Peter Levine's Somatic Experiencing - Any Experience? Has It Helped?

[new gamma rays]

I happened to come across Peter Levine's 'In an Unspoken Voice: How the Body Releases Trauma and Restores Goodness' at the library. I was briefly familiar with his work through youtube videos and the term Somatic Experiencing, but I didn't realize how literally physical it all is. He spends the first couple of chapters just talking about shivering and other natural responses to trauma - or how animals release traumatic encounters in the wild.

It makes me a little anxious, because I experienced almost countless traumatic shocks from forced hospitalization, events where my physical exposure to harm and my minds ability to even process it were all affected. I never even really got a chance to process what had happened on my own, or react in some 'natural' way as he talks about because the exposure to stress was always bursting its way in. Forget even having a chance to talk this through with a therapist or a sympathetic ear.

My family is intertwined through almost all of this. It was my mom and dad (and a therapist) who first accosted me with threats of hospitalization, which led to a physical encounter with my parents. And it was my mom who continued to push every single mental button I had, while under tremendous stress and pain right afterwards that eventually lead me to hit her almost as a knee jerk response to prevent further pain. That's what got me down the rabbit hole of forced hospitalization. I write this almost with no emotion, but my mind is still in fight or flight mode because I know I must have tremendous physical energy to release - and it comes out semi regularly - but I never feel safe doing so, and I feel especially on edge when I am on the edge of mentally not being able to handle everything anymore.

I haven't gotten very far into the book, but later on I think it describes techniques he - Peter Levine - developed in a therapeutic setting to safely release trauma. I was wondering if any one else had a therapist go through this approach. I have heard it called Somatic Experiencing. It sounds like it is quite the opposite of talking about things in therapy or EMDR. I' haven't reallly progressed in therapy to try either, but I was hoping to see if there were any good responses with the idea of physically releasing trauma.

 

[Chava]

I prefer it to talk therapy (which even with very good therapists just wasn't working well for me). Most of my trauma is very early developmental stuff, and also early medical emergencies and hospitalizations and separation from family (had other kids to take care of). I was not conscious during my worst traumas. Even the bits I remember, like leading up to them, are really difficult to put words to. Also, I struggle with a load of somatic symptoms and general dysregulation which has led to a lot of self destruction (self injury, alcoholism, anorexia...all helped me feel a little better). I have also been disconnected from my body for so long that I barely understand any other experience. I even lots hunger and thirst cues. I also have big challenges simply trusting others or even having anyone look at me or pay attention to me. The pressure to fill an hour with conversation just made me totally dysfunctional.

My current therapist uses Somatic Experiencing. The approach has been more helpful and hopeful and empowering for me. I've learned how to notice feelings in my body and how to respond better (it's not like a few appointments of releasing trauma since I have complex trauma). I don't have the added shame of being made to feel like my thoughts are irrational (like in CBT). I know when my thoughts don't make sense but they usually revolve around powerlessness and being able to recognize that I'm in some frozen trauma place...then I actually DO something to move myself out. I've had lots of shaking and stuff, but for me the therapy is more about learning how to simply be in my body and also learn more about my traumas (because as I feel safe I naturally have more body memories, or implicit memories, which are supposedly the most reliable)...and that feels very validating.

It's not for everyone. But it much different than talk therapy. So if anyone has gone through several talk therapists and feels hopeless, it's helpful to know there are other approaches to working with trauma.

 

[Born to Run]

After 20+ years of talk therapy, this method is saving my life, and I highly recommend it. In this post I wrote more about it: https://www.myptsd.com/threads/the-...-life-long-condition.51951/page-2#post-838823

ETA

I should add that it is not only the method, but also an experienced trauma therapist that is key to a successful therapy.

 

[Deleted member 28942]

I am doing Experiential/Hakomi therapy with my therapist. Although, it is not somatic experiencing it is similar tht it focuses on body sensations and identifying feelings, thoughts, experience, etc. I am benefiting from it and is way better then talk therapy. As @Chava said there is "no added shame of my thoughts are being irrational like in CBT".

Also, I just finished the book The Body Keeps the Score and this is one of the methods recommended there. It is an amazing book an if you have a chance get a copy and read it. Especially, if you have developmental trauma.

 

[Born to Run]

@UniversalBeing Would you mind telling a bit more about the specific therapy you do? Or point to maybe a good reference you know of. Thanks!

 

[Deleted member 28942]

@Born to Run here is a wiki link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hakomi

Mainly, I will start talking about a traumatic experience - I am usually emotionally numb - and my therapists will tell me notice your breath, what else do you notice in your body? Are there any images? Are there any words? She also does experiments. For example, she will ask me to push against something to express anger, also encourage me to stand up to my parents in my memory. This helped me to get in touch with my feelings and to bring more memories. We also started using EMDR in combination to the Hakomi method.

I found the Hakomi method quite useful for getting in touch with my feelings inside my body. Also, it is helpful for developing self-regulation, i.e. being able to experience negative feelings without being overwhelmed. Lack of self-regulation is one of the common symptoms in developmental trauma. EMDR is more intense and I feel more exhausted after it. My therapist said that she finds EMDR useful for changing negative beliefs and Hakomi method is better for self-regulation and bringing up memories.

