SomatoEmotional Release (SER) is a therapeutic process that uses and expands on the principles of CranioSacral Therapy.  It is the process of discovering and releasing or redirecting the stored emotional energy and residual effects of trauma being held by the body, mind, or spirit.  It also helps us to gain insight on how that held trauma is influencing our physical and emotional health.

We all experience emotions on a daily basis, some of which we consciously consider to be more important than others.  Similarly, regardless of how we think we should feel about that emotion/situation, the body also responds in its own way (physiologically). Each and every cell in our body has memory capacity and consequently the ability to hold emotionally charged memories.  The body can adapt to holding the emotional energy, but as we take on more stresses from daily life, over time it can reach its threshold and lose its ability to accommodate for the stored energy/emotion.  Very often this may surface as symptoms of physical discomfort/compensation that can be difficult to ignore.

 

What to Expect

SER is a completely natural process and often happens spontaneously in a CST session. Rest assured that this will only occur when the client’s body is ready to release the residual trapped emotions, and only when it knows it is safe to do so.

Your therapist may ask you for permission to gently dialogue with you or use simple guided visualization in way that helps you release the emotional energy from your tissues. During the session it is not unusual for your body to spontaneously move or return to the original position as when the injury/trauma was sustained. It is also common to experience spontaneous memories, and a welling up of emotions (fear, sadness, anger, frustration, guilt). Once the emotions are released there are often feelings of relief, lightness, and contentment.

This process is never forced and your therapist is there to support you every step of the way. Your body will never do anything to put its physical, emotional, or spiritual being at risk; however you have the ultimate control in what happens during your session and may choose to stop the process at any time.

SER takes us deeper into ourselves, sometimes discovering old patterns or injuries that we thought were no longer affecting us.  This inner work empowers the client to use the emotional energy or trauma as a facilitator for change.  And while we can’t change the past we can change the emotional charge and energetic hold the issue continues to have on us and our perceptions.

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