Somatic Experiencing Seattle
Somatic Experiencing® is a body-based therapy developed by Dr. Peter A. Levine to help resolve trauma and its symptoms. It’s like learning a new language—the language of your body and nervous system. By tuning in and listening to what your body is saying, you can begin to feel through your experiences.
At Somatic Experiencing Seattle, we guide you in releasing tension, restoring stability, and feeling stronger and calmer by helping you notice how your body responds to stress, trauma, or big emotions
What Is Somatic Experiencing?
Somatic Experiencing® is a body-based therapy that helps your body and mind feel safe again after a stressful or traumatic event has happened. The word “somatic” means body, and Somatic Experiencing is all about paying attention to how your body feels and helping it recover.
Our bodies are built to heal. But when we go through something overwhelming—whether it’s a big, scary event or lots of smaller stresses over time—our nervous system can get stuck in survival mode. This can make it hard to feel present or even think about the future. Even when the event is long past, we might still feel tense, anxious, or frozen inside.
Somatic Experiencing offers gentle tools to help restore a healthy, balanced, and resilient nervous system. It focuses on your body’s natural ability to heal and how to access that healing.
At Somatic Experiencing Seattle, we believe your body already knows how to recover and we’re here to help it remember. With care, patience, and the right support, you can begin to feel more at home in your body again.
How Does Somatic Experiencing Work:
In Somatic Experiencing, you don’t have to talk about the trauma in detail. Instead, we gently work with your body to help it release the stress it’s been holding onto. Trauma often gets “stuck” in the body when we can’t fully respond to something overwhelming or scary—like running away, yelling, or shaking. Somatic Experiencing helps your body complete what it couldn’t do at the time.
Over time, trauma can lead to patterns like chronic pain, anxiety, or feeling like you’re shut down. These are normal reactions, but they don’t have to last forever. Somatic Experiencing starts by helping you notice what’s happening inside your body—this might be tight shoulders, a racing heart, or a feeling in your stomach. By paying attention to these body signals and releasing stored tension your nervous system starts to settle.
When your body feels more settled, you may also notice a shift in how you relate to your past experiences. Learning how your body reacts to stress can help you see your experiences with more understanding and less fear.
Healing happens when the body feels safe again. At Somatic Experiencing Seattle we work with slow, steady attention to sensation, which helps reduce overwhelm and rebuild your capacity to feel calm, grounded, and present.
What Can You Expect in a Somatic Experiencing Session?
At Somatic Experiencing Seattle, sessions are gentle and go at your pace. You might sit in a chair, talk a little, or quietly notice how your body feels. You don’t have to remember everything that happened in the past. Instead, we focus on what your body is feeling right now—and help it feel a little bit better, step by step.
We use simple orienting tools to help your body and mind work together and feel more balanced:
Interoception: This means noticing what’s happening inside your body—like your breath, heartbeat, or muscle tension.
Pendulation: Your body naturally knows how to move between states of calm and stress, which is called pendulation. We support you in noticing and trusting this innate rhythm. With gentle guidance, we help you recognize when you're stuck in one state and gently return to balance, building resilience along the way.
Titration: We don’t dive into the deep end. Instead, we explore small bits of sensation, emotion, or memory—just enough to bring change without overwhelm.
Resources: These are things that help you feel steady and supported—like a memory, a peaceful image, or a body part that feels good. We use these as anchors to help your system stay calm while you heal.
Containment: We help you hold strong feelings in a safe way, so they don’t become too much. This helps your body stay in control while processing what it needs to.
Integration: Over time, your body learns from this process. You may feel more grounded, clear-headed, and capable in daily life. This is your system adapting and healing.
Discharge: When your body finishes processing something stressful, it may naturally release energy—like through a sigh, a yawn, or a gentle shake. This is called discharge, and it’s a healthy sign that your nervous system is resetting.
In addition to these, we may give you a little education about how your nervous system works, so you can better understand your symptoms and know what to expect. Sessions are always gentle—we go slow and follow your body’s natural rhythms, so you don’t feel overwhelmed.
Our goal is to help you feel more connected, more present, and more at ease in your body.
Who Can Benefit from Somatic Experiencing?
Somatic Experiencing can help people of all ages feel more connected and at ease. You might benefit from Somatic Experiencing if:
You often feel anxious, stressed, or easily overwhelmed
You often feel shut down or frozen
You feel like you’re stuck in the past or have a hard time relaxing
You’ve experienced a traumatic or highly stressful event
You experience a feeling of disconnection between your body and mind
What Trauma May Look Like:
Sometimes the nervous system gets stuck “on,” like a car with the gas pedal pressed down:
Body signs: fast heart rate, shallow breathing, tension, trouble sleeping, tight muscles, chronic pain
Feelings: panic, racing thoughts, irritability, anger, or being constantly on alert
Other times, the system gets stuck “off,” like it’s running on empty:
Body signs: low energy, numbness, slow digestion, low blood pressure, fatigue
Feelings: depression, feeling disconnected, zoning out, not caring about much
These are all normal responses to trauma, but they don’t have to be permanent.
At Somatic Experiencing Seattle, we support anyone who feels like their body or emotions are stuck, overwhelmed, or disconnected, even if the trauma happened a long time ago.
What Will You Take Away?
When you work with one of our providers at Somatic Experiencing Seattle, you’ll learn how to:
Understand what your body is telling you
Manage feelings of overwhelm
Feel more present and empowered
Handle big feelings in a healthy way
Come out of fight, flight, or freeze
Feel more grounded and connected
