Emily Meehan
Registered Psychotherapist
Trauma can deeply impact our ability to feel ease, safety, and connection in our lives. Trauma is what happens in our nervous systems when we experience something too big, too fast, and/or too much for us to process, regardless of how objectively traumatizing an event might appear. At the time of a traumatic event, the body prepares to protect itself through orienting, and fight or flight responses. Since the event was too much to respond to in these ways, the only other option our nervous systems have is to go into a freeze state. The survival energy meant to protect us from the threat remains in our bodies as incomplete self protection responses. Consequently, when something in our present environment reminds us of the threat in any way (whether we're aware of the reminder or not) the survival energy becomes activated and leads us to feel anxious, tense, wanting to run or hide or fight. If we aren't able to do those things we may feel numb, distant, lose focus, lose mobility, feel hopeless or depressed.
The wonderful thing about our nervous systems is that they are wired to support us to return to regulation after we become activated. Our bodies know what to do to complete the action we had intended to do at the time of the traumatic event. In somatic therapy, we can develop an awareness of what our bodies already know about how to heal ourselves. By discovering the sensations, feelings, images, actions, and thoughts present while working through old trauma, we can reintegrate these parts of your experience and allow for your body to complete the action it attempted in the past. Through this work you may discover more ease and spontaneity, new perspectives, and that your body no longer feels the need to defend itself against the threat that was present in your life in the past.
I have completed the 216 hour Somatic Experiencing Professional Training Program, Kathy Kain's Touching Trauma: Touch Skills Training for Trauma Therapists, and Kathy Kain and Stephen Terrell's Somatic Regulation and Resiliency training program. To find out more about Somatic Experiencing, visit: