Somatic Experiencing Therapy (SET)

Somatic Therapy is Effective for Children with Disability or Neurodivergence

Somatic Experiencing Therapy (SET) can help children of any intellectual and physical ability to process and recover from trauma caused by Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs). SET is based on the idea that traumatic experiences cause dysfunction in a person’s nervous system and prevent them from processing the experience(1). Trauma is a wounding of the internal self which impacts on the psyche and physiology of a person(2). An emotional hurt leads to a physical pathology that changes a person’s nervous system, gut, immune system, blood vessels, muscles, everywhere. For a child who endures repeated abuse, it places their physiological system under chronic stress. This leads to a child to become compliant and repress their feelings which results in them mentally detaching from their body’s sensations.

Evidence Based Scientific Research

Scientific research shows a direct correlation to early childhood stress and trauma and its connection to inflammation in the body which can lead to physical illness. Scientific research shows that as humans, we store memories, experience and emotions on a cellular level(6). Sacred Justice provides tools to help children reconnect with their authentic feelings and emotions. Dr Gabor Mate, author, physician and world renowned trauma expert, recommends Somatic Experiencing Therapy, dance, Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), Brainspotting, Internal Family Systems or Compassionate Inquiry to help people heal from traumatic experiences. If trauma is disconnection to the self, then healing is reunification of the discovery of the embodiment of that connection(2). SET is revolutionary because we don’t need to know the story that caused the trauma. The body holds onto the story, as children are supported, the source is often revealed.

Body-Oriented Therapeutic Model

The goal of SET is to help a child notice physical sensations stemming from their mental health issues and use that awareness to work through painful feelings and emotions. SET is a body-oriented therapeutic model that releases traumatic shock, which is key to transforming PTSD and the wounds of emotional and early developmental attachment trauma(3). It offers a framework to assess where a child is “stuck” in the fight, flight or freeze responses and provides clinical tools to resolve these fixated physiological states(3). 

SET Completes ‘Stuck’ Survival Energy

Trauma may begin as acute stress from a perceived life-threat or as the end product of cumulative stress. Both types of stress can seriously impair a child’s ability to function with resilience and ease. The Somatic Experiencing approach facilitates the completion of self protective motor responses and the release of thwarted survival energy bound in the body, thus addressing the root cause of trauma symptoms(3). This is approached by gently guiding clients to develop increasing tolerance for difficult bodily sensations and suppressed emotions.

Helping a stunned child to discharge traumatic energy in order to leave the scary past behind is the most efficient trauma prevention that we know(7). It works to dissolve the root cause of later symptoms by deactivating the ‘fight or flee’ energy before it has the chance to become traumatic memory and bind into traumatic symptoms(7). Sacred Justice helps children integrate trauma experiences into their lives by using somatic techniques with activities including aerial/acro yoga, conscious breath, dance, music, art and martial arts. 

‘Talk Therapy’ can be Re-Traumatising

Differing from traditional talk therapy approaches, SET doesn’t require survivors to re-tell or re-live traumatic experiences to heal from them. Dr Peter Levine, Master Somatic Therapist, believes that Cognitive Behavioural Therapy can be re-traumatising for patients because their brainstem and limbic system enter a hyperaroused state which shuts down their frontal brain (left cortex) which is responsible for speech(4). The patient can be pushed into an emotional overload and become more frustrated.

‘Freeze’ Response Creates ‘Stuck’ Trauma and Causes PTSD

SET provides tools for children to overcome feelings of overwhelming helplessness by gaining mastery over their bodily sensations. Dr Levine was inspired to study stress on the animal nervous system when he realized that animals are constantly under threat of death, yet show no symptoms of trauma. What he discovered was that trauma has to do with the third survival response to perceived life threat, which is freeze.

When fight and flight are not options, we freeze and immobilize, like “playing dead”(4). This makes us less of a target. However, this reaction is time-sensitive, in other words, it needs to run its course, and the massive energy that was prepared for fight or flight gets discharged, through shakes and trembling. If the immobility phase doesn’t complete, then that charge stays trapped, and, from the body’s perspective, it is still under threat which leads to PTSD . The Somatic Experiencing method works to release this stored energy and turn off this threat alarm that causes severe dysregulation and dissociation. SET helps people understand this body response to trauma and work through a ‘body first’ approach to healing.

Non-Verbal and Minimally Verbal children have Sophisticated, Innate Somatic Abilities

Non-verbal or minimally verbal children who have high needs including profound intellectual impairment, have natural innate somatic abilities to release stored trauma. These children use stimming, aggression, self-harm, meltdowns, crying and screaming as sophisticated somatic expressions. These children require their caregivers to understand these processes from a Trauma Informed Care perspective, so they are allowed the space to express these emotions freely and safely without restraint, isolation or prevention.