r/SomaticExperiencing

I spent a zillion dollars and several years becoming a Somatic Experiencing (SEP) practitioner. I believe in the concepts and practice with all my heart.

With that said, I was traumatized in the training, and I believe, shunned and blackballed by the practitioners who led the group I was in. I had wanted to become a volunteer at future trainings as many do so I could cement the concepts in my mind, but you have to get a faculty member to recommend you, and no one would (I asked three).

The last section of my training I finished in another cohort, because I felt such bad mojo coming from my original trainer. Before I moved on, I met with him individually to sort things out, which I paid him for, and then I knew I was being blocked. He was cold, cruel, and impossible in our meeting. So much for being a healer of souls. After two other faculty members I knew and had worked with said I had to get his approval to become a volunteer, I gave up, because I knew he would never sign off on it.

This is an organization dedicated to tenderness and healing. One that should be conducting themselves the opposite of cold, cruel, and rejecting. Did I do anything to deserve it? Not in my opinion, but I do have visual ADD and piddle on my iPad at workshops. I sit on the back row usually just to be able to do my thing and not disturb people with myself, but you can be sure I am there, listening, studying, learning, and growing, and I do take the training seriously.

We did a lot of demos during the training. Demos are when we - the ones in the training - do our own work in front of the group During one demo, a woman was working with the faculty member, and a volunteer came up from behind and said, “put that device down and pay attention to them.” I was completely embarrassed and felt like a child in second grade being called out. My nervous system activated because I didn’t see him coming from behind.

When the woman doing the demo heard I had been piddling on my iPad as she shared her story, she was brutal and unforgiving. We had been very warm with one another prior to that. There were at least 60 people in our training, maybe more, and I felt my crime, if it was a crime, was at most, a misdemeanor. All of a sudden, gossip spread not among the students but the trainers. I was shunned to the point that, as I said, I moved on from the group I started in and finished my training with a completely different group in another city and state.

This whole thing happened about five years ago. I got my certificate and SEP designation, but lost respect for the somatic experience training and organization.

I saw an email today from the Somatic Experiencing organization about a shuffling of leadership. Reading between the lines of the flowery love-fest baloney, there were co-managers of the organization, and one of them was leaving, because the co-leadership didn't work out. The organization went out of their way to make it sound like it was sympatico and all was good, everyone loves one another, it is not a scandal, but I smell a rat.

The reason I smell a rat is I have personally experienced it. I am the person squeezed out. For me, it is okay; I had other options. I am sure she does too. But boy would I love to hear the honest truth about her ousting. I’m sure it was ugly.

Hi everyone. Ever since I was a child, I've had a tendency to scream or yell at the top of my lungs whenever I feel trapped, cornered, or pressured.

I actually remember how this behavior developed. I'm naturally a very calm person. I love having gentle conversations, connecting with people, and communicating peacefully. I was the same way as a child, too. However, I grew up in a controlling and oppressive family environment, and over time, I learned to react this way when I felt pressured or overwhelmed.

As I got older and became better at expressing myself verbally, I gradually learned to communicate my feelings with words instead of reacting this way. For a long time, I thought I had mostly overcome this pattern. But recently, something happened that triggered me, and I found myself screaming again.

What upsets me the most is the disconnect between the person I am in everyday life and the way I react in those moments. Normally, I'm calm and enjoy peaceful communication. But when I feel cornered, it's as if all my ability to communicate disappears, and I revert to a reaction I developed as a child.

I've been reading about EMDR and how it can help people process distressing past experiences and their effects on present-day reactions. I suspect this response may be a learned survival mechanism from my childhood.

I'd really appreciate hearing your thoughts and experiences:

• Has anyone experienced something similar and managed to overcome it?
• Can EMDR help reduce automatic reactions like screaming or yelling when triggered?
• Is it possible to work through the underlying childhood experiences and change these deeply ingrained responses?
• Is it safe or effective to try EMDR on my own, or is it something that should only be done with a trained therapist?
• Are there any techniques I can practice to help myself stay calm and communicate when I feel pressured or trapped?

My goal isn't simply to suppress my screaming. I want to be able to stay grounded, express myself, and feel safe even when I'm under pressure. I want to understand this childhood pattern and stop feeling like I'm losing control whenever something triggers it.

I'd especially love to hear from anyone who has gone through EMDR or found other approaches helpful for similar reactions.

Thank you for reading. ❤️

Hello!

I have been in somatic therapy for a few months. I have also started TRE relatively recently - I am still at a stage where trembling is mostly in my upper legs/hips/pelvis area, not yet moving up.

