Somatic Experiencing® for Highly Sensitive People in Durham, NC
The Intersection of High Sensitivity and Developmental Trauma: How Somatic Experiencing and Transforming Touch Can Help
Being a highly sensitive person (HSP) can sometimes feel like living life on high alert. Everyday stimuli—whether emotional, physical, or environmental—might feel more intense than they do for others. This increased sensitivity can also make you more vulnerable to trauma, particularly developmental trauma, which can have lasting effects on the nervous system. Fortunately, healing is possible. Somatic modalities like Somatic Experiencing® and Transforming Touch® offer gentle, body-based approaches to help alleviate trauma symptoms and support deeper nervous system regulation.
Understanding High Sensitivity and Trauma
High sensitivity is often misunderstood. It’s not just about being emotional or reactive; it's about having a nervous system that processes stimuli more deeply. As Dr. Elaine Aron describes, roughly 15-20% of the population identifies as highly sensitive. HSPs are naturally tuned in to subtle environmental cues and emotions, which can be both a gift and a challenge, especially when it comes to stress and trauma.
While being highly sensitive comes with strengths—like empathy, intuition, and creativity—it also means that overwhelming experiences can have a bigger impact. When this sensitivity intersects with trauma, especially developmental trauma, the effects can be significant.
Developmental trauma refers to the emotional or psychological injuries that occur during a child’s early years. These wounds might not always come from overt abuse or neglect but could also stem from feeling unsafe, unseen, or unsupported during critical moments of growth. Over time, these early disruptions can leave the nervous system dysregulated, stuck in chronic states of fight, flight, or freeze.
The Lasting Effects of Developmental Trauma on HSPs
For highly sensitive people, developmental trauma can linger for years, deeply affecting how they navigate the world. With a more reactive nervous system, HSPs might internalize trauma more intensely. What could be a passing event for someone else might feel like a significant trauma to an HSP. Over time, these unresolved experiences can create layers of stress that manifest as chronic anxiety, emotional overwhelm, or heightened sensitivity.
Developmental trauma affects how the brain and body handle stress, often locking the nervous system into states of hyperarousal. For HSPs, this heightened sensitivity can make it harder to regulate emotions or find calm, even in safe situations. It’s as if the body remains stuck in survival mode.
Healing Trauma Through the Body: Why Somatic Work Matters
Traditional talk therapy can be helpful, but it doesn’t always address the full picture when it comes to trauma. Trauma isn’t just in our minds—it’s in our bodies. It changes how our nervous systems function. That’s why body-based approaches like Somatic Experiencing® (SE) and Transforming Touch® have become such powerful tools for healing.
These approaches recognize that trauma is stored in the body and that healing requires engaging with the body’s natural wisdom.
What is Somatic Experiencing?
Somatic Experiencing (SE), developed by Dr. Peter Levine, is a therapeutic approach focused on resolving trauma through the body. Unlike talk therapy, which often revisits past events, SE helps you slowly and safely access and release the energy that’s stored from traumatic experiences.
SE works by supporting the nervous system’s ability to regulate itself. It emphasizes creating safety within the body, which is especially important for HSPs who may already feel easily overwhelmed. Techniques like pendulation (moving between comfortable and uncomfortable sensations) and titration (introducing small amounts of distress at a time) allow you to process trauma without feeling overloaded. The goal is to help the body release stored tension and move toward a state of calm.
Through SE, many people find that they can reconnect with their bodies and release trauma in a way that feels safe and manageable, often leading to a sense of greater ease and self-regulation.
The Role of Transforming Touch® in Trauma Healing
Transforming Touch®, developed by Stephen Terrell, is another gentle, somatic approach to healing trauma, particularly developmental trauma. This modality works with the nervous system at a deep level, using non-invasive touch to help the body reorganize itself and move toward a state of safety.
For highly sensitive people, this can be especially grounding. Many HSPs live with a heightened sense of sensory input, and the calming effects of Transforming Touch® can provide a sense of safety that may have been missing during early development.
This type of work encourages the nervous system to build new pathways of regulation, helping the body let go of patterns like hypervigilance or emotional overwhelm. It offers a way to re-establish connection, safety, and co-regulation, which are often disrupted in early trauma.
How Somatic Work Helps Highly Sensitive People Heal from Trauma
Somatic modalities like Somatic Experiencing® and Transforming Touch® focus on reconnecting with the body to release stored trauma and restore nervous system regulation. Rather than talking about past experiences, these approaches help you heal by working directly with your body’s natural ability to process and release trauma.
Here’s how somatic work can support highly sensitive people in healing from developmental trauma:
Widen the window of tolerance: Trauma can shrink your ability to handle stress, leaving you easily overwhelmed. Somatic work helps expand your capacity to experience stress and emotions without shutting down or becoming reactive.
Uncouple past trauma triggers: These modalities help you gently explore past traumas without feeling overwhelmed, allowing you to separate past triggers from present-day experiences.
Reconnect with your body: Many people who’ve experienced trauma feel disconnected from their bodies. Somatic work helps you rebuild trust with your body, learning to listen to its signals and cues.
Heal from past trauma: Somatic work offers a way to release the trauma that’s stored in your nervous system, helping to alleviate chronic stress, anxiety, and emotional overwhelm.
Heal energetic boundaries: Trauma often blurs our energetic boundaries, making it hard to feel safe around others. Somatic work helps re-establish these boundaries, grounding you and helping you feel more protected.
Reclaim a healthy fight response: HSPs often default to freeze or flight in stressful situations. Somatic work can help you access your fight response in a healthy, grounded way, so you can assert yourself when needed.
Deepen your connection to self: Reconnecting with your body leads to a deeper understanding of yourself, which can foster greater self-acceptance.
Increase self-esteem: Healing trauma often shifts patterns of low self-worth, helping you rebuild self-esteem and compassion.
Work at your own pace: Somatic work moves slowly and gently, ensuring that healing doesn’t overwhelm or retraumatize you.
Regain a sense of safety: Somatic work helps restore a sense of safety in your own body, which is essential for trauma recovery.
Reclaim agency: Trauma can leave us feeling powerless. Somatic work empowers you to regain control over your body, emotions, and life.
Embracing Your Sensitivity as a Path to Healing
Highly sensitive individuals tend to be more attuned to the world around them, but that same sensitivity can also mean carrying deeper wounds from traumatic experiences, especially those rooted in early development. The good news is that engaging in somatic practices like Somatic Experiencing and Transforming Touch® can transform how you relate to your sensitivity. These approaches help you find a sense of peace and balance in your body, without the need to "toughen up" or dull your sensitivity.
Healing from trauma as a highly sensitive person isn’t about becoming less sensitive. It’s about learning how to work with your sensitivity and using it as a source of strength. Somatic modalities allow you to reconnect with your body in a way that fosters healing, resilience, and a deeper sense of empowerment.
If you’d like to learn more about how somatic work could help you, I invite you to check out my website and/or book a compatibility chat through my calendar. Whether you're in Durham, NC and looking for in-person sessions or prefer virtual sessions from anywhere, we can explore how somatic practices might support you on your healing journey.
