Somatic experiencing

Does anyone use this in their therapy? Has it helped you? Does your T use it in conjunction with EMDR? That's what my T wants to do with me.

I've never heard of it. It sounds interesting though from what you said in your other thread.

I don't know about EMDR but I did see a somatic therapist in conjunction with my own T and I found it helpful. What exactly is she proposing?

Thanks, skysblue. My T went to a workshop about SE so, for the last 2 weeks she has been asking me how my body feels more than she used to. I don't like "body" questions. Like: is there any part of your body that feels good right now? (that was after I felt so sad doing EMDR).

During my session Tuesday she told me about SE and showed me how it works with a slinky. I tuned it all out because I was upset, though. She told me I could read online about Peter Levine and SE so I did. It seems to make sense.

She always used to ask me how my body feels because that fits in with her therapy style, but now she is going to ask me more! She says we will go slow with the EMDR because I "get lost in the past" and that's not good for me. I reluctantly agree with that today, now that I have thought about it a lot. So, i put my toe in, then she will stop and ask how my body feels. Slowly, she says.

I guess we are doing trauma work though I never accepted that I had any. She thinks I did, and that's okay. I certainly felt awful when we did EMDR about her leaving me! She's going to incorporate this SE stuff into the EMDR is the way I understand it. I'm not against knowing how my body feels once I get past the yuck of "my body". I think SE will get me to cry with my T instead of simply saying "I feel sad." That is a goal of mine so maybe it will happen. I told her I feel in my brain and she says the trauma is stored in my body. I think that's what Levine says.

A friend of mine does sacral cranial stuff (or cranial sacral - I forget which way it goes) in conjunction with her therapy. She really likes it and it seems to tie in a lot of the somatic body stuff.

My T mixes in SE with other general talk therapy methods. She doesn't do EMDR, at least with me. She describes what we're doing as trauma work as well. I've come to really enjoy it, because it's helped me to reconnect with my body, from which I had been dissociated for a good long time. Not that it's easy, or anything, but I feel like I have more access to my full experience now.

After probably a year of SE-type work, I started really crying in therapy. I think I maybe swung to the other extreme for a bit, but that was about more than the SE stuff.

I appreciate that your T is wanting to do what's helpful for you, but I think I might be a little wary of having my T try new techniques after having attended only one workshop. Maybe it was an intensive one, though? At any rate, I hope that it's helpful for you.

sT does a little of it (but no emdr) and not that in depth as what I've read about; I remember reading a bit about it last year and in connection with a book called "waking the tiger" - written by Levine - might be worth you looking at that

Thank you, likelife. I think I will learn to like the SE too, and it will get me to feel comfortable with my body at the same time. I know many people don't like to cry in therapy but it's been a goal of mine forever!

I trust my T even though she attended only 1 workshop: I think it was a few days or at least a week-end. She has always incorporated "body work" in her therapy. She does yoga and meditates, and has taught me to pay atention to my breathing. IFS fits with body stuff, too, as does EMDR. So it's not a new concept to my T at all.

Yes, I've heard of "Waking the Tiger" and I will certainly be reading it now. Thanks for the reminder. Levine invented the concept of SE I think.

When I first went to see my T, he asked me questions about where I felt things in my body. He called it somatic experiencing and the first book he asked me to read was Waking the Tiger by Peter Levine. We were going to do trauma work and he wanted me to understand how trauma is about getting stuck and we can hold that stuckness not only in our brain but in parts of our body. My T and I did EMDR for trauma work. T mixed in the SE with the EMDR as well as our regular talk therapy.

For those interested, you can read more about SE and Levine here:
http://www.traumahealing.com/

In general, we didn't do too much of the SE. I didn't respond well to it. I didn't know what to say when he would ask me those questions, and it distracted me from our forward motion. We would be doing well, going down a certain track in recalling/recounting/processing the trauma and then T would ask me where I felt it in my body and this would pull me up short. It was like a therapy progress killer! It's not that I felt yucky about it, as you mentioned, Rainbow, but that I didn't feel anything really in my body that seemed relevant to our discussion, and T would wait expectantly and I would feel this pressure to feel something in my body so I could tell him something and not "fail" his question. Pressure! The SE stuff seemed to distract from our trauma work. I think T realized the SE was actually impeding our progress more than helping. We were on the "fast track" since I had pressing outside concerns that made doing the trauma work sooner rather than later very important. So he tried to facilitate that and go with what was working best for me. I seemed to do pretty well with the EMDR so I don't think de-emphasizing the SE caused problems. I preferred the conceptualization of EMDR, that the trauma memories didn't get processed correctly and became stuck in your brain. The alternating stimuli of the EMDR help shake those stuck memories loose and let them be processed normally. I didn't need to bring the body into things in order to profit from that brain explanation.

There was this other time early in therapy when T asked me to punch a pillow and sometimes hug pillows. I was especially not good at punching a pillow. It made me feel silly. I would gamely try it and be looking at T with an "am I doing this right?" look on my face. At some point, T said he could tell this was not going to work for me, and he abandoned the punching the pillow approach. (I never had any idea what it was for.)

In the Mindsight book by Daniel Siegel, the author talks about helping people who are highly analytical and ultra rational get more in touch with the other parts of their brain by doing SE-type exercises, practicing sensing feelings in their body and connecting them to emotions. I wonder now if my T tried to get me to do those SE exercises because he felt I was too analytical/rational?? I will have to ask him that sometime.

