Orienting: The First Step in Somatic Experiencing
When we talk about trauma healing, it’s easy to focus on the symptoms — the panic, the tension, the looping thoughts, the overwhelm. But the very first step in Somatic Experiencing® offers something much simpler, much gentler, and profoundly foundational: orienting.
Peter Levine teaches that the nervous system is constantly scanning the environment, asking two questions:
“Am I safe?” and “What’s happening now?”
When you’ve lived through trauma, that internal radar becomes hypersensitive or frozen. The body doesn’t realize it’s no longer in danger. It responds to the present moment as if the past is still happening.
Orienting is how we teach the body to recognize safety again.
It’s not intellectual. It’s sensory.
What Is Orienting?
Orienting is the practice of using your senses — sight, sound, touch, breath — to come into the present moment. It reconnects your body to the here and now, which is the only place the nervous system can begin to settle.
When your eyes move slowly around a room, when your hearing notices a subtle sound, when your shoulders drop without trying — these are signs that your autonomic nervous system is shifting out of survival mode.
It’s not about “thinking positively.”
It’s not about “convincing” yourself you’re safe.
It’s about helping your body discover, through direct experience, that the danger has passed.
As Levine writes, “Trauma is about being stuck in the past. Healing is about being fully alive in the present.”
Why Orienting Matters for Trauma Healing
Trauma disrupts the body’s natural rhythm of noticing, responding, and settling. Instead, the system gets locked into:
Hypervigilance
Shutdown or collapse
Numbing
Dissociation
Fight, flight, freeze, or fawn
Before we work with deeper activation or memory, we need a stable foundation — a felt sense of now. Orienting builds that foundation.
When you orient:
Breath naturally deepens.
Muscles loosen without effort.
Vision widens (the opposite of tunnel vision).
The vagus nerve gets the signal that the environment is safe.
The body begins to unwind defenses on its own.
It’s the doorway to regulation.
How to Practice Orienting
Here’s a gentle sequence I often guide clients through:
1. Let your eyes move slowly around your space.
Noticing shapes, colors, light, or texture.
Let your gaze land on something neutral or pleasant.
2. Pause and allow your body to respond.
Do your shoulders shift?
Does your breath soften?
Is there a tiny sense of “okayness”?
3. Notice one sound in the room.
Maybe the hum of heat, a car outside, a faint rustle.
Let the sound meet you.
4. Feel the support beneath you.
The chair, the floor, the cushion.
Allow yourself to be held.
5. Take one easy breath.
Not deep… just easy.
This is orienting. Simple. Powerful. Regulating.
What You Might Notice
Clients often describe:
A softening in the belly
More clarity or focus
A shift from “braced” to “present”
Less urgency
A sense of coming back into their body
Even 1% of settling is enough.
Healing is built on tiny, digestible shifts over time.
How Orienting Prepares You for the Other Steps
Orienting is the entry point into every other phase of somatic work:
It sets the baseline for resourcing
Creates safety for tracking
Provides an anchor during pendulation
Helps regulate activation during titration
Allows completion to unfold naturally
And supports the settling of integration
It’s the first invitation your body needs:
Come home. It’s safe to be here now.
Final Reflection
Take a moment and look around your space right now.
Let your eyes linger on something that feels pleasant.
Notice one thing inside your body that feels even 1% more settled.
This is the beginning of healing — not a dramatic breakthrough, but the quiet restoration of presence.
Body & Mind Collectives Approach
At Body & Mind Collective, Somatic Experiencing isn’t just a modality — it’s a guiding philosophy woven into how we support every client. We slow down, listen to the wisdom of the body, and build safety from the inside out. Through individual therapy, community groups like Somatic Circle, and body-based practices that honor the nervous system, we help clients reconnect with presence, capacity, and inner steadiness — one gentle moment at a time.
Join the Somatic Circle
If you’re curious to explore Somatic Experiencing more deeply, I’d love to welcome you to Somatic Circle — my weekly community group for grounding, regulation, and embodied healing.
Your first session is free.
Sign up here: https://www.bodyandmindcollective.com/somaticcircle
Use code: FIRSTFREE
Healing doesn’t happen in isolation.
Your nervous system heals in connection — and we’ll do that together.
