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A Body-Based Healing Modality

What Is Somatic
Experience?

Returning the nervous system to safety — one breath at a time

Psycho- Somatic Therapy is a body-oriented therapeutic approach developed by Dr. Peter A. Levine. Grounded in the understanding that trauma is a physiological as much as a psychological event, Psycho- Somatic Therapy works directly with the body’s innate capacity to heal — gently guiding the nervous system out of survival states and back into flow, presence, and vitality.

The Method

How It Works

01

Nervous System Regulation

Psycho- Somatic Therapy is founded on the autonomic nervous system's natural rhythms. By tracking bodily sensations, the practitioner helps clients move between activation and rest — rebuilding the capacity to self-regulate without becoming overwhelmed or shut down.

02

Pendulation

Rather than staying inside the pain, Psycho- Somatic Therapy invites a gentle oscillation — moving between areas of activation and areas of relative ease. This natural swinging between contraction and expansion teaches the body that it is safe to feel without being consumed.

03

Titration

Titration means approaching difficult material in the smallest possible doses — like diluting a concentrate. This careful pacing prevents retraumatisation and allows the nervous system to process charged experiences incrementally, in a way that integrates rather than overwhelms.

04

Resourcing

Before and throughout the work, the practitioner helps clients access internal and external resources — memories, sensations, places, or relationships that evoke a felt sense of safety. These anchors become the ground from which deeper healing can unfold.

Scope of Practice

Who It Helps

Trauma Survivors

Psycho- Somatic Therapy was developed specifically to address unresolved shock and developmental trauma — including single-incident events, accidents, surgery, violence, and adverse childhood experiences — without requiring the client to retell their story in detail.

Anxiety & Chronic Stress

When the nervous system is perpetually in fight-or-flight, the body pays a heavy toll. Psycho- Somatic Therapy helps discharge the stored activation underlying anxiety disorders and chronic stress, creating sustainable calm from the inside out.

Grief & Loss

Grief lives in the body as much as the mind. Psycho- Somatic Therapy creates a compassionate container for grief to move — honouring the physical waves of loss while preventing the body from becoming stuck in unresolved mourning.

Developmental Trauma

Early relational wounds — neglect, insecure attachment, prenatal stress — shape the nervous system at its foundation. Psycho- Somatic Therapy gently works at this preverbal level, helping to renegotiate patterns that formed long before language was possible.

Relationship & Attachment

Because we are wired for connection, relational wounds often live in the body as disconnection and hypervigilance. Psycho- Somatic Therapy helps restore the capacity for safe, attuned relating — with self and others.

Physical Symptoms

Chronic pain, fatigue, immune dysregulation, and digestive issues can all be expressions of an overwhelmed nervous system. Psycho- Somatic Therapy often brings relief to the body when the root cause is unresolved physiological activation.

The Session

What to Expect

Arrival & Settling

Sessions begin gently — inviting you to arrive in the room, in the chair, in your body. There is no rush. Your practitioner creates a spacious, unhurried atmosphere so your nervous system can begin to sense safety.

Establishing a Resource

Together, you identify a felt sense of resource — a place in the body, a memory, an image that carries ease. This becomes an anchor you can return to whenever the work becomes more charged.

Tracking Sensation

Rather than talking at length about the problem, the practitioner guides you to notice what is happening in your body right now — tightness, warmth, heaviness, impulse. This somatic tracking is the core language of Psycho- Somatic Therapy work.

Pendulation & Discharge

The practitioner gently moves attention between activation and ease, allowing the nervous system's charge to complete its natural cycle. You may notice trembling, a deep breath, a yawn, warmth spreading — these are signs of healthy discharge.

Integration & Closing

Sessions close slowly and with care. Time is given for the body to settle before you leave. Your practitioner may offer simple practices to support integration in the days that follow.

Outcomes

Key Benefits

  • Restores nervous system regulation and the capacity to self-soothe
  • Builds resilience and a wider window of tolerance for life's challenges
  • Releases stored survival energy that keeps the body in chronic tension
  • Supports embodied well-being — a felt sense of being at home in the body
  • Reduces symptoms of PTSD, anxiety, and somatic complaints
  • Improves sleep quality, digestion, and immune function over time
  • Deepens capacity for intimacy, trust, and secure attachment
  • Reconnects you with pleasure, curiosity, and aliveness

Healing happens
in the body, not just
in the mind.

Dr. Peter Levine’s decades of research and clinical practice show that trauma is not a life sentence. The body holds an extraordinary capacity to heal — when given the right conditions of safety, pace, and compassionate presence.

Psycho- Somatic Therapy works at the level of the nervous system itself, creating change that is durable, embodied, and real — not just insight, but felt experience.

Annapurna's Approach

An Integrative Philosophy

Where Somatic Experiencing Meets the Wisdom of the Body

Annapurna’s practice is rooted in Somatic Experiencing as its primary framework, yet held within a richer, more expansive container — one that honours the body not only as a site of trauma, but as a source of profound intelligence, memory, and creative life.

Alongside Psycho- Somatic Therapy, Annapurna weaves in Continuum Movement — a body-based practice developed by Emilie Conrad that explores the fluid, living nature of the body through breath, sound, and subtle movement. Continuum invites the cells themselves into the healing conversation, reaching layers of the body-mind that words and even touch alone cannot access.

Ready for Your Transformation?

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