What we understand can change when we feel it in the body.

You may understand your patterns very well and still find that, in the moments that count, your body reacts before you can think. That’s where I start.

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My approach

MethodPracticeTraining

Not by bypassing the body. With it.

Somatic Experiencing

Somatic Experiencing is an approach developed by Dr Peter A. Levine to work with trauma and overwhelming experiences through the body. It starts with paying attention to what you notice in your body and giving yourself time to be curious about it.

How I use SE

In individual sessions I use what I’m learning in my Somatic Experiencing training. We may start with an experience you bring up and notice what happens in your body as you talk about it. By slowing down, we can make room for sensations, feelings and impulses to move, and take time to let the experience settle.

My training

I am in advanced Somatic Experiencing (SE) training with Dr Urs Honauer at the Centre for Inner Ecology (ZIO) in Zurich. Urs Honauer is one of Switzerland’s pioneers of Somatic Experiencing and has worked internationally as an SE trainer for many years. He is in regular professional exchange with Dr Peter A. Levine and collaborates with him on training and continuing education. Regular personal sessions and supervision are integral to my training and to my personal engagement with this method.

People rest closely together during a shared body practice. — Shared body practice in a workshop · Photo: Mio Schweiger · www.schweiger-fotografie.de

The processActivation · Regulation · Relationship

When rest does not feel safe.

Some people spend much of their time on alert, ready to act or keep going. When they finally pause, the stillness can feel unfamiliar, empty or even threatening. They may work through exhaustion, struggle to stop or keep seeking intensity in extreme exercise, fast-paced activity or risky situations.

It can feel as though the accelerator and brake are being pressed at the same time: the body mobilises energy while something else holds back or freezes. Over time, this requires a great deal of energy and can contribute to profound exhaustion.

It’s hard to relax on command. Sometimes what helps first is being with someone steady who can slow down with us and give us time. The nervous system can get a sense of what it’s like to ease out of alertness and still feel safe. With time, that experience can become easier to find on our own.

It can feel as though we keep landing in the same situation: a familiar conflict at work, another risky situation or a relationship with patterns that hurt us. One way to understand these repetitions is as an old protective response that keeps coming up and may be looking for a different, safer outcome.

You might notice an urge to turn away, run, push back, raise your voice or look around. Perhaps there was no opportunity to do that at the time. In Somatic Experiencing, we slow down and give impulses like these some room, in small steps that feel safe. With time, that can bring more choice into a response that used to happen automatically.

We live in a culture that expects us to move quickly, deliver and be available all the time. Somatic Experiencing gives me a way to slow down, listen to what the body is signalling and find steadiness, connection and choice at a pace that suits me.

“The body’s time is much slower than the time of thought or feeling.”

Peter A. Levine · own translation · Source: Ergos Institute

Who these sessions are for

Perhaps this kind of support is for you.

These sessions are for people who have had to find ways to cope with overwhelming experiences. You might have grown up without a steady sense of safety or closeness, or taken on too much responsibility too young. You might also be living with the effects of something that happened later in life.

Does this sound familiar?

Early on, you learned to read other people’s moods closely, adapt or put your own needs aside.
You long for closeness, yet notice that in relationships you still pull away, cling, become distrustful or lose yourself.
It can take time to notice what you need or where your limits are. Sometimes you only realise when you tense up, feel exhausted or withdraw.
Criticism, conflict or fear of rejection trigger stronger responses in you than you can explain.
Even in safe situations, part of you remains alert. You may also be living with chronic pain, sleep problems or a diagnosed syndrome.
Conversation, yoga, meditation or other approaches have helped, yet under stress the same patterns return.
Or you have experienced an accident, fall, medical procedure or another suddenly overwhelming event and sense that it still reverberates in your body.

You want to

feel at home in your body again, safe enough to relax, feel and meet life.
allow closeness and receive love without losing yourself or giving up your boundaries.
show yourself in relationships, with your voice, your needs and your full vitality.
trust what you feel drawn to do and give yourself permission to say yes or no.
find your way back to joy, sensuality, play, creativity and genuine connection.
feel able to shape a life of your own beyond simply getting through the day.
integrate the past so that it no longer has to determine your present.

This is where my work can help

We listen to the body instead of trying to control it.

Somatic Experiencing works from the bottom up. We start by noticing what the body is already inclined to do, such as moving away, setting a boundary, looking around or letting go of tension. We can then give that response room to unfold in small, manageable steps.

Making room for that part of your experience can be a starting point for healing. What you feel in your body may help you understand how symptoms, longings or a sense of dissatisfaction fit into what you’ve been living through.

More about one-to-one sessions

Approach and boundaries

The relationship is part of the work.

We explore together what emerges in your experience. That includes moments when something does not feel right, when you want to say no or when we need to take a step back.

You do not need to describe distressing experiences in detail, and not every response needs an immediate explanation. We pay attention to pace, resources and your ability to choose where your attention goes.

My support is not psychotherapy and does not replace medical or psychotherapeutic treatment. In an acute crisis, or if you need diagnostic or clinical care, an appropriately qualified professional is the right first contact.

Contact

Explore this in a session

Tell me what’s on your mind or what you feel has been missing in the work you’ve done so far. Together we can see whether a session might help.

Ask about a session