Somatic trauma healing sessions
Feel the okness of the present moment and release the overwhelm of the past
The overwhelm of an event or period in your life that felt stressful or was life threatening can disregulate your nervous system. It can feel as if you are stuck or keep on being highjacked by automatic responses like spacing out, acting out or distracting away from.
In a private session we can explore how your unique nervous system is trying to keep you save from overwhelm. And what your nervous system needs from you to feel the relative okness of the present moment so it can start to regulate.
A more regulated nervous system can give you more capacity to be with the ups and downs of your life and a deeper connection to yourself and your surroundings.
In private sessions we find a way back to your innate sense of wholeness using Somatic Experiencing, yoga and iRest mindfulness meditation.
In person and online private sessions are available on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays.
The cost of a private session is $ 110 per hour (concession rates available).
Location in Lismore is Apollo health clinic, 131 Keen Street (first floor)
What is Somatic Experiencing?
Somatic Experiencing is a pioneering body awareness approach to healing trauma. It focuses on experiencing the ‘felt sense’ in the present moment to relieve the physical, emotional and physiological effects of post traumatic stress disorder and other stress and trauma-related health problems.
Somatic Experiencing was developed by Dr. Peter Levine who wrote the well-known book, Waking The Tiger: Healing Trauma. It is based upon the observation that wild prey animals, though threatened routinely, are rarely traumatised. Instead, they utilise innate mechanisms to regulate and discharge the high levels of energy arousal associated with the defensive survival behaviours of fight, flight or freeze. These mechanisms provide animals with ways to deal with trauma that enables them to return to normal in the aftermath of highly ”charged” life-threatening experiences.
Although humans have virtually the same regulatory mechanisms as animals, the function of these instinctive systems is often overridden or inhibited by the ”rational” part of our more highly developed brain, the neo cortex, or by learned behaviours. These restraints prevent the complete discharge of survival energies and do not allow the nervous system to regain its equilibrium. The body stays in a state of alertness even if the ‘danger’ is no longer present. Over time a variety of symptoms can develop.
Using the innate ability humans have to overcome trauma, Somatic Experiencing encourages and utilises the awareness of sensations in the body (or somatic experiences) to help you re-negotiate and resolve the effects of your trauma. The approach allows your instinctual actions that were unable to complete at the time of the trauma to be safely and gradually discharged in present time.
While gently pacing the process so that you can safely assimilate the changes within your nervous system, Somatic Experiencing helps return to you a sense of aliveness, relaxation and wholeness.
Source: Somatic Experiencing Australia
Who can benefit from Somatic Experiencing?
You can benefit from Somatic Experiencing If you wish to regain a sense of empowerment by learning about and experiencing your body’s natural ability to calm itself after strong feelings or activation caused by a situation you perceive as being stressful or threatening.
Somatic Experiencing can be helpful if you have experienced either overwhelming traumatic life events or periods of continual stress. A traumatic event is an experience that causes physical, emotional or psychological distress, or harm. It is an event that is perceived and experienced as a threat to your safety or to the stability of your world.
- Physical trauma as in car accidents, whiplash, sporting accidents, high impact falls
- Surgeries, medical interventions, prolonged illnesses, high fever, poisoning
- Inescapable attack, mugging, threat of violence, abuse of any kind, rape, incest
- Drowning, suffocation or choking experiences
- Unrelenting stress, work, bereavement, divorce, loss of a loved one or a pet
- Emotional and domestic abuse, bullying
- Development trauma such as childhood neglect, abandonment or betrayal
- Birth trauma, pre and peri-natal experiences
- War or conflict, torture, terrorism
- Natural disasters, fires, floods, earthquakes, tsunamis,
- Horror, being a witness to any of the above
What can you expect in a private session?
In a private session we together explore your nervous system’s responses and adaptations to stress and overwhelm.
You are invited to try different ways to complete stuck defensive responses, to build capacity to safely be with emotions and overwhelm, to experiment with boundary setting and to feel the okness you have within you.
Tools you may choose to try can include movement, meaning making, sound and (self)touch.