Body-oriented approaches for treating post-traumatic symptoms, such as Somatic Experiencing®, are increasing in popularity. But what does the research say about Somatic Experiencing® for trauma? Is it effective at reducing trauma symptoms? Does it work better than gold-standard treatments for trauma, like Prolonged Exposure Therapy or Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT)?
Somatic Experiencing’s® approach is to change the interoceptive and proprioceptive sensations associated with trauma. Interoceptive cues are internal bodily signals that provide us info about our physiological state (e.g., hunger, heart rate, pain level). Proprioceptive signals are those that tell us where our body is in space (e.g., position of our legs on the ground).
Somatic Experiencing® proposes that we effectively respond to trauma triggers (e.g., reminders of the event that make us anxious) by learning how to recognize and respond to these bodily signals. This approach de-emphasizes recalling traumatic event memories or exploring how we make meaning from those events (emphases in prolonged exposure, CPT, and EMDR).
The therapy attempts to do this techniques include somatic breathwork and other arousal reduction strategies. Bodily arousal is an almost-universal experience once someone has developed PTSD. So does focusing on it as a therapy approach help people feel less traumatized?
A recent scoping research review identified 10 studies examining Somatic Experiencing®. Only two of these studies were randomized controlled trials. The effects of this approach in these two studies compared to control groups ranged from small to large on different outcomes.
We all know that research studies are often not without problems, however. The review notes a few problems with those studies reviewed. These include variable quality of research and potential biased interest in finding favorable results. Some professionals also raise “red flags” by the trademarked “®” proprietary nature of some approaches. Either way, less-biased, well designed replications will be important to do before Somatic Experiencing® is helpful for trauma.
There is also a lot about Somatic Experiencing® for trauma that we don’t know, because the research hasn’t been done. We don’t know if it is as effective or better than gold-standard treatments for PTSD, what the mechanisms of change of are, or who might benefit more from it compared to gold-standard treatments.
We also do not know if effective trauma treatment is possible without focusing on memories that bring about trauma reactions in the first place. Some practitioners assert that exploring trauma memories can retraumatize clients. But extensive research finds this is not the case. Such memory recall is actually helpful when done correctly in therapy.
Somatic experiencing could prove to be very helpful with continued research. Or, it may not. Given the current state of the research, it appears the field is not ready to disseminate Somatic Experiencing® for trauma. Until we know more, it could be best to stick with established approaches already known to work.
