About
About Somatic Experiencing® Psychotherapy and You
Do you ever get stuck in your thoughts…thinking the same things over and over even though you knew they weren’t headed anywhere useful? They just kept you anxious, worried, or awake.
You’ve got a big cerebral cortex. It takes one of those to read and comprehend this, and to do Internet searches. That’s useful for problem-solving and other tasks…but not so great for some important things, like chilling out after surviving a threat!
We humans, after loss, danger, or trauma, tend to get stuck in our thinking, planning, and worrying. And social expectations, too. “I can’t let them see me upset!” We suppress emotions, like grief, which could help us to get our lives back to normal. Our nervous system sometimes get stuck in anxiety mode. That part of us may have gotten stuck, but it can also get unstuck.
What’s a Somatic Experiencing session like?
With the therapist’s guidance and encouragement, we bring our full attention to our physical experience. Surprisingly, this allows the discharge of excess stuck anxiety and enables a natural healing process. Most people then get some relief quickly. With more time, distressing emotions dissolve and are replaced with a growing sense of optimism, energy, and clear thinking to meet life’s pleasures and challenges.
Somatic Experiencing is not “talk therapy,” but we will talk. I will invite you to share with me what is on your mind…what is troubling you. I offer a compassionate ear because I know what it is like to suffer, to not have your life working the way you need it to, to not feel happy. And I respect your courage in wanting to change and asking for help.
I am skilled at creating safety and watching for opportunities to “go a little deeper” into becoming more aware of your feelings and sensations. My teachers and my experience have taught me that this is the most direct path to releasing the past and healing from trauma, child abuse, or PTSD.
A Somatic Experiencing therapy session often feels quite magical as you remember that your body and nervous system already know how to do this. It is an entirely natural process!
About Paul Chubbuck
Many years ago, I found myself in a painful, repeating pattern of heartbreak and emotionally hurting others in an intimate relationship. It wasn’t what I wanted, but it kept happening anyway. I started earnestly looking for answers—from self-help books, 12-step programs, therapy, mentors, mythology, poetry, and spirituality.
The work that helped me transform my life the most, get unstuck, quit getting emotionally hurt, and quit hurting others was Somatic Experiencing, the work I now offer.
I have a Master’s in Counseling and am a certified Somatic Experiencing Practitioner (S.E.P.). My Somatic Experiencing teachers included Peter Levine, founder of Somatic Experiencing, and Raja Selvam. I have additional certification to practice and teach Somatic Trauma Resolution (STR) from my mentor Sharon Porter, who was also one of Peter Levine’s earliest students. Both of these modalities are powerfully effective in the treatment of abuse, loss, injury, and other trauma. I practice as an Unlicensed Psychotherapist in Colorado.
My 40-year professional and personal growth path—seeking and finding solutions to my own challenges—forms the foundation for what I offer to others. My mission is to help as many people as possible to release and heal emotional wounds and to rediscover joy and excitement in their inherent self-healing capacities. I have 20 years experience as a psychotherapist.
One of my greatest joys is when I see a client get in touch with their feelings and discover trustworthy inner guidance.
In my private life, I write poetry and am a photographer. I am also a hiker, camper, bicycler, musician, contra-dancer, cat-lover, mountain climber, and a lover of wildflowers. My personal spiritual beliefs inform my life and practice.