Somatic Experiencing in Nashville: Understanding a Different Way of Working With Trauma

What Is Somatic Experiencing?

Gabor Maté has written that "trauma is not what happens to you but what happens inside you." That distinction is particularly relevant to Somatic Experiencing. The event matters, of course, but SE is also interested in what happened within us in response: how the nervous system mobilized to survive, protect, escape, fight back, shut down, or endure.

When something overwhelming happens, we do not always get to respond in the way our system wants to. Maybe there was an impulse to run, push something away, fight back, call for help, or become very still. Sometimes those responses are possible. Other times, because of the circumstances, our age, our relationships, or simply the intensity of what was happening, they aren't.

Somatic Experiencing is particularly interested in these survival and defensive responses, including what happens when a response is interrupted, overwhelmed, or never gets the opportunity to fully unfold.

In therapy, we are not trying to recreate the past or dramatically act out what you could not do then. We might instead become curious about something much subtler happening now: an impulse to push away as you talk about an experience, tension building in your legs, a moment of going very still, a desire to turn away, or a breath that stops without you realizing it.

By slowing these moments down, we have an opportunity to explore not only the story of what happened, but what happened inside you in response and what becomes possible when there is more time, support, and choice available now.

How Does Somatic Experiencing Work?

Somatic Experiencing is based on the understanding that overwhelming experiences can sometimes leave survival or defensive responses feeling unfinished. You may have wanted to run, push something away, call for help, or protect yourself in some other way, but for any number of reasons, that response may not have been possible at the time.

You may have moved forward from the experience itself, yet still notice patterns of tension, alertness, avoidance, shutting down, or protection in situations that remind your system of something from the past.

Working with these responses does not necessarily mean revisiting every detail of what happened. It also does not mean that the work is always about turning toward what is painful or difficult.

Sometimes protection involves narrowing what we allow ourselves to feel at all. The same system that learned to protect us from fear, grief, vulnerability, or overwhelm may also have become less available for pleasure, connection, play, desire, curiosity, or a sense of being fully alive. Part of the work can be noticing what happens when those experiences begin to come back online, too.

Can you let yourself feel the warmth of being connected to someone for a few seconds longer? What happens when you notice that something actually feels good? Can you experience excitement without immediately bracing for what might go wrong? Sometimes receiving something pleasurable, beautiful, or nourishing can be just as significant, and sometimes just as vulnerable, as staying with something painful.

This is part of why Somatic Experiencing is not simply about processing difficult sensations. We are also interested in expanding the range of experience you are able to be present for.

When difficult material does arise, the focus can stay with what is happening right now. As you talk about something, you might notice that your breathing changes or that your shoulders become tense. You may become aware of an impulse to move away, become still, push something away, or otherwise protect yourself.

In Somatic Experiencing, these responses can be explored in small, manageable amounts rather than immediately acted on or allowed to become overwhelming. That does not mean dramatically acting out the response. Sometimes we are simply tracking a subtle impulse, sensation, or shift in activation, giving something that once had to be interrupted or suppressed a little more room for processing and completion.

The goal is not to immediately decide what a sensation means, but to slow down enough to stay with what is happening and allow the experience to unfold.

Titration, Pendulation, and Pacing

One of the things I value most about Somatic Experiencing is its attention to pacing. But pacing does not necessarily mean going slowly. It means paying attention to the pace of the nervous system and the individual person in front of me.

There is an ongoing process of attunement: Is there enough capacity to stay with what is happening? Does something want more time or space? Are we moving toward something because it feels useful, or because we think we are supposed to? Is your system becoming overwhelmed or shutting down? Or is there actually energy, curiosity, or readiness to keep going?

Two concepts that can support this kind of pacing in SE are titration and pendulation.

Titration means working with an experience in small enough amounts that you can stay connected to what is happening without becoming flooded or shutting down. The goal is not to avoid difficult material forever, but to approach it in a way that allows deeper processing to become possible.

Pendulation refers to the movement between activation and experiences of greater support, settling, or ease. Rather than staying immersed in the most difficult part of an experience, we may spend some time with what is activated, notice something that feels supportive or more settled, and then see whether there is capacity to return.

This might mean noticing tension in your body and then becoming aware of your feet against the floor. You might stay with an impulse for a few moments and then notice something in the room that draws your attention. At another moment, your system may actually be ready to stay with something longer rather than moving away from it.

