Preparing for a Somatic Experiencing Session or Intensive.

Setting yourself up for success

Somatic Experiencing sessions and intensives are immersive therapy sessions that focus on supporting nervous system regulation, resolving trauma responses, and fostering deeper healing in a concentrated period of time. This work is gentle, body-oriented, and profoundly experiential — which means that thoughtful preparation and after-care are key parts of maximizing your experience and feeling supported before, during, and after the intensive.

What is SE

Somatic Experiencing (SE) is a body-based, neurophysiological approach to healing trauma that emphasizes tracking physical sensations, nervous system rhythms, and felt experiences as primary pathways to relief and resolution. Rather than primarily focusing on cognitive or narrative processing, SE helps the nervous system discharge held stress and restore regulation through careful tracking of sensations, movement impulses, and felt self-awareness.

Emotional & Physical Readiness

Because SE works directly with the nervous system, your overall state of regulation and safety matters. In preparation for your session or intensive, engage in habits that support nervous system wellness like grounding exercises, getting adequate sleep, hydration, and nutrition, and journaling, mindful movement, or meditation. These practices don’t just calm the mind — they help the body become more receptive to tracking sensation and noticing subtle shifts in experience that facilitate SE work.

Creating A Safe Container

An SE session invites your system into deeper, sustained presence with sensations, impulses, and nervous system rhythms. To support this:

  • Plan time after the session to rest, integrate, and tend to your needs.

  • Minimize stressors or demanding obligations right before and after the session.

  • Stay hydrated and gently nourished during your preparation period and on the day of the intensive.

Restorative and supportive activities like slow walks, gentle yoga, or restorative rest can help your nervous system settle into the work.

Understanding Somatic Experiencing

Somatic Experiencing sessions and intensives are not simply extended talk therapy sessions — they are structured spaces where you track sensations, impulses, and nervous system responses moment-to-moment and move towards greater physiological health and integration. Some elements you can expect:

  • Orientation and resourcing: Beginning by helping your system feel safe and resourced before experiencing challenging sensations.

  • Tracking and pendulation: Gradually tuning into sensations and learning how to move between regulated and activated states with support.

  • Discharge and regulation: Sensing and allowing nervous system completions and shifts in physiological energy.

  • Integration: Supporting your system to settle into a more regulated, coherent state before closing the session.

This approach prioritizes felt safety, titration (working at a pace your system can tolerate), and mindful attention to what your body is signaling.

In Somatic Experiencing we are working directly with the body’s response to trauma. Even though Somatic Experiencing is gentle and paced according to your felt experience, it can bring you into deep awareness of nervous system states that feel new or unfamiliar. Thoughtful preparation helps your system enter the session with greater resource, safety, and readiness, so the experience is supportive rather than overwhelming.