Somatic Experiencing

Following traumatic experiences, the mind and body can hold onto stress, pain, and fear. If you’re still experiencing adverse effects of trauma and can’t seem to move forward and heal, therapy utilizing somatic experiencing in NYC may be what you need.

At The Center for CBT in New York City, we focus our therapy practice on cognitive behavioral therapy, but we also utilize research-based therapeutic approaches like somatic experiencing to help our clients achieve their therapy goals. Learn more about somatic experiencing on this page or reach out to our team to schedule a consultation.

What is Somatic Experiencing?

You know that pain in your stomach when you think about a traumatic experience? Do you get a headache when you feel triggered? Have you experienced accelerated heart rate, sweating, shaking, or dizziness when you’re under stress? These physical reactions to difficult, challenging, or dangerous situations are signs of the body’s innate response to traumatic events. You may have heard trauma responses referred to as fight, flight, or freeze. When a dangerous situation is resolved, the body should naturally release itself from this trauma response, but unfortunately, the body doesn’t always let go of traumatic shock and begin to heal. Instead, the person can become stuck in this elevated response. When this happens, somatic experiencing can help to release people from their trauma response and allow them to move forward.

Why Would My Therapist Recommend Somatic Experiencing?

When people experience a traumatic event or live through a long-term difficult or dangerous situation, their body can get stuck in the state of elevated response that people often refer to as flight, flight, or freeze. Over time, the feeling of being trapped in this response can leave people experiencing a range of detrimental physical, emotional, and mental side effects. Somatic experiencing helps to break people free from this heightened state, release the pent up survival energy, and start healing from and processing the traumatic experience. In many cases, somatic experiencing is recommended to alleviate the side effects of a trauma response, so people can feel safe and stable enough to begin processing and healing from the experience.

How Does Somatic Experiencing Work?

As a body-oriented therapy approach, somatic experiencing is used to help people uncover where in their body trauma response energy is stuck. Whether trauma stems from a perceived danger (big T trauma) or the cumulative effects of stress and hardship (little t trauma), the unprocessed energy from these experiences is stored in the body and can negatively impact a person’s ability to thrive. Somatic experiencing is used to help people develop strategies to work through and release this survival energy from the body. This helps diminish the effects of trauma as well as increasing an individual’s long term resilience and ability to manage the effects of future stressors.

While incorporating the somatic experiencing approach to therapy, your sessions will still be similar to other forms of therapy. We’ll begin with an intake visit where your therapist will ask questions to better understand your situation, the effects of the trauma you’re experiencing, any past history with therapy, and what your goals are in working with us. Then, we’ll create a therapy plan together to help you achieve your goals. During therapy sessions, we’ll continually assess your results to ensure you’re achieving the goals we set together, and your therapist will readjust your treatment plan as necessary. Please note that when working with any traumatic memory or experience the client leads the session. You disclose how much or how little you want to at your own, personal pace. You will not be rushed, but rather given the space to connect to your experience in your own time.

Who Offers Therapy Using Somatic Experiencing?

Each of our clinicians has years of unique training and experience that allow them to provide therapy using specific approaches that work best for certain clients. Our clinicians who provide couples and relationship therapy are featured below, and you can learn more about them by visiting our team page.

Dr Elizabeth Cohen

Grace Mannix-Slobig

Sabrina Manzo

Lynn Pescherine

What Should I Do Next?

When you’re ready to begin therapy, we hope you’ll consider contacting The Center for CBT in New York City. We offer a safe space where you are free to be who you really are and express yourself and your values authentically. We embrace, value, and welcome people of all sexual orientations, genders, and racial identities. The Center for CBT in New York City makes beginning your therapy journey simple. You can get started any time by completing our online consultation request form. One of our team members will be in touch within 24 business hours to answer your questions.