Treating Trauma Using Somatic Experiencing
A client is telling you about something difficult and their voice is level. Their feet are pointed at the door and their hands have started a gesture they are not aware of making. The body began something years ago that it never got to finish, and it is still holding the shape of it.
Somatic Experiencing, developed by Peter Levine, starts from the position that the trauma is not in the event. It is in a nervous system that got overwhelmed and never completed the cycle back down. So the treatment target is not the memory, it is the stuck activation, and the work goes from the body up rather than from the thinking down. Tonya Miles is candid about how strange this is to learn as a clinician trained in talk therapy, and says she had a love-hate relationship with it while she was training.
Three hours as an introduction to the model rather than training in it. She covers the autonomic nervous system as the map, the three stuck patterns you will actually see in clients, why bottom-up processing reaches material that frontal-lobe work does not, and then the practical skill the model runs on, which is tracking. Tracking a client’s sensation, imagery and behaviour, and tracking your own nervous system before and during the session, on the basis that yours is the other half of what is in the room.
You’ll walk away with
- Trauma reframed as an incomplete nervous system cycle rather than an event, and what changes about your treatment target when you accept that
- Three stuck patterns and how each presents: sympathetic activation that never came down, a freeze state that never released, and the two running at once, which is where much of the mixed anxious and shut-down presentation sits
- Top-down and bottom-up work distinguished plainly, including why a couple can be taught to communicate well and still not communicate
- Tracking as a working skill across sensation, imagery and behaviour, including what to do with the image a client says feels real to them
- Pendulation in practice: finding the edge of a sensation, the place it stops, and moving attention between the tight place and the easier one
- Titration, so that deepening the experience does not tip into overwhelm, and an observer position to pull back to when it does
- Incomplete defensive responses read from the body, including the gesture a client makes while talking without knowing it
- Completing a motor sequence in session by slowing a gesture right down, tracking sensation through it, and mirroring it back
- Reading micro-signals of a client checking out, and making that observable to the client so they start catching it themselves
- Tracking your own activation as part of the work, including what to do with your own state before the client comes in
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CPD Information For Mental Health Professionals
Enjoy complete flexibility with 100% self-paced learning you can access anytime, anywhere, and on any device. This course is included with your Tatra Training membership, along with every other course in the library.
Course Duration: 3 learning hours
Certificate and CPD hours: On completion you’ll receive a Certificate of Completion to support your CPD records. Your certificates are yours to keep.
Assessment: Complete a short quiz at the end (80% pass mark), which you can resit as many times as needed.
Revisit Anytime: Come back to the course as often as you like while your membership is active, whenever you want a refresher for practice.
CPD Eligibility: This program may be suitable for CPD for professionals such as:
- Psychologists
- Counsellors and Psychotherapists
- Social Workers
- Community Workers
- Mental Health Nurses
- General Practitioners (GPs)
- Occupational Therapists
CPD requirements vary between professional bodies, so please check with your association or credentialing body to confirm you can claim CPD hours/OPD points for this program and what evidence they require.
Course Content
Meet Your Instructor
Individuals struggling with trauma who find traditional talk therapy overwhelming or ineffective - and practitioners seeking to understand how the body holds and releases traumatic stress - can need more than cognitive approaches to access the deep healing that occurs when nervous system regulation is restored. Tonya Miles has spent over 20 years integrating somatic approaches with traditional psychology, becoming a leading expert in Somatic Experiencing and helping clients heal trauma through body-based interventions that don't require reliving painful experiences in detail.
As Licensed Psychologist and Somatic Experiencing Practitioner (SEP) with extensive training from the Somatic Experiencing Trauma Institute, Dr. Miles brings unique expertise that bridges traditional psychology with cutting-edge trauma treatment. Her specialisation in perinatal mood and anxiety disorders, combined with her former Board membership with Postpartum Support International, demonstrates her deep understanding of how trauma affects the nervous system during life's most vulnerable transitions. Her 19+ years of private practice experience, including work at VA hospitals and community mental health settings, gives her comprehensive insight into trauma presentations across diverse populations.
