Somatic Experiencing
Trauma therapy in Chicago, Illinois
What is Somatic Experiencing?
Are you experiencing chronic tension? Finding yourself irritable or consumed by panic, even when “nothing” is wrong? Is your mind racing or your body unsettled?
Perhaps you’ve spent years in talk therapy and even understand what’s going on, but that hasn’t made a dent in your symptoms. Somatic Experiencing (SE) may be right for you. This guide to SE will help you understand all that it has to offer!
What is Somatic Experiencing?
Somatic Experiencing helps to restore a sense of regulation in the body and reduces the intensity of your symptoms. It was created by Dr. Peter Levine a combination of psychology, neuroscience, biology, stress physiology, and ethology.
Sara Moskowitz, LCSW, SEP is a Somatic Experiencing Practitioner based in Chicago (though available via telehealth for anyone in Illinois). For over 8 years, Sara has guided clients to find ease in their bodies and find freedom from the symptoms of their trauma.
Somatic Experiencing emphasizes the importance of mind-body connection. Just because we understand the root of trauma with our mind doesn’t make the symptoms of that trauma disappear. While the mind is one component of Somatic Experiencing, we also work on bridging it to the body in order to effectively move through charge.
SE consists of many elements, including developing self-regulation, exploring and being able to track the body’s sensations, and being able to slowly release traumatic energy that has been stored in the body to restore wellbeing and function.
Understanding Trauma
There are many ways to define trauma, but a simple rule of thumb is that trauma is anything that happens “too much,” “too fast,” or “too soon” for your nervous system to process. Circumstances like your age at the time of trauma, how much support you have, and a prior trauma history can all impact the ability to process the charge as well.
As trauma often lives in the body and its symptoms are felt physically, it is important to build a connection between the mind and the body in order to heal. Somatic Experiencing helps to create this bridge in a gentle (and occasionally even enjoyable) way.
What are the Symptoms of Trauma?
While trauma shows up differently for everyone, here are a few common ones:
- Anxiety and panic
- Tension in body (particularly hips, neck and shoudlers)
- Irritability
- Fatigue
- Racing thoughts
- Inability to focus
- Insomnia
- Restlessness
Left untreated, trauma can accumulate and lead to more complicated issues like:
- Autoimmune disorders
- Digestive dysfunction such as IBS
- Endocrine imbalances
- Cardiovascular symptoms
What are Common Outcomes of SE?
As you embark on your journey of trauma treatment, you will learn to:
- Find ease in your body
- Be more present to those you love
- Slow down the pace of your thoughts
- Have more restful sleep
- Improve digestion
- Experience resilience in the face of difficult situations
What is Trauma?
About Somatic Psychotherapy Chicago
Our Philosophy
At Somatic Psychotherapy Chicago, we assess the individual symptoms that you have and decode them to help them run their course. For example, perhaps tension in a specific muscle combined with surges of panic is actually your body communicating that it needed to defend itself in a way that it never got to do yet. Once your body senses that it has effectively used its trauma response, that response will recede. And importantly, if that symptom comes up again, you’ll remember how to deal with it.
An important element of the work at Somatic Psychotherapy Chicago is the emphasis on the unique experience of everyone’s nervous system. There are many ways that a body may express its trauma, and each expression requires a different intervention. Tools like breathing can be helpful for some folks and feel like torture for others. We work together to find a method that is not only pleasant for you, but fits into your lifestyle. For example, a busy mom of toddlers isn’t going to find 30 minutes to meditate, so the tools we’d develop for her would be portable and able to be implemented in the face of tantrums and the day-to-day responsibilities of parenting.
Sessions can always be focused on learning what is going on during a trauma response at a level that works best for you. Whether you’re the “rather not revisit science class” type who prefers your learning to be in metaphor form or you’d like to understand the nitty gritty science behind polyvagal theory, Sara will meet your learning style and adapt the space to your needs.
Meet Sara Moskowitz
Sara Moskowitz is a somatic psychotherapist and the owner of Somatic Psychotherapy Chicago. Her specialties include:
- Pre- and perinatal trauma
- Early developmental trauma
- Transgenerational trauma
- Event trauma
- Medical trauma
- Sexual boundary violation trauma
A lifelong learner and self-proclaimed nerd, Sara has over 400 hours of post-graduate trauma training (and counting). Sara’s advanced training in Somatic Experiencing includes:
- Advanced Strategies for Working with Sexual Trauma and Sexuality with SE Faculty Arielle Giaretto
- Healing Sexual Trauma with SE Founder Peter Levine and Kimberly Ann Johnson, SEP
- It’s Never Too Late: Healing Prebirth and Birth at Any Age with Mia Kalef
- Pre- and Perinatal Trauma Workshop with SE Faculty Raja Selvam
- Relational Development, Rupture and Repair Workshop with SE Faculty Dave Berger and Abi Blakeslee
- Touch Skills Training Level 1 with SE Faculty Kathy Kain
- Jewish Ancestral Healing with Taya Mâ Shere, SEP
Sara is also passionate about psychoeducation, or helping clients understand what exactly is happening in their bodies. Sometimes understanding what is happening can make all of the difference when it comes to feeling intimidated (or not) by seemingly random symptoms.
Feel a connection? Reach out today!
Blog and Resources
For more information on Somatic Experiencing and trauma, check out the following blog posts:
- What Happens in a Somatic Psychotherapy Session?
- 5 Hidden Stress Symptoms
- 3 Somatic Healing Tools to Use Daily
Sara also regularly updates a list of helpful books and social media accounts to follow related to trauma therapy and mental health.
Resources for Somatic Experiencing
YOUR GUIDE & FELLOW HUMAN ON THIS JOURNEY