Somatic Experiencing® (SE) is an approach that recognizes that our bodies remember experiences —even when our minds try to move on. Stress, fear, or loss can leave the nervous system in patterns of overwhelm, shutdown, or persistent alertness. SE offers a slow, relationally attuned way to help your body find its way back to balance and safety.
We don’t need to retell difficult stories in detail. Instead, we notice small, manageable shifts in sensation—warming, softening, breath returning, an impulse to move or speak. Over time, these moments can support the release of tension, anxiety, and emotions that have been held as a result of an overwhelming experience.
Working with Acute Trauma and Overwhelming Events
For individuals who have experienced accidents, medical events, acute losses, or moments that were “too much, too fast,” SE helps complete the protective responses your body didn’t get to finish at the time. This might look like a subtle breath release, a tiny shift in posture, or the sense that your body is finally exhaling after holding itself for too long.
Working with Long-Term or Developmental Wounds
Some individuals didn’t have consistent support, attunement, or emotional safety earlier in life. Others grew up between cultural worlds, learning how to belong in more than one place while trying not to lose themselves. These long-term patterns can shape how you relate, protect yourself, and carry stress.
In this work, we move slowly. We focus on building internal and external resources, supporting your capacity to feel without becoming overwhelmed, and strengthening boundaries and self-trust. The therapeutic relationship becomes a steady, reparative space where new patterns of connection and safety can take root.
Somatic Experiencing® for Daily Life
Somatic Experiencing® is also a gentle way to work with everyday stressors, i.e. worry, irritation, persistent thoughts. We can pair your beliefs and experience with what is also happening in the body and nervous system. With intention, we can slowly build resilience and flexibility into the ways you might feel stuck.
We are not designed to always feel calm and regulated. Stress happens in life. And we can learn how to discern the cues of stress, our appropriate response to it, and give our physiology space to return to ease and balance.
For more information you can go to the Somatic Experiencing® website.
Connect to my profile on the Somatic Experiencing® directory.
Sheila Singh Therapy 