#SomaticExperiencing

We have identical nervous systems to animals in the wild thanks to our mammalian/emotional brain. Yet unlike animals in the wild, we also have a neocortex/human brain that often interrupts or over-conceptualizes how we feel. When suppressed, the hormones that accompany these physiological responses get chronically stuck in the body—creating an environment vulnerable to mental and physical illness. What we suppress, the body will express. Anger is an essential and primal emotion, needed to assert boundaries, to advocate for ourselves, to defend. When not expressed, our nervous system can get stuck in a FIGHT or SHUTDOWN response. Somatic (body-oriented) healing focuses on nervous system regulation and repair. By allowing the space and safety to gently discharge or release these stuck emotions, we come back into wholeness and healing. Want to explore more? Join me in the Body-First Healing Program 🫶🏻 *Book is Waking the Tiger by @drpeteralevine , the developer of Somatic Experiencing 🤎

Can you work through trauma without having to recollect the details of what you went through? For those of you who are uncomfortable with revisiting the details of a trauma, but you still want to heal, somatic experiencing therapy might be a great fit for you. This is a body-focused therapy that works on regulating your physiological response to trauma. Somatic experiencing can be applied to all different types of trauma, but it is especially helpful for those traumas that elicit a huge physiological response when you recall the trauma, for example, in unwanted and intrusive recollections such as flashbacks or nightmares. You can participate in somatic experiencing therapy and reap the benefits without talking about the trauma specifically, instead focusing on addressing the fight or flight responses that the trauma triggers and learning to relax your body and mind. To learn more about somatic experiencing therapy, click the link in my bio to access the “Somatic Experiencing Therapy: How to Set Yourself Free From Trauma” series I did with @medcircleofficial, along with my free MedCircle mental health resources!

“We all have our stories and telling the stories if it’s only to ourselves, can be of value, an invaluable catalyst to growth and to coming to healing and wholeness.” ❤️ Comment YES if this resonates with you today. ❤️ -— After 50 years of helping thousands of clients in trauma recovery and now in his 80s, Peter A. Levine, PhD, continues the work of healing—both others and himself. In this week’s episode of Insights at the Edge, Tami Simon speaks with the beloved Sounds True author and groundbreaking creator of the Somatic Experiencing® method about his personal journey and ongoing mission. Listen to the full episode >> Link in bio

Most of what we call symptoms—chronic tension, looping thoughts, shutdown, panic—aren’t random. They’re procedural patterns held in the body, shaped by survival. In Somatic Experiencing, we understand that trauma isn’t in the event—it’s in the incomplete response. The body wanted to run, scream, cry, fight, freeze, or collapse… but it couldn’t. And so those unfinished impulses became patterns. Stored as implicit memory—beyond words, beyond thought, beneath awareness. Somatic healing helps us access those memories not through story, but through sensation. By tracking the nervous system’s language—breath, tension, posture, emotion—we can safely let the body finish what it never got to. In the @bodyfirsthealing Program, we integrate Somatic Experiencing®, somatic attachment therapy, Internal Family Systems, and Polyvagal Theory to guide that process. It’s not about rehashing trauma. It’s about completing survival patterns, repairing inner ruptures, and restoring connection to self, others, and the world around us. Today is the last day to take advantage of $500 off the internationally acclaimed Body-First Healing Program—a 6-month somatic and nervous system trauma recovery journey that’s helped over 800 clients across the globe. If you’ve been waiting for the sign to begin, this is it. Head to bodyfirsthealing.com (🔗 in bio) to watch client video testimonials, view the full program breakdown, and explore the schedule. This is a one-stop shop for the most powerful, science-backed trauma resolution tools available today. Your body is ready. 🤎

Audio by: @jonryanisdead Functional freeze is a state of our autonomic nervous system called dorsal vagal shut down. The body immobilizes and has one goal: conserve energy to survive. So many people believe they’re: lazy or disordered— but we have not taught people to understand the nervous system. When we’re burnt out, overwhelmed, in a toxic relationship or workplace— our nervous system will go into this state. To leave freeze, we have to start with our inner dialogue. This looks like taking a deep breath and saying: “I’m in freeze right now. Everything feels hard. I’m doing good. I’m safe. And I can take one small step.” Somatic practices are key to help the body release sympathetic energy. For anyone looking to learn more about getting out of freeze, @selfhealers.circle opens tomorrow. Comment “WAITLIST” then check your DM to secure your spot. Spaces do sell out. Upcoming members: be sure to check out the freeze course and the workshop by trauma expert and founder of somatic experiencing, Dr. Peter Levine. The resources will help you in a big way #selfhealers

