Jenifer Fennell, SEP, PhD
“The curious paradox is that when I accept myself just as I am, then I can change.” -- Carl Rogers
Call or text (507) 403-0937
Email: [email protected]
Somatic Experiencing™ (SE) is a form of trauma therapy that involves paying attention to your nervous system--not just your words. Words are important in the work we do together, but they are just one way bodies communicate, and sometimes our thinking minds offer up stories that are not true. Learning to listen to other aspects of ourselves can deepen our understanding of what's happening beyond just the interpretation offered by the mind. This new knowledge helps us accept and have compassion for what we've experienced and the ways our bodies learned to cope.
Value judgments have no place here -- You are not "good" or "bad" or "right" or "wrong" for having a physiological threat response. It's your survival system doing what survival systems do. But we can learn to recognize and understand our systemic responses, identify what's happening for us at a given moment, and learn how to respond in new and wiser ways.
Change and healing happen as you dig into and explore your embodied experience and your patterns of conscious and unconscious reaction, which fuel each other. It takes practice but over time, you will find that your body knows how to heal and as you slow down and allow it to move through release, you'll organically gain new understanding and awareness about yourself and your life.
Somatic Experiencing is the training I draw on most consistently. I also have formal training in Narrative Therapy and Counseling Psychology but I am not a traditional therapist. This means I don't diagnose and nor do I rely on the idea that your struggles are "symptoms" of something that has gone wrong inside you. Instead, I start from the understanding that while we all struggle to feel good and safe and well in our bodies, we can all learn how. With practice life becomes easier and we grow in well-being. We're all shaped by the lives we've lived; the harder those lives have been, the more likely it is that we'll feel unsafe and unwell, both physically and mentally. But all of us, no matter what we've been through, can learn to feel more calm and ease and joy.
I also have a PhD in English Language and Literature, which means I have a very deep understanding of the ways stories shape our lives, both consciously and unconsciously. Learning to recognize your own stories and how they make you feel is part of the work we'll be doing.
Finally, I view the work we do together -- and the world -- through an intersectional, social-justice, trauma-informed lens. This means I take seriously the impacts of all the ways discrimination, oppression and erasure impact the bodymind. People, societies and nation states have endless ways of keeping boots on the necks of others; some of the most common are racism, sexism, systems that keep people in poverty, homophobia and transphobia, imperialism, ageism, ableism and so on. I am comfortable and have decades of experiences working with BIPOC folks, women, immigrants, refugees, members of the LGBTQ+ community, adoptees, people who've experienced living unhoused and unsheltered, survivors of the foster care system, and people and the families of people who've been jailed or imprisoned.
Call or text (507) 403-0937
Email: [email protected]
Somatic Experiencing™ (SE) is a form of trauma therapy that involves paying attention to your nervous system--not just your words. Words are important in the work we do together, but they are just one way bodies communicate, and sometimes our thinking minds offer up stories that are not true. Learning to listen to other aspects of ourselves can deepen our understanding of what's happening beyond just the interpretation offered by the mind. This new knowledge helps us accept and have compassion for what we've experienced and the ways our bodies learned to cope.
Value judgments have no place here -- You are not "good" or "bad" or "right" or "wrong" for having a physiological threat response. It's your survival system doing what survival systems do. But we can learn to recognize and understand our systemic responses, identify what's happening for us at a given moment, and learn how to respond in new and wiser ways.
Change and healing happen as you dig into and explore your embodied experience and your patterns of conscious and unconscious reaction, which fuel each other. It takes practice but over time, you will find that your body knows how to heal and as you slow down and allow it to move through release, you'll organically gain new understanding and awareness about yourself and your life.
Somatic Experiencing is the training I draw on most consistently. I also have formal training in Narrative Therapy and Counseling Psychology but I am not a traditional therapist. This means I don't diagnose and nor do I rely on the idea that your struggles are "symptoms" of something that has gone wrong inside you. Instead, I start from the understanding that while we all struggle to feel good and safe and well in our bodies, we can all learn how. With practice life becomes easier and we grow in well-being. We're all shaped by the lives we've lived; the harder those lives have been, the more likely it is that we'll feel unsafe and unwell, both physically and mentally. But all of us, no matter what we've been through, can learn to feel more calm and ease and joy.
I also have a PhD in English Language and Literature, which means I have a very deep understanding of the ways stories shape our lives, both consciously and unconsciously. Learning to recognize your own stories and how they make you feel is part of the work we'll be doing.
Finally, I view the work we do together -- and the world -- through an intersectional, social-justice, trauma-informed lens. This means I take seriously the impacts of all the ways discrimination, oppression and erasure impact the bodymind. People, societies and nation states have endless ways of keeping boots on the necks of others; some of the most common are racism, sexism, systems that keep people in poverty, homophobia and transphobia, imperialism, ageism, ableism and so on. I am comfortable and have decades of experiences working with BIPOC folks, women, immigrants, refugees, members of the LGBTQ+ community, adoptees, people who've experienced living unhoused and unsheltered, survivors of the foster care system, and people and the families of people who've been jailed or imprisoned.