left leg. She returned two weeks later with a 70% decrease in her mptoms for the first time in years. Three more sessions and Adrianne was discharged. Several years later Janet had the opportunity to ask Adrianne how her hip was. She reported that she had just finished running a marathon.
SOMATIC EXPERIENCING
Somatic Experiencing (SE) is a body-centered, biological approach for the transformation of autonomic nervous system dysregulation developed by Dr. Peter A. Levine.
In response to a perceived threat, we have three possible automatic, instinctual, survival responses--fight, flight, or freeze. Each of these states is mediated through our autonomic (automatic or involuntary) nervous system (ANS) and has a specific set of physiological symptoms. Each feels a certain way in the body. The response, or defense, is determined by our survival or “reptilian” brain and not our conscious mind.
Fight and flight are controlled by the sympathetic branch of the ANS. The gas pedal of our nervous system is engaged. When this part of our nervous system is activated we are preparing for action. Action requires an increase in energy to our muscles, increased heart rate and breathing rate. Our digestive functioning decreases because we don’t need to digest when we have to run or fight. The felt sense of activation in the nervous system can include agitation, anxiousness, vigilance, muscle tension, or dryness of mouth.
Freezing, or immobilization, is a third instinctual, involuntary response and the biological affect differs from fight and flight. Although the freeze response is also instinctual or automatic, it offers a solution to the dilemma of potential death and pain: it reduces the amount of pain we might feel and feigns a death state. Essentially, a freeze or immobility response is also a successful escape of sorts. Both the gas pedal and brake of our nervous system are engaged at the same time. The felt sense of freeze in the nervous system can include feelings of numbness, frozenness, immobility, or a lack of body sensation.
The felt sense/physiology of “fight or flight” is familiar to many of us. However, freeze, the “deer in headlights” state, is difficult for most to distinguish. In this state, we feel emotionally flat, our thoughts may be scattered, we refrain from social contact. And we may not know why (have a memory) we feel this way.
Typically freeze is not the first option on the threat response menu. First is fight or flight. The following story illustrates the threat response cycle. Let us say there is a rabbit eating grass, enjoying the calm state in his nervous system. Next, he hears a twig snap, turns and sees a coyote. His options at this point are to fight (not a great option due to the size differential) or to flight. Based on thousands of years of evolution, he starts running. He mobilizes his ANS into the “flight” response with all the accompanying physiology. As the coyote gets closer and the rabbit’s nervous system perceives that he may be overtaken and eaten, he freezes. He falls over, looks dead—“playing possum.” Freeze and dissociation is a survival and safety mechanism. It doesn’t hurt as bad to be eaten in this state. Important to remember is the fact that whenever there is freeze there is more activation (with its various symptoms) under that freeze. Essentially the activation is contained under the lid of the freeze in the system. Now, the coyote pokes at the rabbit, and eventually leaves. Once the rabbit’s nervous system perceives that the threat is gone he discharges the underlying activation. Films of this behavior typically show a distinctive wave of shaking. After the discharge the rabbit exhibits a bounding, running energy termed “pronking.” More energy than he demonstrated before seeing the coyote is liberated.
What this story illustrates is that large amounts of biological energy are used to enter into a fight-or-flight response. After the threat is over, our nervous systems, if allowed to do so, will discharge or dissipate the nervous system charge by shaking, release of heat, tears, etc. If the energy that the body mobilized in response to the threat is able to dissipate--and a successful negotiation of the experience results, the chance of a traumatic stress response and symptom formation is greatly reduced. However, if due to the nature of the situation, one is unable to discharge the biological energies, they get trapped within the body. The body’s attempt to manage and contain this unused energy results in any number of symptoms from low back pain to anxiety or panic attacks. Now, sensory experiences reminiscent of the original trauma can trigger or re-stimulate these biological energies.
After an overwhelming event or series of events the gas pedal (activation) or brake (freeze) of our nervous system can get stuck. SE treatment seeks to discharge the survival energies in order to help the autonomic nervous system regain its equilibrium and resilience. SE employs precise techniques to help clients “renegotiate” and transform these experiences.
Somatic Experiencing focuses on gradually discharging and resolving the frozen unresolved activation locked in the autonomic nervous system to complete our survival instincts. A key component of this method is repeatedly alternating between a manageable amount of nervous system activation and actively engaged resources that stimulate a relaxation discharge. Trembling, shaking, tears, expansion and heat are signs of discharge in the nervous system.
SE is considered a body-centered form of treatment because of its primary focus on the bodily “felt sense.” With this method, it is not in the re-experiencing of adverse memories in which dysregluation is resolved, but rather by being in contact with our physiology, through body sensation, that is the key to discharging the activated sympathetic charge. Dr. Peter Levine states, “The only way to consciously access our healing resources is through sensation and the felt sense. Sensation is the language of the reptilian brain.”
When the body’s physiology releases these survival energies, often clients notice significant reduction or disappearance of their symptoms. Surprisingly, correction of spinal misalignment and feelings of empowerment can occur as well. The transformation process can allow people to deepen their sense of self and others.
AN EXCERPT FROM JANET’S BOOK:
HOW RESILIENT IS YOUR NERVOUS SYSTEM?
Imagine yourself walking barefoot in the grass when you see something in the grass (a stick, a rope) that looks like a snake. Your nervous system should respond as though it is a snake. Once you realize that it’s a stick or a rope, your healthy nervous system should return to a relaxed state within a reasonable amount of time. If your nervous system stays “on” or charged too long your system may be dysregulated. If you had no reaction, no activation, you may be stuck “off.”