Self-Regulation Therapy (SRT) is what I sometimes call my approach, although quite simply, it is a quiet, naturalistic way of healing the effects of stress and trauma. Though I am a certified Somatic Experiencing Practitioner (SEP), the approach I practice today is an outgrowth of my training and experience as both a therapist and client. I have adapted Somatic Experiencing (SE), the short-term trauma-healing approach developed by Dr. Peter Levine (www.traumahealing.com), in response to my experiences as both a therapist and client, as well as further study in the areas of neuroscience, metaphysics, and meditation. Both SRT and SE recognize the limits of talk therapy and other treatment modalities that use catharsis and other activating techniques in order to “discharge” stressful or traumatic material. Such stimulating techniques may offer temporary relief, but because they do not address the underlying physiological effects of stress and trauma on the body, their benefits are rarely long-term. Moreover, these more activating approaches, in their lack of a complete understanding of the impact of stress and trauma on the brain, can overwhelm the nervous system and re-traumatize rather than heal.

SRT and SE help “renegotiate” patterns of arousal and anxiety by carefully supporting the body’s natural ability to release over-activation. By combining and interweaving elements of stress and trauma with strengths and resources, a new, complete and more empowering experience is created, thus creating new, more powerful neural pathways in the brain. This is when clients begin to notice a new and greater repertoire of emotional and behavioral choices. They move from being stuck in rage, helplessness, and anxiety to a fluid experience of empowerment, peace, and resiliency thereby strengthening and building resistance to future stress and trauma.

Dr. Bessel van der Kolk, a leading medical doctor, scientific researcher, and teacher at Harvard Medical Center stated that the effects of stress and trauma rob people of their capacity to “be here.” He went on to say that “verbal meaning-making is a secondary part of what patients need to benefit from.” He said that what they need instead is to be helped to “move through physical experience and gain the mastery that traditional psychotherapy [has been] unable to help people with. Therapy needs to consist of helping people to be in their bodies and to understand their bodily sensations. And that is certainly not something that any of the traditional psychotherapies have helped people to do very well.”