Ako v Somatic Experiencing® pracujeme s pozitívnymi zdrojmi? V Somatic Experiencing® často hovoríme o pozitívnych zdrojoch – o všetkom, čo nám pomáha cítiť sa bezpečne, prítomne a stabilne v našom tele. Môže to byť hocičo: spomienka, človek, miesto, vôňa, zvuk, pohyb, pocit v tele či dokonca fantázia. Ide o vnútorné alebo vonkajšie prvky, ktoré dokážu náš nervový systém jemne usmerniť späť k rovnováhe. Pre mňa osobne sú jedným z mojich silných zdrojov aj ľudia, ktorí ma obklopujú. A hneď vedľa nich je to šport – konkrétne brazilské jiu-jitsu. Možno to znie netypicky, ale práve žinenka / tatami je pre mňa miestom, kde sa dokážem nadýchnuť, uzemniť a vrátiť do seba… aj keď je to niekedy fyzicky poriadna výzva. Na žinenke sa mi darí spomaliť, cítiť svoje telo, byť v prítomnom momente a prepojiť sa s pocitom vnútornej vitality. Preto s vami zdieľam aj krátke video z jedného takého momentu – z priestoru, ktorý je pre mňa osobne symbolom stability, energie a návratu k sebe. ✨ A teraz vy: Čo je vaším pozitívnym zdrojom? Ktoré miesto, osoba alebo zážitok vás dokáže vrátiť k sebe, do prítomnosti a k pocitu bezpečia? Podeľte sa v komentároch. Možno tým inšpirujete niekoho, kto práve hľadá svoj vlastný zdroj. 🌿💛 PS: Ten výraz tváre bol zámerom.😁

DO YOU SUFFER FROM ANXIETY? All of us will feel anxious at some point in our daily lives - it’s a natural part of the human experience. But, as this week’s podcast guest, Dr Russell Kennedy, points out, it can start to become a problem when our worries become so prevalent that we’re unable to wake up without feeling an intense feeling of anxiety about the day ahead. When this happens, our anxiety becomes chronic and can seriously impact not only our mental health but our ability to lead a full and happy life. During this wonderful conversation, Russell shares what he believes to be the 3Ws of worry - warnings, what-ifs and worst-case scenarios - and during the episode, he walks you through how exactly you can start healing by finding out where anxiety lives inside your body. We also discuss the value of activities like breathwork, meditation and yoga, and also some promising therapies such as Internal Family Systems and Somatic Experiencing. Russell’s core message - that it’s more effective to use the body to calm the mind than the mind to calm the body - has the potential to be TRANSFORMATIVE. Leave a ❤️ below if you’ve listened to this episode - or if you’re planning to listen this weekend!👇🏾 ⭐️Please note this is a SHORT CLIP from EPISODE 370 of the 'Feel Better, Live More' podcast with Russell Kennedy. To listen or watch the FULL conversation with Russell - and put this clip in PERSPECTIVE - click the link in my bio above, or search for 'Dr Chatterjee Russell Kennedy' in Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or enjoy wherever you get your podcasts

What if your anxiety isn’t asking you to calm down... What if it’s asking for a safe direction and conscious activation? One of the most misunderstood forms of Freeze is Anxious Freeze; this happens when your nervous system has already activated, your heart races, your thoughts speed up, and your body prepares for action. But the action never completes. Peter Levine, the creator of Somatic Experiencing, which is also the base elements of my practice as a coach, describes this as mobilization without completion. The energy is there. It simply doesn’t know where to go. That’s why Anxious Freeze often looks like: - Planning without starting. - ADHD-like overwhelm. - Overthinking every decision. - Feeling exhausted but unable to rest. - Wanting to move but feeling trapped. Inside Samadki, we don’t immediately try to slow the body down. We first organize the activation. When we move with Samadki, each movement teaches six maps simultaneously - Nervous System– What state am I in? - Fascial System– Where is my body holding? - Energy Centers– What quality needs support? - Emotional Layer– What emotion is asking to move? - Somatic Layer– What physical sensations tell me this state is present? - Expression Layer– What new embodied experience am I practicing? In this case, every movement is teaching six things at the same time: - Your nervous system that movement can feel safe. - Your fascia that it doesn’t have to keep holding. - Your Solar Plexus that action doesn’t require perfection. - Your emotions that overwhelm can become expression. - Your body that activation can complete instead of staying trapped. Your mind that healing isn’t about forcing yourself forward. It’s about creating enough safety that movement becomes possible again. Because the opposite of Freeze isn’t productivity. It’s agency. During 6 weeks I will teach you this method, we will navigate the nervous system, the energy centers, the patterns your body has been carrying and we will mobilize together with Journey 01: The Odyssey. One survival response. One movement. One new experience at a time. Comment JOURNEY if you’re ready to transform your nervous system

