What is the difference between Somatic Experiencing and Somatic Breathwork?

Because both Somatic Breathwork and Somatic Experiencing have the word “Somatic” in them a lot of people get them confused or think that they are the same thing. The word “soma’ means body. The thing that they have in common is the bottom up or body focused approach to healing.

Somatic Experiencing was founded by Peter Levine and uses the body and nervous system as a road map to healing. It is slow and gentle and allows the body a lot of time to integrate healing. The purpose is to avoid overwhelming the nervous system and to allow a little trauma to come up, then a little resource, and back and forth.

Somatic Breathwork, in some ways, is the exact opposite. For all of you that have participated in a breathwork session you know that they can be VERY emotional and intense. Your body is bringing up stress, pain, and trauma, experiencing it and releasing it. Integration is INCREDIBLY important after breathwork sessions. Without it you can have active pain and trauma at the surface and, if you don’t know what to do with it, it can flood and overwhelm your nervous system. I highly recommend booking coaching sessions afterwards to process what came up in the session.

Both sessions are healing and powerful and I encourage you to experiment and have fun with your own healing journey. Try new things and see what works best for you. This will shift and change, but you are on the path and that is incredibly beautiful!

Learn more about Somatic Breathwork here.

Learn more about one on one coaching here.

Sign up for the next virtual group Somatic Breathwork session here.