About Somatic Experiencing
What is Somatic Experiencing?
Somatic Experiencing® is a body-oriented approach to healing trauma and stress-related conditions. Developed by Dr Peter Levine, it is based on the understanding that long-lasting trauma results not from the event but from the overwhelming, unresolved response in the nervous system. The exact event a person experienced is less important than how their body is holding it. The method aims to access the body's memory of the event rather than its narrative. It offers clinical tools to resolve these responses (such as fight, flight, freeze) and supports rebuilding connection, an important step in healing PTSD and emotional or early attachment wounds.
Bessel van der Kolk sums this up well when he states:
“Neuroscience research shows that the only way we can change the way we feel is by becoming aware of our inner experiences and learning to befriend what is going on inside ourselves” - The Body Keeps The Score.
How does it work?
We focus on the nervous system and the “felt sense” of your experiences (the body's sensory, energetic and emotional landscape). Together, we explore your body's memory by examining patterns of constriction and expansion. We may follow sensations, impulses, behaviours, images, emotions, memories or beliefs.
You will be supported in noticing what arises, releasing fears held in the body, and reconnecting to your body's natural intelligence and self-healing resources.
Somatic therapy helps you develop a deep connection with your internal experiences and expand your capacity to regulate overwhelming emotional states. Over time, this helps you manage distressing symptoms and builds new neural pathways in the brain, supporting behavioural and emotional changes.
The process is gently paced so you can safely integrate the changes.
How is it helpful?
Whilst the felt benefits are individual, people report experiencing greater self-acceptance, insights and clarity about their life and themselves. Feeling more spaciousness in their body and more capacity and tolerance for the ups and downs in life.
Somatic work can bring about more freedom from what has been holding you back. This happens as fears held in the body from traumatic experiences begin to release.
This can benefit those who have not found success with more traditional treatment methods after a traumatic experience.
Connection to the human body is the key to lasting healing and renewal. It transitions you out of a state of stress and into a more embodied self so you can live life with more saftey calm and ease.
Pricing
Online or in person. We can discuss frequency depending on your needs and budget.
15-min introductory phone call - Free
50-min therapy session - $200
Nicole’s work is governed by codes of practice and ethical guidelines set out by the Psychotherapy and Counselling Federation of Australia.
“Nicole's practice sets the safe space for traumatic experiences and my femininity to be held and heard. I have only been seeing Nicole for a short while, however, since the first session I have felt and appreciated her warmth, wisdom and professionalism.”
Client