Somatic Experiencing Therapy | Marin County & California

Trauma doesn’t just live as a memory — it lives in your nervous system.

You may understand your history and still find yourself feeling anxious, reactive, shut down, or on edge. Insight alone does not always calm the body. Somatic Experiencing therapy, is a gentle, body-based approach that helps resolve the physiological effects of trauma so you can feel more grounded, steady, and at home in yourself.

What Is Somatic Experiencing Therapy?

Somatic Experiencing (SE) is a trauma-informed, nervous system-based therapy developed to address how trauma is held in the body. Rather than focusing only on thoughts or retelling painful events, somatic experiencing therapy works directly with the autonomic nervous system to support regulation and healing.

When something overwhelming happens, the body automatically shifts into survival mode — fight, flight, or freeze. These responses are biological and protective. However, when those responses do not fully complete, the nervous system can remain dysregulated long after the event has passed.

Somatic Experiencing helps gently restore balance by tracking present-moment bodily sensations and supporting the nervous system in resolving stored survival responses. The goal is not reliving trauma. The goal is regaining nervous system capacity and resilience.

Why Trauma Is Held in the Body

Even when you intellectually know you are safe, your body may still brace. This often happens outside conscious awareness.

Common signs of nervous system dysregulation include:

• Chronic anxiety or hypervigilance

• Panic symptoms

• Emotional numbness or shutdown

• Sleep disruption

• Digestive issues

• Persistent muscle tension

• Feeling easily triggered or overwhelmed

Trauma is not just a story from the past. It is a pattern in the nervous system. Somatic therapy works at the level where those patterns are stored.

How Somatic Experiencing Therapy Works

Somatic Experiencing is often described as a “bottom-up” approach. Instead of starting with analysis, we begin with your present-moment bodily experience.

Titration

We approach difficult material slowly and in small increments so your nervous system does not become overwhelmed.

Pendulation

We gently move between activation and safety, helping your system build flexibility and tolerance.

Resourcing

We strengthen internal and external experiences of safety so your body has somewhere to land.

In session, we may notice subtle shifts in breath, posture, temperature, or muscle tone. These small changes signal that your nervous system is reorganizing itself.

Healing happens through safety, not force.