Somatic Experiencing Therapy in Hermosa Beach & the South Bay

If you understand your history but your body still reacts as if the danger never ended, you are not doing therapy wrong. Some of what trauma leaves behind lives below words: the bracing, the racing heart, the numbness, the sense of never fully settling. This page covers what Somatic Experiencing is, what a session looks like, what the research says, and how it fits with the rest of our trauma and PTSD treatment.

Key takeaways

• Somatic Experiencing is a form of somatic therapy for trauma that works with the nervous system's stress responses, not only with thoughts and memories.
• Sessions move in small, paced steps, and you do not have to retell the details of what happened.
• Early research, including a 2017 randomized controlled trial, found reductions in PTSD symptoms, though the evidence base is still growing.
• At Bodhi, SE is provided by Carissa Lane, MA, AMFT, a certified Somatic Experiencing Practitioner (SEP), in Hermosa Beach and online across California.

What Somatic Experiencing can help with

People come to Somatic Experiencing, a widely practiced form of somatic therapy, when stress or trauma seems to live in the body as much as the mind. It is often a fit for:

• Trauma and PTSD, from a single event or from years of experiences
• Anxiety and panic that show up as physical symptoms, alongside anxiety treatment
• Feeling stuck in fight, flight, or shutdown: on edge, numb, or exhausted
• Chronic stress and burnout
• Chronic pain and tension that travel with stress or trauma
• Grief and hard life transitions
• Recovery, alongside our addiction and recovery support

How Somatic Experiencing therapy works

SE starts from a simple idea: the nervous system is built to mobilize in the face of threat and to settle once the threat passes. After overwhelming experiences, that cycle can stay incomplete, and the body keeps acting as if the danger is still present. Somatic Experiencing works directly with that pattern.

Rather than going straight to the hardest memory, an SEP works in small doses, a process called titration. Attention moves between something difficult and something steadying, called pendulation, which builds the capacity to feel activation and let it settle. The aim is a wider window of tolerance, so that ordinary life feels less like a threat.

Picture someone who has spent years in talk therapy. They can explain exactly why they react the way they do, yet their shoulders still brace and their breath still catches in certain rooms. SE gives that person a way to work with the reaction itself, not only the story about it.

What a Somatic Experiencing session looks like

A session looks like a conversation with more pauses. Your clinician may ask you to notice sensations, such as tightness, warmth, or an urge to move, and to track how they shift. You stay in charge of the pace, and nothing difficult is approached before you have something steadying to come back to.

You do not need to recount every detail of what happened. Many people find this one of the most useful parts of SE, especially if telling the story has felt overwhelming before. Sessions are available at our office on Pacific Coast Highway in Hermosa Beach, a short drive from Redondo Beach, Manhattan Beach, Torrance, and Palos Verdes, and by secure video across California.

If you want to talk through whether SE fits, start with a free 15-minute consultation. All inquiries are confidential.

What the research says about Somatic Experiencing

The evidence for Somatic Experiencing is promising and still early. In the first randomized controlled trial of SE, 63 adults with PTSD received 15 weekly sessions or were placed on a waitlist, and the SE group showed significant reductions in PTSD and depression symptoms compared with the waitlist (Brom et al., Journal of Traumatic Stress, 2017).

A 2021 scoping review of 16 studies found preliminary evidence of positive effects on PTSD-related symptoms, physical and emotional symptoms, and well-being, while noting that study quality was mixed and more rigorous trials are needed (Kuhfuß et al., European Journal of Psychotraumatology, 2021). SE is not yet a first-line guideline treatment for PTSD the way EMDR and trauma-focused CBT are, which is one reason we offer it alongside them rather than instead of them.

Sources: Brom et al., Journal of Traumatic Stress (2017); Kuhfuß et al., European Journal of Psychotraumatology (2021); Somatic Experiencing International.

Somatic Experiencing, EMDR, and talk therapy

These approaches are often combined, and the right starting point depends on the person. A rough guide:

Approach	Main focus	What you do	Often chosen when
Somatic Experiencing (SE)	The nervous system and body sensations	Track sensation and activation in small, paced steps	Trauma feels held in the body, or talking about it overwhelms you
EMDR therapy	Specific distressing memories	Briefly hold a memory while using guided bilateral attention	Particular events keep intruding and a structured protocol appeals
Individual therapy	Thoughts, patterns, and relationships	Talk through experiences and build skills (CBT, ACT, IFS, psychodynamic)	Goals are broad, patterns are ongoing, or you want support alongside other work

Because our team works under one roof, you can move between these or combine them, for example pairing SE with EMDR, or with psychiatry when medication is part of the picture.

Your Somatic Experiencing Practitioner

Somatic Experiencing at Bodhi is provided by Carissa Lane, MA, AMFT, SEP. Carissa completed the three-year Somatic Experiencing Professional Training through Somatic Experiencing International and is a certified Somatic Experiencing Practitioner. She holds a Master of Arts in Clinical Psychology from Antioch University Los Angeles, with additional training in Polyvagal Theory and Equine Assisted Psychotherapy (EAP).

She pairs SE with Internal Family Systems (IFS) and mindfulness, so clients can work with both the body and the protective parts of themselves that formed around old experiences.

Carissa Lane is a Registered Associate Marriage and Family Therapist, AMFT No. 144999, employed by Bodhi Wellness Collective, PC, and supervised by Jack Foley, LMFT.

As Jack Foley, LMFT, our co-founder, puts it:

A lot of people come in able to explain their trauma perfectly and still feel it in their body every day. Somatic Experiencing gives us a way to work with that part directly, and it pairs well with everything else we do here.