Now that I have started to recover from the shock of my therapist discussing a referral to a somatic experiencing t, I have decided to find out more about it. I live near Denver, and my therapist told me the first name of this t, but she did not know the last name and said she'd have to find it for me. In the meantime, my t asked me to do a little research on the Net about somatic experiencing and think about whether i want to try it or not.

So. . . the past couple of days, I've been reading on some Web sites about SE. Interestingly, I happened to come upon a Web site for the SE therapist my t mentioned. I know it must be her, because it shows her located in Denver and my t told me she has the same first name I do (same spelling also, which is rare).

Anyway, I decided to send the SE therapist an email, telling her that my t had discussed a possible referral to her for some short-term SE work. In the email, I asked 3 or 4 questions about SE. One of them was if SE could include safe comforting touch during trauma processing if it helped the client "get it out" and made the pain more manageable.

We'll see what she says.

Do you think I should tell my t that i contacted this SE t? Or not? I'm afraid that, even though it sounds like it might benefit me, when it comes down to it, I won't want to do it because it would involve not having therapy with my t for several weeks. I don't think i could handle that. Breaks have always been hard for me, and then it's hard to reconnect. I'm afraid the long separation might increase the disconnect I'm already feeling with my t.