Somatic Experiencing (SE) is a modality for treating trauma premised on the science that trauma is stored in the body (technically the peripheral nervous system) and as such therapy for it that uses the same language (body-based) that trauma itself uses can lead to efficient results. SE benefits from matching with clients that are open to interoception (noticing and tracking experiences inside your body) as this is the main line of inquiry used to move through and heal the trauma, in the parts of our bodies where the trauma is specifically stored. No previous experience is necessary.

Compared to other effective, but different, modalities, SE stands out for being a gentler approach that goes at the pace of the client, working its way from smaller portions of the trauma that are already digestible for the client, and then moving up the steps to more difficult portions of the trauma. By combining both an increase in skill of the client to the size of the trauma they are processing, with the feedback of succeeding in increasingly harder parts of the trauma, it can be both a less intimidating and more rewarding experience of the difficult work that is healing from trauma. There are many videos on Youtube of its developer, Peter Levine, demonstrating the practice of SE available to watch to see if it could be a better fit for you in conquering your trauma and PTSD.