Somatic Experiencing®

By Jessie Krall, SEP | Originally published on Krall Counseling

Somatic Experiencing® (SE) is a body-based trauma therapy founded by Dr. Peter Levine. You can learn more about this powerful modality at traumahealing.org. But here, I want to share a bit about my personal journey—how I discovered SE, how it changed my life, and how it now shapes my work with others.

🌀 Something Was Missing

For many years, I was immersed in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT). It taught me how to shift thoughts in order to change emotions and behaviors. And it helped—to a point. But something always felt like it was missing.

That missing piece was the body.

🌈 From Black and White to Color

I stumbled upon a Somatic Experiencing Practitioner (SEP) during a later stage of my healing. Just a few weeks in, I felt like I had gone from seeing life in black and white to full technicolor. My world had expanded. I didn’t know exactly why—but I knew I needed more.

In those early sessions, I was asked to:

• Look around the room

• Let my eyes land on something that felt pleasant or interesting

• Notice the sensations in my body as I did

I later learned this was called orienting to pleasure—a practice animals naturally do to assess safety, but humans often bypass.

As I focused on something soothing, I felt expansion in my chest. Warmth. A drop in my shoulders. A deeper breath. We lingered in that goodness—giving it time to land in my nervous system.

✨ Becoming a Practitioner

So moved by this work, I eventually entered the three-year SE training program and became an SEP myself.

The training required:

• Personal SE sessions (to walk the path as a client)

• Consultation hours with experienced SE professionals

• Ongoing embodiment and attunement

I learned that SE isn't only for so-called “big T” traumas like abuse or accidents. It also works beautifully for “little t” traumas—chronic stress, micro-shaming, emotional neglect.

Because trauma is not about the event. It’s about what happens in the nervous system as a result of the event.

🚨 When Fight or Flight Gets Stuck

Let’s say you endured something overwhelming—like a sexual assault. Your nervous system may have wanted to fight or flee. But if that wasn’t possible, your body may have frozen.

All that survival energy? It gets trapped—like a car with one foot on the brake and the other on the gas.

In SE sessions, we gently guide the body to complete those thwarted survival responses. For example:

• If your feet begin moving on their own, I may invite you to imagine running

• If your fists clench, we may simulate a pushing or striking motion—allowing the energy to discharge

This work is subtle, powerful, and deeply respectful of your pace.

🌀 Trauma Vortex & Healing Vortex

In SE, we pendulate between two states:

• The trauma vortex (where the overwhelm lives)

• The healing vortex (where your strengths, resilience, and safety live)

We don’t dive headfirst into trauma. We titrate—we dip a toe in, then come back to center.

Over time, this back-and-forth builds capacity. It becomes easier to stay longer in the healing vortex, even when your nervous system is wired to expect the worst.

That’s how we build inner resources. That’s how healing becomes possible—and sustainable.

🧭 Tracking Sensation

SE is rooted in tracking body sensations.

In session, I might ask:

“What do you notice in your body?” “What happens next?”

You’ll become more familiar with how emotions show up as constellations of sensation:

• Tightness in the chest = fear

• Warmth in the belly = ease

• Tension in the jaw = anger

By naming the sensations and connecting them to emotions, you build nervous system fluency—and often, a sense of relief.

💞 Applying SE in Couples Work

Even in my couples sessions, the SE lens is always present.

I teach partners to:

• Track what’s happening in their own nervous system

• Name whether they are inside or outside their Window of Tolerance

The Window of Tolerance is your nervous system's optimal zone for engagement:

• Top of the window = hyperarousal (fight, flight, panic, overwhelm)

• Bottom of the window = hypoarousal (shutdown, numbness, disconnection)

• Middle = regulated, grounded, able to communicate clearly

We learn how to pause, reset, and re-enter conversations from regulation, not reactivity.

🧘‍♀️ Returning to Regulation

In SE sessions, we explore simple regulation tools, such as:

• Feeling your feet on the ground

• Placing attention on your breath

• Naming the rise and fall of your chest and belly

• Using movement or sound to discharge energy

In conflict situations, I teach clients to notice their own activation cues—a clenched jaw, racing heart, tense shoulders—and call a pause before things spiral.

(We’ll be diving deeper into conflict pauses in a future post.)

🌿 This Work Is for Everyone

You don’t need a trauma history to benefit from nervous system regulation.

Whether you're managing anxiety, recovering from burnout, navigating relationships, or simply seeking more presence and peace, SE offers tools that meet you where you are.

And what works for one person may not work for another. In our sessions together, we’ll discover what works for you:

• Dancing?

• Walking?

• Meditation or breathwork?

• Creative expression?

• Time with pets or nature?

In different moments, you’ll need different things. Our goal is to build your toolkit with what truly resonates.

🐌 Just the Beginning

Somatic Experiencing® is a vast and powerful modality. This post only scratches the surface.

Because SE so deeply informs how I see healing—and how I work with clients—I’ll continue to weave elements of it into future posts.

If you have questions, insights, or reflections, I’d love to hear from you in the comments.