About this Work

Body-based or Somatic approaches like Somatic Experiencing are not based in the story of our life events, but rather in our bodies reactions and responses to those events and our memories of them. The body has its own story to tell. Traditional psychotherapy works with the narrative at a cognitive level (all neocortex higher brain mental functioning) which can be really useful. It is important to understand why we feel terrified when we see people in red anoraks for example. It can help us reframe the fear, recognise that the danger is not happening now.

But the fear is still there - the involuntary intake of breath, a momentary freeze, the pounding heart, darting eyes, a flush of heat. A whole bunch of things happen in our bodies that are not under our conscious control. These responses are created by our much more primitive lower brains and autonomic nervous systems, that are responding to what is perceived as a threat.

As animals we are designed to perceive and respond to danger in the most efficient and effective way given the circumstances we find ourselves in. It’s a brilliant system that keeps us safe. However, it is easily tricked, as it doesn’t take chances. Watch a scary movie and you will notice some of those responses even though you know it’s a film and it’s not real. Scary thoughts and memories will have the same effect.

Moving towards the difficulty

We couldn’t learn to walk as children, if we were not OK with the possibility of falling and the consequent pain that might follow. So we fell over - again and again. At first that was overwhelming, but after a while, with the support of our carers, our desire to walk trumped our avoidance and fear of pain.

But it wasn’t always like that. As small children we needed to learn how to regulate the state of our autonomic nervous systems. We are born immature, unlike many other mammals, and we have to learn and wire-up the neural circuits that allow us to recover from difficulty. In the peek-a-boo games we play with little ones, we hide and create some distress and then we bounce back. The infant learns through this to tolerate the pain of separation secure knowing that connection will be restored. As infants we can tolerate a few seconds of this separation/connection cycle. Fast forward to 7, and we can delight in the thrill of being found after some minutes of hide-and-seek. But remember also the pain when that went on too long or when people stopped looking for you.

When we were little, the most creative thing we could do when on our own and faced with overwhelming experiences, was to disconnect from the pain of it. We pushed it away, we became angry and shut-down, or terrified and spun out. This was a brilliant strategy and a route to survival that meant we could get up and push on with the day. It became a way of managing ourselves and the people around us and it helped us to survive intolerable and overwhelming experiences. Overtime, this management system, this response to difficulty, became imprinted in our bodies, hard-wired in our neural pathways. It became our default setting.

Somatic Experiencing

I came across Somatic Experiencing (SE) and the work of Peter Levine nearly 20 years ago. SE teaches the concept of titration or ‘little-by-little’ and of Pendulation, moving from one pole to the other. The effect of touching the edge of discomfort and pain and then returning to an experience of safety and expansion, is to expand our capacity for difficulty. This is both gentle and profound.

People come to me when things in life are difficult, not going as expected or desired. And with the difficulties comes emotional and maybe physical pain, mental turmoil and anguish. I’m not going to give you new strategies to avoid or numb this. I will support and encourage you to move toward the very things you have spent so much time and energy avoiding, skirting around, or ignoring. From a place of safety and resource we can gently touch in on that which is most difficult, most painful. The fears from the past that we will be overwhelmed and won’t survive will be compassionately laid to rest. The energy that has been bound-up in defending yourself from these demons will be liberated as your life-force, your mojo, your creativity.

So if you choose to work with me, I will make it my job to gently hold your hand as you travel the landscape on an exploration of the sensations and activity in your body that speak of your experiences of the past. I will bear witness to, and validate your pain in a way that the little child in you has longed for. This is my commitment. Your commitment to our sessions is your curiosity and willingness to explore what arises.

What a session is like

In a session I will ask you some simple questions about how you are right now. We will explore that. As we relate with what’s happening I will notice what your body is doing and how my body is responding. I may reflect that back to you. There is usually a response to this and we will explore that. In this way a rapport and resonance is built. Your body and mine learn about each others responses and gauge if this feels safe. If it does a settling happens, inner holding and tension relaxes and the dialogue deepens.

There may be specific issues or difficulties that are present - that are calling for exploration and attention. As you describe these, I will bring your attention to how your body is responding to what you are relating. What is uncovered is your body’s narrative which will be revealed as sensations. As you track your experience, associated emotions, thoughts and images come to awareness you may experience tightness, holding, heat, discomfort..

When what we experience in life is too much for us to cope with, when we become overwhelmed, our normal responses get over-ridden. If we cannot talk our way out of a problem, cannot fight, or run, we shut ourselves off to the unbearable feelings that might cause us to short-circuit. The energy bound-up in these thwarted responses is held in the body. By bringing our awareness to our body’s reactions to even the memory of a difficult experience, we can begin to gently release this bound up energy so it might be discharged. Our body discharges this trapped energy in all sorts of ways: flushing heat, tingling, shaking, twitching, crying, yawning, laughing etc.. Sometimes this is subtle, sometimes not. The result of this release is a new sense of aliveness, energy and relaxation. We return closer to our natural state, awake, invigorated, curious, present. New cognitive connections and meaning emerge. Ahh-ha moments happen. Habitual responses to past hurts can be re-framed, we become freed-up to respond to life spontaneously and creatively.