 

[BlueOrange]

I'm doing something similar, in addition to talk therapy. It helps me.

Unfortunately, I don't have the brain or expertise to explain it well, and my T tends not to link what we do to official terminology or referencable sources. He may be concerned that I will look it up and tell him that he's doing it wrong (which is definitely something I would have done earlier on).

 

[Chava]

what else do you notice in your body? Are there any images? Are there any words? She also does experiments. For example, she will ask me to push against something

This actually sounds really similar to some of what I'm doing in therapy. I think many of the body psychotherapies work with the somatic awareness, describing these different sensations and states, completing some stuck responses, and the regulation.

I'm also just starting "The Body Keeps Score" and another book more specifically about developmental trauma. I go in phases of feeling willing to learn a little bit more and am in one of those now. Bessel van der Kolk's book is just so hugely recommended that I got too curious. So far, it feels very validating of my experience. I used to feel so fundamentally broken and f*%ed up. It helps to have others who can make sense of trauma, and all of my symptoms and things that make me hate myself start to make sense. Feels like I can sometimes be more patient with myself.

 

[Dana1010]

I wish I could say more about this. When I began reading Peter Levine's, Waking the Tiger, my body actually responded to what I was reading by jumping, jerking, and twitching in places. So I felt that since I had such an affirming reaction to mere text, the therapy itself would have a powerful effect. Well, I found myself a therapist certified in SE, and we wound up doing run of the mill talk therapy with very light dabbling in grounding, noticing body sensations, etc. I dropped her after a few months because I just felt that she was a Sunday driver in general who wanted to drag my therapy out forever for some reason. So just because you find someone certified in SA, don't think you're going to get anything like what you see in the videos or read about in the book. Check them out. Ask what the process actually looks like for them. I hope one day the myriad forces of my own health insurance, geographical proximity and doctor-patient chemistry coalesce and I can experience real deal SE for myself. Until then I'll have to settle for talk therapy, which you shouldn't discount entirely even if you have success with SE, IMO.

 

[shimmerz]

I was on a road trip visiting friends when I read one of his books. Specifically I was sitting in a restaurant eating pancakes. I completely bolted out of the restaurant because after reading the first page I was f*ed in the head. Scary thing that. I dropped for a day and a half after that page. I have no idea how I got back to my hotel.

I happened to find a SE therapist at a party less than a year later who took me on for free. Wasn't such a good experience but I think that had a ton to do with how physically activated I was at the time. It was way too much for me and I don't think she was very good at understanding how I was not a great client to push. Last time I left her place I dropped in the parking lot waiting for my ride. They picked me up off the ground and was out again for days. *sigh* The good old days.

 

[shell]

I do somatic experiencing combined with cbt, which usually involves me processing it by connecting to what is going in my body, to release what is going on in my body. It stops me dissociating so much, and numbing my emotions. I really react by bracing my body to my trauma, as if I was about to be attacked again, as it was very physical. I have found this to be a more grounding way for me to connect with processing.

It has helped me to release a lot of the trauma I was holding in my body. I will be starting body work to release the stress I hold in my body soon with someone, which we wil use in conjunction with my therapy to work on the body armouring I have been using for years, and hopefully release some of the pains I have been experiencing as a result of the abuse I suffered.

Somatic experiencing allows you to complete the physical response that was prevented from completion, pushing away an abuser, handing back the physical power that was denied during the trauma, for instance as I child I would have been beaten more for pushing away, or running away from my mother while she was harming me, now I act out all those things I needed to as a child but was powerless to do so. It helps to really send the message home, it's over, not everyone intends to harm me, I can protect myself, I am safe now. Words just seem empty to me, combined with physically taking back what was denied it seems to be absorbed more, as time goes on I find myself changing how I react to things.

For me it works, but only as well as I participate because if I let my shame at being seen get the better of me, then I don't do everything that is needed to release it, because I am too scared of looking stupid, or doing the wrong thing.

 

[Born to Run]

@Dana1010 I agree with you in that there are many SE practitioners, who do not really get it. I think it is best to have an all-round trauma therapist, who has SE as one of his methods available, and who understands it in the context of trauma. I have seen totally ridiculous videos on youtube by an SE practitioner, who really seemed to believe it is only grounding and noticing bodily sensations without further context. As SE is not a talk therapy, it is not true that you don't talk, of course you talk too, to put pieces into place.
I am reading 'The brain that changes itself' by Norman Doidge about neuroplasticity and there is a chapter on 'Psychoanalysis as a neuroplastic therapy'. It is true that talk therapy certainly should not be dismissed; the limitations for me were that early childhood trauma left me without any memories, and to access those SE is a life saver.

@UniversalBeing Thank you for explaining. I had never heard of it, but from what you describe and from the wiki it is very similar to SE, as Chava already mentioned as well. Interesting that both guys Levine and Kurtz have their institutes in Boulder, CO.

Somatic experiencing allows you to complete the physical response that was prevented from completion

Completion is essential to SE, and I wonder if this is also part of Hakomi? Do you work with the flight, fight, freeze, faint responses?