Somatic Experiencing is a form of trauma therapy aimed at reducing physical reactions to a threatening event. The origin of the method lies in behavioral observations of wild animals, whose stimulus-response cycle is comparable to that of humans. Somatic Experiencing is a low-risk procedure, but it can trigger retraumatization in some circumstances.
What is Somatic Experiencing?
Somatic Experiencing is a body-based model for treating and integrating traumatic events developed by psychologist and biophysicist Dr. Peter Levine in the United States. According to the model, traumas such as accidents, violence, threats, natural disasters, war or the loss of a close person have serious physical and psychological effects. Somatic Experiencing assumes a stimulus-response cycle in humans, as it also occurs in the animal kingdom. Animals living in the wild often find themselves in acutely life-threatening situations, but do not develop lasting trauma as a result. This is due to their ability to relieve the stress that occurs in the struggle for survival by attacking, fleeing, or playing dead. Since the human brain cannot process traumas completely or only after a long delay, they continue to have an effect in the brain and nervous system. There they cause symptoms such as depression, anxiety, panic attacks, pain, exhaustion, concentration problems or immune deficiencies. The organism is still struggling with the threat when it has long passed. Most therapy methods do not consider these processes in the treatment of trauma. From the perspective of Somatic Experiencing, however, this is necessary because otherwise affected individuals continue to react and make decisions from the perspective of the trauma.
Function, effect, and goals
During a traumatic event, the human organism is mainly controlled by the brain stem. This part of the brain is responsible for functions that are essential for survival, such as blood pressure, reflexes, and breathing. The human reaction mode in a trauma situation is therefore not influenceable by intellect or arbitrariness, but follows a fixed pattern. If this pattern is not followed completely, a trauma sequelae disorder develops. The pattern consists of three different reactions: Fight, flight, and play dead. These mechanisms run uncontrolled. If, for example, a conflict situation arises in everyday working life, the fight is recognizable as a readiness for verbal or perhaps also physical aggression. The flight instinct occurs when the affected person wants to leave the scene as quickly as possible, and deadness manifests itself in a state of physical and mental paralysis, an inability to react to the situation. This is an example of trauma of a very low magnitude. However, the same reactions occur in a war or in a serious traffic accident. According to Peter Levine, the developer of Somatic Experiencing, trauma is bound up in the nervous system. He describes it as the body’s response to a life-threatening situation that takes away the flexibility of the nervous system. Somatic Experiencing relies on a reenactment of the pattern of fight, flight and play dead in therapy to allow recovery of the brain and nervous system. During therapy, these elements may reoccur individually or together. Treatment proceeds in a strongly resource-oriented manner. By promoting supportive resources, the trauma is stabilized and the pathological energy bound up in the nervous system is reduced. During therapy, care must be taken to ensure an accurate dosage of stress. Excessive or insufficient demands trigger too strong or too weak a result, which in the worst case can lead to re-traumatization. The therapy consists mainly of conversations. Language serves as a medium to perceive and express perceptual processes of the brain and nervous system. Working through the trauma has a positive effect on the autonomic nervous system, which is responsible for vital functions such as heartbeat, breathing or gland control. Balancing the nervous system simultaneously regulates muscle tone, blood circulation and glandular function. The goal of the treatment is to completely dissolve the trauma energies in the nervous system. The affected person should no longer perceive certain stimuli as triggers for pathological behavior patterns, but should be able to focus his reactions and consciousness on the present.With successful therapy, a positive, liberated feeling occurs, which affects the entire organism.
Risks, side effects and dangers
The great advantage of Somatic Experiencing is the shortened duration of treatment. While psychotherapy sometimes takes years, Somatic Experiencing is often completed after just a few sessions. Pure trauma therapy cannot be compared to psychotherapy, because it focuses on the body instead of the psyche. In most cases, Somatic Experiencing also has a less stressful effect on those affected, since the emotional level is largely bypassed. Since Somatic Experiencing works with the brain stem, where the trauma memory is located, it is not necessary to have a complete memory of the trauma in order to be able to resolve the physical consequences. It is very often a matter of unconscious processes taking place on an energetic level. However, the method does not offer a complete substitute for psychotherapeutic treatment. Somatic Experiencing involves the risk of re-traumatization if the therapist or the person affected make the treatment process too intensive. During therapy, reduced professional performance or difficulties in social relationships cannot be ruled out. Once a treatment has been started, it is imperative that it be terminated, because if it is discontinued, the consequences will be much more severe than the original ones. Somatic Experiencing has hardly been researched scientifically. The medical fields of psychology, physiology and neurology are only beginning to address the subject.