I come with a background of childhood trauma and random, illogical health symptoms ever since I contracted Covid. One of them is a tension in my face, specifically masseters muscles that is not an effect of me clenching my jaw. I do not grind my teeth at night either. This tension is just.. there, and it happens on its own. Sometimes it goes away, sometimes it's very prominent (often in stressful situations), but for a few months it has been more or less constant (I have had an incredibly anxiety-inducing year living in a toxic and abusive environment, from which I am finally free and going back on my two feet).

I was just curious if anyone experienced a similar thing where the jaw clenching seems to be happening almost on its own, and whether TRE or any somatic techniques helped them? I am lucky to say that most of my Long Covid cognitive symptoms are gone, but now I deal with physical symptoms like poor digestion or jaw clenching.

My somatic therapist explained it as a connection between jaw and neck that clenches in order to block the pathway from brain and heart, and something about not being able to let go of that defence mechanism that is in me. I'm at a point of wanting to try botox for bruxism but I also think that perhaps the best thing I can do is address this from within my own body...

Thank you to everyone who has something to say :)

I work from home, I did eft tapping for some time. Eventually, I got lazy and stopped doing it, but I also discovered something during that time. I felt this calming sensation, like a relief, by just tapping the top of my head, doing that by itself felt like it was releasing some tension at the back of my head. I do customer service over the phone, it can get stressful, so I’ve started to just tap the top of my head to manage some of that stress, but now my left eye starts twitching after tapping the top of my head for a few minutes, it happens almost every single time. Has anybody else experienced this, or know what could be causing this?

I have cptsd from csa
He’s always saying “NO SLEEP!! Not safe!! HOLD ME ROCK Me!!! How do I make him feel safe? All he does is scream from the second the sun goes to bedtime. My anxiety is through my heart goes crazy I sleep with a nightlight and a stuffed weighted whale shark plush

Hi everyone. I’m looking for 2–3 people who would be interested in a free 30 minute somatic facilitation session over Zoom sometime between now and Sunday.

I’ve completed training as a somatic educator and am currently in a year long facilitation training. Peter Levine’s work was what first brought me into somatics years ago. I’m familiar with SE, but I’m not an SE practitioner, so these would not be Somatic Experiencing sessions or therapy.

You can bring something you’re curious about, stuck around, or would simply like to explore, and we’ll follow what emerges through your experience. You don't need any previous experience with this kind of work.

I’m specifically hoping to practice with people I don’t already know before I facilitate in my training on Monday.

There’s no charge and no expectation of anything afterward. You’re always free to decline anything I suggest, pause, change direction, or stop. Since this is practice rather than therapy, I’m not looking to work with acute crisis or intensive trauma processing.

If you'd be curious to try it, send me a message or comment here. I’m in Pacific time and have some flexibility over the next few days.

Hi all,

I’m currently dealing with pretty severe exhaustion/burnout-like symptoms and my capacity is very low.

One thing I’m struggling with is that I feel a lot in my body, but very little emotionally.

Throughout the day I can experience things like feeling wired or “switched on,” tingling, restlessness, dizziness, heaviness or pressure in my head, and a general sense that my body is constantly giving me signals.

But I don’t really feel much underneath that emotionally. Sadness, anger, joy, excitement, etc. all feel distant or flattened. It’s almost like I’m very connected to physical sensations, but disconnected from the emotional layer behind them.

In the past, I’ve experienced that breathwork could sometimes help me get through a kind of physical barrier and access something deeper emotionally. That was with a fairly intense technique involving faster and deeper breathing. I don’t think that kind of intensity is appropriate for me right now because my system feels very sensitive and my energy is extremely low.

What I’m looking for now is something much gentler.

I’d like to learn how to stay with bodily sensations in a way that feels safe and manageable, without just monitoring symptoms, and maybe gradually notice what is underneath them emotionally.

I’m especially interested in Somatic Experiencing-style practices or other somatic exercises that are:

• very low effort
• suitable for someone with almost no energy
• possible lying down or sitting
• not physically intense
• not focused on pushing through discomfort
• gentle enough for a sensitive / easily overwhelmed system

I’m open to breathwork as part of this, but I’m also very interested in things like orienting, pendulation, titration, tracking sensations, grounding, or anything else that might help.

I’d really appreciate concrete things I can try immediately, because I don’t have much energy to research a lot right now.

If possible, please share:

• a specific exercise
• a guided YouTube video
• a short routine
• what you focus on during the exercise
• how long you do it
• what helped you personally reconnect with emotions rather than only noticing physical sensations

Has anyone here experienced something similar, where the body feels very “loud” but the emotions feel far away?

Thanks!