Somatic Experiencing 101

A question I often get is, “What does a Somatic Experiencing session look like?” Admittedly, this is not always the easiest question to answer because sometimes words don’t do an experience justice, yet one needs to know what to expect. What follows is my best (current) explanation in accessible terms.

Beginning with Somatic Experiencing

Upon first meeting, I like to get to know you and what brings you into this work. That means there will still be some talking. No, somatic work does not mean we’re just dancing the hour away to music. It means we work with the body experience in addition to all the other parts that show up like thoughts, feelings, or memories. Like most therapeutic practices, we start with basic talk therapy. This is still important. Talking helps us set the stage for a relationship where you begin to trust a person to guide you through a somatic process.

Once we’ve chatted a bit, there will likely be space to start exploring our most essential somatic skills: Grounding and Orienting.

Grounding

This is our “touch grass” skill. While I don’t have grass in my office, what I will have you do is practice your ability to engage your attention with your internal world as it connects to your environment.

I generally start by directing attention to the lower body. The key focal point will be to feel the physical sensations of these areas. Very simply, you’ll be asked to notice temperature, pressure, energy, and perceived activation in your legs or feet. As we place attention within these spaces, you’ll likely experience a physiological shift. What did you become aware of? How did you notice that a change took place? This task is simple and repeatable. It makes grounding a key resource for when we experience increased activation later on.

Orienting

Like grounding, orienting is present-centered, but more focused on engaging the senses of our surrounding environment. You’ve heard of naming 5 things you can see, 4 things you can feel, … etc. We’re going to simplify that. We’ll start by orienting to one thing and one sense at a time.

The aim here is to not overwhelm the system, but to pull you out of a “too wired” moment. With this we anchor ourselves with only one sense and our response. This practices helps build our ability to name our experiences in a palatable and accessible manner.

Expanding the Experience

After we’ve practiced these basic skills, I aim to develop your somatic language. This is not always the most natural thing for many of us to express, so I often teach this while we explore the nervous system states. This process will be tailored specifically to your experiences as they arise. As we explore the landscape of your nervous system, I will map out how our emotional systems work, how we respond to threat, and what that means for reaching your goals. This process generally helps us build a roadmap to exploring and integrating your internal experiences.

The Deeper End

Keep in mind that ALL experiences are going to be unique. I have no explicit way of replicating experiences because we follow what your system needs. But here’s a glimpse it how it may look.

Let’s say you’ve arrived with an strong feeling that you’ve been curious about for several weeks. After ensuring we’ve settled into the present moment, we’ll begin exploring what you know about that feeling. This will unfold with my guidance through the language of sensation, the emergence of imagery, the relationship of emotions, and any impulses that arrive. After that, we follow what arrives for you in your experience. If there is overwhelm, I will direct you to regulatory practices. If you can tolerate discomfort, we’ll explore it. When we explore and follow your internal experiences, we’ll navigate towards discharge. What that means is that I will work with your system to find the experience that leads your body to a feeling of completion or relief. When appropriate, we’ll rinse and repeat that process to fully integrate the experience.

What Does This Really Look Like?

I hear you. You still need an example. What follows is small glimpse into one of my own somatic experiences:

With a lingering sense of agitation over several weeks, I noticed the emergence of dense heaviness in my chest. Not heavy like being weighed down by gravity, but a heaviness like a solid concrete brick. Cool and gray, slowly pushing down.

At the same time, I sensed a fiery, chaotic feeling pool in my pelvis seemingly pressing up against the concrete block. As observed, anger washes over me.

Other distinct memories emerge as I express my profound rage. Memories of support. Loss. Hope. Empowerment. And as I witness tears and pulsating within my face and head, the concrete block starts to shatter.

Encouraged to feel into my legs and move, the fiery scene in my pelvis shifts to a violent, but beautiful wave. I bring attention to my legs, my hands and core, and as I do so the water carves what looks like coral out of my concrete block.

As my colorful internal imagery subsides, I become aware of more pure physical sensations. Pulsating, shaking, vibrating. My fast heart rate. Heat. My attention is pulled to my legs fully trembling beneath me. And I allow it. I feel it. Every rise, every fall until the shaking fully subsides. We’d call that the completion of a response.

Recap

Once again, each SE session will always be just a bit different. Some might result in profound shifts. Other sessions, it will feel far more subtle and will encourage you to focus on finding yourself in the present to build your ability to sense yourself. Both pictures have their own value and aren’t comparable.

I encourage all who are new to somatic work to slow down, become curious, and start building a vocabulary for your inner world to support you in this journey.