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Somatic Experiencing in Los Angeles

Felicia Samata Mihich, S.E.P, C.M.T. is a Los Angeles based Somatic Experiencing Practitioner specializing in S.E. Touch Therapy.

Somatic Experiencing can help relieve pain and anxiety, and restore your sense of presence, curiosity for life, your ability for connection and integrated emotional stability, encourages relaxed alertness, and help sustain the feeling of grounded embodiment.

Somatic Experiencing is a mind/body approach that honors the dynamic interrelation between all the parts that make up a whole person. It encourages healing on every level including physical, mental, and emotional.

Somatic Experiencing therapy is effective in overcoming effects of trauma and traumatic injury because whether injuries are physical or emotional – they are held in the memory of the nervous system.

Stress, fatigue, anxiety, fear, depression, pain, dissociation, loss of a sense of self and loss of connection to your body can all be symptoms of trauma.

Healing through S.E.

Somatic Experiencing treatment can lead to a resolution of trauma-related symptoms by:

• healing trauma and injury held in the body
• Re-establishing a sense of safety by repairing breached boundaries
• Developing somatic mindfulness and present-moment awareness
• Bringing the nervous system back to a regulated state
• Attuning a person to their own organic intelligence and innate capacity to heal

How I Work

Somatic Experiencing is done both through talk (as in psychotherapy) and touch (as in bodywork). The client’s attention is brought to track sensations within their body through present-moment awareness.

This process of unfolding awareness and sensing within and without, can lead to a renegotiation of traumatic experiences that have been “stored in the body”, which has a profound effect on one’s ability to heal.

My practice specializes in SE Touch Therapy, which is a gentle hands-on approach to releasing trauma, which changes stress chemistry and promotes a deep state of relaxation, well being and connection to self.

In addition to providing Somatic Experiencing Therapy in my practice, I am a facilitator for the national S.E. training programs held in Los Angeles.

Please Contact me to set up an appointment at my West Los Angeles office, which is conveniently located by Olympic Blvd and Beverly Glen Blvd, near the 405 freeway.

How Somatic Experiencing Was Developed

Wild animals are consistently able to return to normal after traumatic experiences and rarely develop adverse side effects like humans.

Dr. Peter Levine, the founder of Somatic Experiencing developed this modality by looking to the wisdom inherent in nature by observing the behaviors of animals in the wild.  He wanted to understand how animals so easily recovered after their traumas and why humans store traumatic experience.

Somatic Experiencing, with over 40 years of research and development, is an effective alternative healthcare modality practiced throughout the world and has paved a way for those who suffer from trauma to find relief and a return to wholeness.

A Comparison with Other Techniques

Psychotherapy: Somatic Experiencing is a great adjunct to Psychotherapy, as it invites clients to include the experience inside their body as it relates to the story. This encourages a sense of embodiment and steers clients away re-traumatizing themselves through the retelling of their story over and over again.

Bodywork: Somatic Experiencing can be likened more to Craniosacral Therapy in that it is a non-manipulative approach, where a “listening” touch is utilized as opposed to more invasive adjustments. This kind supportive touch encourages the body’s innate healing capacity.

Healthcare: Our modern system is unfortunately not equipped with the sensitivity and tools needed to fully heal trauma and often, the well-intended and life-saving techniques of the Western medical model inflict additional trauma that later has to be resolved. Somatic Experiencing therapy during or after medical treatment can provide more comprehensive healing.

Conditions Treated through Somatic Experiencing

Somatic Experiencing Therapy is used to help individuals overcome both somatic injuries and emotional trauma including:

• Anxiety
• Accidents
• Auto-immune disease
• Car accidents
• Chronic, difficult to treat pain related symptoms,
• Depression
• Domestic abuse
• Endocrine system imbalances
• Holistic Aftercare
• Falls
• Injuries
• Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS)
• Pain management
• Paralysis
• Pre and post surgery
• PTSD
• Rape
• Relationship issues
• Reproductive issues
• Sexual abuse
• Shock trauma
• Stress
• Whiplash