UNFORTUNATELY I AM NOT TAKING NEW CLIENTS

As of August 2024, I am taking a year's sabbatical. If you would like to contact me regarding sessions, please email me in July 2025 and I will get back to you then.

'Trauma is not what happens to us, but what we hold inside in the absence of an empathic witness'

Dr Peter Levine

Somatic Experiencing image
Somatic Experiencing
Dr Peter Levine developed Somatic Experiencing (SE) by observing how wild animals released trauma. SE is a body-oriented approach that aims to increase the body’s resilience and ability to self-regulate. In this way, symptoms of trauma are reduced and the body is better able to respond to everyday situations with a sense of aliveness and flexibility.

Why is SE so effective?
Trauma affects the autonomic nervous system and lower brain. Because these systems evolved before language, they can’t be healed through words. Unlike other approaches that focus on talking or thinking, SE is effective as it focuses mainly on body sensations, imagination, gesture and emotion.

What happens in an SE session?
SE involves tracking internal sensations, known as 'somatic experiences'. The aim of this work is to reduce symptoms by releasing stuck survival energy and rewiring neural networks (also known as memory re-consolidation). SE sessions typically include working with 'activation cycles' as outlined below;

  • Resourcing using body sensations, movement and images to create resilience. Resilience means supporting the frontal cortex and autonomic nervous system to better contain activation
  • Titration  working slowly and carefully to connect with only a manageable amount of activation at any one time
  • Pendulation  encouraging the body's natural movement between resource and activation
  • Discharge  the gentle release of energy through tears, trembling, warmth and easier breathing
  • Integration  the time needed to allow the body to take in the changes

SE is described by one of my teachers as 'sneaky powerful'. The process may seem subtle, but by working slowly and observantly, small changes integrated by the autonomic nervous system can be profound.














Sessions image
Why choose SE?
SE can re-establish regulation after a one off 'shock' (PTSD) event such as a car accident, a fall, an attack, surgery or a suffocation event. SE can ease symptoms associated with developmental trauma, relational trauma and complex PTSD which stem from, amongst other things, a difficult birth, childhood neglect and abuse.

Sessions available
I offer sessions on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Face to face sessions are offered from my home in the Hanover area of Brighton.

Fees & cancellation policy
Sessions are charged at £60 per hour. 24 hours notice of cancellation is needed, without which the missed session will be charged in full.

Frequency of sessions
Whilst some people choose to have weekly sessions, the frequency of sessions is a personal choice. We can decide together what may be most helpful to you and review this as necessary.

Length of sessions
Face to face sessions last 50 minutes and online sessions last an hour.

Before sessions
We will have a short telephone call to find out a little more about you and answer any questions you may have. If you decide to book a session, I will ask you to complete an information form and sign a session agreement.

Rachel Cooper image
Work experience
For the past 16 years I have worked within education and for 8 years I have worked within a hospice setting. I have worked as a counsellor, a counselling service manager and have also delivered training and supervision to other counsellors. 

Qualifications
I hold an MA in Psychotherapeutic Counselling from the University of Brighton, 2008. I hold a diploma in Counselling Supervision from Wealden Psychotherapy Institute, 2012. In October 2021, I qualified as a Somatic Experiencing Practitioner with SOSI in London.

Continuing CPD
In 2022 I qualified with Aline LaPierre in NeuroAffective Touch. I have since further studied memory reconsolidation (the only known brain process in which neural pathways update) with Juliane Taylor Shore and Alun Parry.

Professional registration
I am an accredited member of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (MBACP accred), 2011. I am also a member of the Somatic Experiencing Association United Kingdom, SEAUK.

Ethical standards
I adhere to the ethical framework as outlined by the BACP and attend regular professional supervision. I have indemnity insurance and am transparent about my privacy policy (GDPR) before the start of sessions.

  • Brighton, England, United Kingdom

Please call or email me to arrange a free 20 minute introductory conversation. I aim to reply to all messages within three working days.