The point is not to follow a formula of moving back and forth or to keep therapy comfortable. It is to remain responsive to what is happening in real time. Sometimes regulation and resourcing are what allow us to approach something difficult. Sometimes the nervous system is ready for more movement, emotion, activation, or depth.

For me, pacing is ultimately about attunement: listening closely enough that the work can move at the pace of the person and nervous system in front of me, rather than asking either one to conform to the pace of a technique.

What Might a Somatic Experiencing Session Look Like?

A Somatic Experiencing session may look different from what you expect when you think about traditional talk therapy.

You may still talk about your experiences, relationships, emotions, or challenges. At the same time, your therapist may invite you to slow down and notice what is happening in your body as you talk.

When activation begins to show up, we do not necessarily want to immediately calm it down or move away from it. Sometimes the activation itself gives us important information about how your system is responding. There may be an emotion that needs more room, an impulse to move or protect yourself, or energy connected to a survival response.

If there is enough capacity to stay with what is happening without becoming overwhelmed, we can become curious about how it unfolds. Does the activation intensify, settle, move, or change? Is there an impulse underneath it, to push away, turn, move, speak, or breathe more fully? Rather than deciding where the experience should go, we can follow what begins to emerge.

At other times, your system may need more support. We might orient to the room or notice something that helps you feel more present and grounded. The goal is not always to calm activation down, but to stay attuned to whether something needs more space to unfold or more support in order to stay with it.

There is no requirement to produce a particular response or have a dramatic emotional release. We are not trying to manufacture activation or force something to happen. The work is about creating enough capacity to stay connected to your experience and curious about what happens next.

What Can Be Explored and Processed Through Somatic Experiencing?

Somatic Experiencing can involve physical sensations, changes in breathing, impulses, movement, emotions, and patterns of activation that emerge in the present moment.

But the work is not simply about noticing these experiences or understanding why they are there. By staying with an experience in a way that is attuned and manageable, we can give the body and nervous system more opportunity to process and metabolize what may have been overwhelming or interrupted at the time.

That might involve staying with an emotion that could not be fully felt, following an impulse to move or protect yourself, allowing activation to shift and reorganize, or noticing what happens as the body begins to experience something differently in the present.

At the same time, we do not assume that every sensation has a hidden meaning. A tight chest does not automatically tell us why you are feeling anxious, and a desire to leave does not automatically mean you are experiencing trauma. We stay curious about what emerges rather than imposing an interpretation.

For me, this is an important distinction: Somatic Experiencing is not simply about becoming more aware of your body. Awareness gives us another doorway into processing experiences that may not shift through understanding alone.

Somatic Experiencing and Protective Patterns

A response that feels frustrating today may have once been useful.

Pulling away, becoming highly alert, shutting down, staying busy, or preparing for what might go wrong can all make sense when viewed in the context of what you have experienced.

Somatic Experiencing does not require us to see these responses as bad habits that need to disappear. Instead, we can become curious about what they have been trying to do for you.

Perhaps staying alert helped you feel prepared. Perhaps withdrawing helped you create distance when you needed it. Perhaps becoming still or disconnected helped you get through something that felt overwhelming.

But understanding the protective function of a response is only part of the work. We can also work experientially with what happens as that protection begins to soften or no longer has to work quite so hard. What emotion, impulse, movement, connection, or aliveness becomes more available?

The goal is not simply to get rid of a protective response, but to create more capacity and flexibility so that protection is not the only option available.

Finding a Somatic Experiencing Therapist in Nashville

If you are looking for a Somatic Experiencing therapist in Nashville, it can be helpful to find someone who approaches the work with attunement, curiosity, and respect for your individual experience.

Somatic Experiencing is not about forcing your body to release trauma or following a predetermined formula. For me, the work is about paying close attention to the person and nervous system in front of me and allowing that to guide where we go.

My work with Somatic Experiencing is informed by completed beginner and intermediate SE training, and I am preparing to continue into advanced training. I integrate SE with my broader background in Hakomi, EMDR, relational, experiential, and other somatic approaches.

If you are exploring Somatic Experiencing in Nashville, you do not need to know exactly what your experience means or which approach you need before beginning. We can start with what is happening now and what you are hoping for from therapy.

If you are interested in Somatic Experiencing or somatic therapy in Nashville, I offer a complimentary consultation to talk about what brings you to therapy and whether working together feels like a good fit.