Miles's expertise spans perinatal mood and anxiety disorders, ADHD in children and adults, trauma therapy using Somatic Experiencing, substance abuse treatment, and what she describes as helping clients "connect to internal healing for better external connections." Her approach recognises that trauma is stored in the body's nervous system and that lasting healing requires addressing these physiological patterns rather than focusing solely on cognitive processing. She specialises in working with clients who have been unsuccessful with traditional talk therapy, those dealing with complex trauma presentations, individuals experiencing postpartum mental health challenges, and practitioners wanting to develop expertise in somatic approaches to trauma treatment.
What sets her training apart is somatic expertise combined with clinical depth. Miles doesn't just teach trauma theory - she shows practitioners how to recognise and work with nervous system dysregulation, how to help clients access their body's natural healing capacity, and how trauma resolution can occur without overwhelming emotional processing. Her integration of Somatic Experiencing with traditional psychological training creates comprehensive approaches that honor both mind and body in the healing process.
For your practice, expect to gain specific techniques for somatic trauma treatment, tools for recognising nervous system dysregulation, and frameworks for integrating body-based interventions with traditional therapy approaches. Her method particularly benefits practitioners working with complex trauma, those treating clients who don't respond to talk therapy alone, or clinicians wanting to develop expertise in nervous system-informed treatment approaches.
Quick Win: Dr. Miles's "nervous system check-in" technique helps clients assess their body's stress response patterns - sometimes providing the first sense of agency over their trauma reactions while building awareness of their nervous system's natural capacity for self-regulation.
Qualifications
- PsyD, Clinical Psychology, Forest Institute of Professional Psychology, Springfield, MO, 2004
- MS, Guidance & Counseling, Missouri State University, 1998
- BA, Psychology, University of Missouri-Columbia, 1996
- Licensed Psychologist: Kansas, Missouri
- Somatic Experiencing Practitioner (SEP), Somatic Experiencing Trauma Institute, 2016
- 20+ years experience as licensed psychologist
Professional Experience
- Licensed Psychologist, Private Practice, Tonya L. Miles, PsyD, P.A., Overland Park, KS, March 2006–present (19+ years)
- Assistant Professor, Psychology, Johnson County Community College, August 2004–May 2008 (3 years, 10 months)
- Adjunct Professor, Psychology, Johnson County Community College, January 2011–May 2011
- Pre-doctoral Internship, VA Hospital, Leavenworth, KS, 2003–2004
- Behavioral Health Assessor, Shawnee Mission Medical Center, 2004–2005
- Family Therapist, ReDiscover, 2002–2003
- Former Board Member, Postpartum Support International, 2004–2007 (3 years)
Clinical Specialties
- Somatic Experiencing trauma therapy and nervous system regulation
- Perinatal mood and anxiety disorders (postpartum depression and anxiety)
- ADHD assessment and treatment in children and adults
- Complex trauma and PTSD treatment using body-based approaches
- Substance abuse treatment with trauma-informed care
- Women's issues and reproductive mental health
- Psychological testing and evaluation
- Individual, couples, and family therapy
Treatment Philosophy
- Focus on helping clients "connect to internal healing for better external connections" through compassionate, evidence-based approaches using collaborative treatment planning in a safe, supportive environment. Somatic Experiencing approach allows trauma healing without requiring clients to review overwhelming details.
Ready to integrate body-based trauma treatment with traditional therapy approaches while helping clients heal without overwhelming re-experiencing? Discover how Dr. Miles's Somatic Experiencing methods can transform your understanding of trauma treatment and give you the tools to work with nervous system regulation for lasting healing and recovery.
Feedback & Reviews
This course includes:
- Lessons 3
- Topics 0
- Duration 3 hours
- Quizzes 1
- Language English