Do you have trouble just resting + relaxing?? If you grew up needing to manage others’ emotions just to feel safe, your nervous system is likely still in a subtle state of activation. There SO many ways to work with this, but below are a couple of my favorite therapy modalities. Through Somatic Experiencing work, we learn how to track those micro-shifts—jaw clenching, shallow breath, muscle tension—and gently teach the body that safety doesn’t require performance. Titration is the method I discuss in the video and it can help us SLOWLY EASE into interrupting the pattern of over-productivity, hyper-attuning to others (at our own expense), and maybe even people-pleasing/performing. Using NARM, we work with the roots: the childhood need for connection and safety that got tangled with your value. Healing is not about becoming someone new—it’s about returning to who you were before the performance. 🎯 If you struggle with people-pleasing or perfectionism, you’re not broken. Your body is still trying to protect you. 💬 Does this resonate? Let me know in the comments or share with someone who needs to hear it. #anxiety #cptsd #mentalhealth #peoplepleasing #freeze #perfectionism #narm #somaticexperiencing

Somatic Experiencing is another technique that works well for people. Regardless of what technique you choose, the key is to pursue the healing #brainfacts #trauma #mentalhealth #mentalhealthawareness #mentalhealthmatters #emdr #innerchild #cbt #therapy #ruggedcounseling

هالفيديو صورته تقريباً قبل سنة لما كنت بلبنان كانت بداية الحرب النفسيه والكل حذرني إن ما أروح للبنان والسبب عدم استقرار الاوضاع. الغريب بالموضوع إن كل شي هناك ذكرني وذكر جسمي بمشاعر وأحاسيس كنت أحملها بجسمي من الغزو العراقي كنت حزتها بعمر ٤ سنوات لكن جسمي يتذكر… مشاعر التهديد وعدم الاستقرار مشاعر عدم الراحة بمكاني مشاعر اني مو مدعومة ولحالي ما كنت قادره أرتاح بجسمي ولا حاسه بأمان التعبير والتنفس لحالهم ما كانوا كافين في تكامل ذيك التجربة، في صوت بداخلي قالي اجرب أداة جديده لكن بنفس الوقت كانت مألوفه بالنسبه لي لا إرادياً فتحت الشباك وانسدحت عالارض وسمعت لجسمي شنو محتاج حتى أتكامل مع مشاعر الخوف اللي بداخلي انتقلت ما بين تحريك ريولي والرجفان لي التنفيس عن غضب كان خلف الحزن والبكاء بعدها حسيت براحة وسط كل هالتهديد هذا جزء بسيط من العلاج بالخبره الجسديه سويته قبل لا اتعرف عليها وأدرسها لأنها بكل بساطه>> فطره يعني شنو علاج بالخبره الجسدية!؟ العلاج بالخبرة الجسدية أو somatic experiencing هو طريقة من طرق العلاج النفسي الحديثه الموجهه نحو الجسم ويستهدف الجهاز العصبي… شغلته الأساسيه على الصدمات ،التجارب المؤلمة، و الآلام أو الأعراض الجسديه. طورها الدكتور بيتر لافين وطرحها قبل ما يقارب ال ٥٠ سنة وحالياً أنا شخصياً أستخدمها في الجلسات لأني مؤمنه بأن جسمنا يشتغل لصالحنا وجالس يورينا شنو يحتاج حتى يتوازن لكن لعدة أسباب لا ارادياً اخترنا ان ما نسمعه او نشوفه ولا بأس بذلك لأن هناك طريق اننا نحس بأمان ونسمعله من يديد. من خلال هالفيديو أذكركم وأذكر حالي بالدعاء لأهلنا واخوتنا بفلسطين ولبنان والوطن العربي عسى ربي ينصرهم ويفرج همومهم ويلطف بحالهم 🤲🏻 اللهم آمين

“Yes, trauma is a fact of life, but it doesn’t have to be a life sentence.” ❤️ Comment YES if you agree. ❤️ -— After 50 years of helping thousands of clients in trauma recovery and now in his 80s, Peter A. Levine, PhD, continues the work of healing—both others and himself. In this week’s episode of Insights at the Edge, Tami Simon speaks with the beloved Sounds True author and groundbreaking creator of the Somatic Experiencing® method about his personal journey and ongoing mission. Listen to the full episode >> Link in bio