SOMATIC EXPERIENCING®

with Paula Josa-Jones, MA, CLMA, MSMET, SEP, TTEAM

Thought cannot solve any human problem, for thought itself is the problem.
Krishnamurti

 Somatic Experiencing® is a body-oriented therapeutic model applied in for healing trauma and other stress disorders. It is based on a multidisciplinary intersection of physiology, psychology, ethology, biology, neuroscience, indigenous healing practices, and medical biophysics and is the life's work of Dr. Peter A. Levine. The SE approach releases traumatic shock, which is key to transforming PTSD and the wounds of emotional and early developmental attachment trauma. It offers a framework to assess where a person is stuck in the fight, flight or freeze responses and provides clinical tools to resolve these fixated physiological states.

The Science:
"The very structure of trauma, including hyper arousal, dissociation, constriction and helplessness, is based on the evolution of predator/prey survival behaviors. The symptoms of trauma are the result of a highly activated incomplete biological response to threat, frozen in time.By enabling this frozen response to thaw, move ahead in time and then complete, trauma can be healed." Dr Peter Levine | Developer of Somatic Experiencing®

Trauma may result from a wide variety of stressors such as accidents, invasive medical procedures, sexual or physical assault, emotional abuse, neglect, war, natural disasters, loss, birth trauma, or the corrosive stressors of ongoing fear and conflict. Our experience of these events is stored in the unconscious and in the body and is often not available to conscious thought. By working gently with the body's responses, Somatic Experiencing® is able to unravel these deeply held experiences giving clients access to their ability to function with greater resilience and ease.

How It Works:
The Somatic Experiencing® approach facilitates the completion of self-protective motor responses and the release of thwarted survival energy bound in the body, thus addressing the root cause of trauma symptoms. This is approached by gently guiding clients to develop increasing tolerance for difficult bodily sensations and suppressed emotions.

Somatic Experiencing® can be helpful with the following:
  • Ongoing, unresolved symptoms resulting from injury, physical or emotional trauma, including developmental trauma.
  • Feeling as if you need to be alert and vigilant all the time.
  • Never feeling safe or able to fully relax.
  • Difficulty in expressing feelings.
  • Chronic anxiety, panic, or shut down.
  • Hyper-reactivity or sensitivity to even the smallest trigger.
  • Difficulty in being alone or being with others
  • The same patterns of behavior appearing again and again, despite your best efforts to change them.
  • Feeling unable to notice your bodily sensations, or feeling uncomfortable about being in your body.
  • Self-soothing with addictive patterns, including substances, food, shopping, media consumption.

    Paula's work with clients also integrates:
    Authentic Movement is a contemplative, mystical movement practice that nourishes creativity and imagination, and a deeper sensing of body and psyche.

    Touch Work is a powerful way of bringing greater feeling and organization to the body and regulation to the nervous system. I am trained in Connective Tissue Technique (CTT), Tellington TTouch and Somatic Experiencing® Touch. For the past forty years, I have integrated touch modalities into my teaching and private practice. I have been profoundly influenced by my work with Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen, Kathy Kain and Linda Tellington-Jones. Decisions about how to work with touch are made in response to the client's specific needs and concerns.

    Somatic Practice - Kathy Kain's professional development and training in touch and trauma recovery. I have been studying Kathy's Somatic Skills, Somatics of Emotions and Somatics of Complex Emotions over the past four years, and consider her perspectives to be an essential and clarifying aspect of my trauma-informed somatic work. I currently assist with her Somatic Skills Online trainings.

    Somatic Experiencing with Horses may be appropriate for those wishing to discover the powerful, integrative presence of horses and how they can support healthy attachment and regulation. Paula's book, Our Horses, Ourselves: Discovering the Common Body is a guide to deepening communication and understanding through the healing presence and support of horses.

    Directory Listing: TraumaHealing.org

    Directory Listing: Co-Regulating Touch

    I am offering virtual and in-person sessions at this time, and observing COVID precautions.
    For more information, contact me