My T gets excited about various types of therapy and approaches but not all of them seem to "stick", or so it seems. He goes to a workshop, gets jazzed about something, and is big on it for a while, then goes back to a more even approach. I don't know how he decides who should do EMDR, who should do SE, who should do psychodrama, Lifespan Integration, Ego State therapy, etc. I guess it is good for the T to have a big box of tools so he can pull out just the right thing for the unique client in front of him. Anyway, Rainbow, your T is probably super excited about SE right now because of the workshop, but she may tone it down as time passes.

I had never heard of it until now, but it sounds interesting. Like I said, my T always asks me the body questions, so maybe it is something in his toolbox that he has never given a name to.

I hope you do well with it rainbow...keep us informed.

My t told me 2-3 years ago that I need SE, but that she does not do it and didn't know anybody local who did. However, lately, she has been asking me how i feel in my body when i have emotions. So I'm guessing she has done some reading or research into it.

Rainbow,

I know you like to analyze things and it's sometimes hard for you to access your emotions, especially in the session. SE might be really helpful to you in learning to be in touch with what's inside of you.

I just read online that Peter Levine's institute for training in SE is a 3 year program. Do you think I should question my T about her workshop and whether they told her it was enough to start using it with clients?

I know I'm going to ask her anyway, probably in my 4th email this week. My H says I'm defending her, which is something I've done with all my Ts. I need a reality check, please. I know how much I defended my former T who didn't even have a license to practice therapy! My current T has credentials, is a social worker, and is certified in IFS and EMDR, but this SE is something new. I think she's just adding the basic idea to my therapy, but is that something I should be concerned about? Speaking of SE, thinking that my T may be doing something wrong makes me depressed and worried.

I'll probably email her right now. She doesn't answer emails, but maybe she will since she knows I'm kind of triggered by the session.

I emailed my T and expressed my concerns. I told her NOT to email me back because she would ignore my other emails about my feelings during and after the session and I would feel miserable. So, I feel better that I was honest and said I didn't want to be a guinea pig. I am sure she'll have a rational answer as to what parts of SE she learned about and can use, but I still have a right to question her, don't I?

Why are you so worried about SE? It definitely seems worth a try.

skysblue, I'm not worried about SE. I'm concerned because on Peter Levine's website, it said the training is 3 years! My T went to one workshop and now she wants to do it. Likelife questioned it, Peaches' T wanted her to go to someone else who practiced it, and my H says I'm defending my T too much! It's true that my T has gone to other workshops and seems to think what she learned is wonderful, on other related subjects. I know there was something else she wanted to try, but I forgot what it was.

She gave up IFS for EMDR even when she was new at it. She did, to her credit, suggest I see someone more experienced instead of her, but I chose to see her anyway. Now she has 2 years more experience with EMDR and more training.

I don't want to be a guinea pig! I think it was a week-end workshop but 3 years is 3 years. How could she know how to do it if it's usually a 3 year course?

I'll find out on Tuesday. I DO want to try it, but I want to be sure my T knows what she's doing.

She may be qualified to do certain aspects of SE after completing part of the curriculum. They may learn more advanced techniques in years 2 and 3, but maybe year 1 is sufficient for the basics. I'll be interested to hear what she says.

According to the SE website, this is what they will have learned after the first year (3 four-day workshops):

• Understand the physiological basis of trauma.
• Learn about containment, resourcing and empowerment.
• Study tracking skills, titration and establishing continuity through the felt sense.
• Practice establishing defensive orienting responses, completion and discharge.
• Explore coupling dynamics, the elements of internal experience (SIBAM), and integrating experiential polarities, in order to restore creative self-regulation.
• Be able to identify, normalize, and stabilize traumatic reactions.
• Attain skills to avoid pitfalls of re-traumatization and false memory.
• Learn to uncouple fear from immobility; re-establish and maintain healthy boundaries.
• Investigate the transformative qualities of trauma.
• Integrate trauma work into ongoing therapy.
• Acquire short-term solutions to acute and chronic symptoms.

Does any of this sound like what your T is doing with you? The second and third years list different skills and applications.

Thanks for the information, sunrise. I have no idea what my T learned but I think it was only a week-end. What I don't understand is that 4 days is considered a YEAR? To me, attending classes once or twice/weekly for a semester is what I consider a year! Hmm. Four days of 8 hours each equals 30 weeks of classes! So 4 days intensive CAN be a year I guess. It still seems odd to me.

No, it's 3 four-day workshops in one year. So 12 days a year. Then there are 3 years worth, so a total of 36 days over 3 years. At least that is how I interpreted it. And they don't have to do all 3 levels, they could just do the begimner level and stop after 12 days training (1 year). At least that is how I read it. Plus, there are individual 1:1 training sessions too and case consultation. It is quite a lot of training. My guess is many Ts are able to apply the techniques in session after just doing the first year's worth of training. Sounds like your T has completed the first of 3 workshops for the first year of training (beginning level). You can learn more at the SE web site.

Rainbow...your T has always wanted and done what is best for you. It could be that she is excited about what she learned and is thinking "wow, this could help rainbow!". After everything you have said about her I doubt that she would put your emotional health in danger on a whim. You just said that when she was new at EMDR she offered to send you to someone who was better at it. So she knows her limitations. That proves that she is cautious about the new things she learns. Please don't ruin your weekend stressing about this.