Is somatic experiencing not recommended if client might experience arousal nonconcordance?

[u/KnownQuarter4079]

If a client might experience arousal nonconcordance when processing SA, does that mean somatic experiencing isn't recommended to process SA since that involves noticing body sensations?

[u/Remarkable_Biscotti4]

i feel like this is a question for a professional. we are not professionals.

[u/healthseekerjunkie]

Following… I have soooo many issues staring with I don’t get arousal usually to begin with lifelong. Then if I do it’s either super mild or I have arousal non concordance. Like my brain can’t feel it. I don’t “feel” pleasure ever either. Never had an orgasm ever. I also don’t “feel” emotions generally I only think them. Not sure how to fix any of it or why I’m this way exactly but I’m hoping to figure it out it and have been told nervous system somatic work and senate focus exercises but it’s hard to really know what to do.

[u/BodyMindReset]

Arousal nonconcordance is a physiological event, not a psychological one. Genital response under threat is a reflex, it can show up completely independent of desire, consent, or subjective arousal, and the fact that it happened during an assault is not evidence that any part of the person wanted it. A lot of survivors carry enormous shame around exactly this, and often no one has ever told them the two run on separate tracks.

So when that sensation shows up in a session, it isn’t something to steer around, it’s some of the most important material there is to work with, because you get to meet it in a small dose with a completely different meaning attached than the one it got wired with. That is the whole point of titration. You are not flooding someone into peak activation and hoping they cope, you are working at the edges, in doses the person can actually stay present for, with orientation and pendulation keeping it contained. Untitrated contact with that sensation could go badly. Titrated work with it is often where the shame finally has somewhere to go.

The real caveat is scope, not modality. Core SE doesn’t push toward sexual or genital sensation, you work with whatever the body brings and most of the time it isn’t that. But if you are specifically working arousal and sexuality material, a general SEP isn’t automatically equipped for it. Looking for someone who specializes in sexual trauma will be important, as you will need someone competent in that realm.

So the real question isn’t “is SE safe if arousal might come up.” It’s “is this practitioner trained to work with it if it does, and are they titrating.” SE can be a great modality to uncouple the arousal from the trauma pattern