The way we respond to life stress and threat is managed by a region of the brain called the Amygdala. The Amygdala can be thought of as our first responder. It is important to note that stress response is bodily based. Meaning our bodies are activated about 5 seconds before our mind can recognize what's going on. The key to stress response is; factors in our social environment influence the manner we respond to stress, and how is this response influencing my current ability to manage relationships, make decisions, and cope with everyday life.
The Autonomic Nervous System is the biological systems that regulates arousal and rest. This system is not fully formed at birth. Therefore, stress factors in throughout development have significant impact on how we cope with stress throughout our life. Further the manner we respond to challenges is predominately a non-cognitive function.
The good news is; it's a malleable system, and we can forever change the way we respond to perceived threat. Somatic experiencing therapy is a practice of therapy that provides individuals the awareness to become an observer of their threat response, and provides opportunities to change and give us a new operating system for how we respond to stress in our social environment, that leads to experimental change. Experiential change is when an unwanted response to stress not longer presents the same level of charge.
So much of life's restrictions are consumed in a rigid response to stress. Somatic Experiencing therapy helps create more flexibility, allowing us to increase connection to our true self.