A Letter from the SEI Board Chair, Rebecca Stahl – June 21, 2021

Dear Global Somatic Experiencing Community, 

This month, we are trying something new! I am writing this letter, as usual, and we are also putting it out there in video format, meaning a video of me speaking. This is when I say, “thank goodness for somatic experiencing!” While I am incredibly lucky that public speaking is not one of my major fears (don’t worry, I have plenty of others), speaking into a camera just for the sake of speaking into a camera does not come easily to me. In fact, it kind of terrifies me. Thanks to SE, the SEI community, and practice with discomfort, however, it seems doable. 

The past 15 months have required all of us to re-evaluate many, if not all, aspects of our lives. How do we connect to ourselves? How do we connect to others? How do we communicate in a polarized world? And of course, how has so much of my life gone virtual? I do not know anyone who has not felt some level of discomfort at all these shifts and changes over the past year. I do know folks for whom the externally imposed solitude was a relief and who are feeling less than thrilled for the world to open back up. Even those folks, however, have had to navigate the disconnect screens create and the fear of a pandemic taking the lives of so many people around the world. This increased level of fear seems palpable to everyone.  

I would suspect that for many folks reading this, SE has helped you navigate these difficult moments (read 15 months). There were times my personal SE work helped, and there were times tapping into the larger SEI community helped me navigate a particular moment. Often, both the personal practice and the larger community were necessary. All these big changes in our lives over the past 15 months have been difficult, for sure. Thanks to SE and the SEI community, however, they have almost always felt manageable, and when they did not, the community became even more important.  

I cannot even begin to compare being asked to do a video to pandemic lockdown, pandemic loss of life, and the shift in energy around racial justice issues in the United States and around the world. Nervous systems being what they are, though, when asked to do a video mine responded with, as one person described it, a “gulp” as I swallowed strongly with my eyes bulging out a little when describing the request for this video. So what?  So why does it matter that the chair of the board is nervous about doing a video?  

I think it matters because it was SE and the SEI community that alleviated the fear. While I do not love watching videos, I know there are many people who prefer them to letters. Thus, in order to help build community and get conversations going, we plan to add more videos. Don’t worry – the written word is not going anywhere either because some of us still prefer that! But that’s the biggest takeaway from this past year for us – how do we meet everyone’s needs to the best of our ability? How do we offer in-person trainings for folks who never want to look at Zoom again? How do we offer virtual trainings for folks who cannot travel? How do we effectively communicate through email, social media, and video and make all of those mediums as accessible as possible? And how do we use them to create global community that can support each other when the going gets tough? 

One of my hopes when joining the board was that SEI, the organization, would find new ways to help people stay feeling connected to the global SE community after trainings are done. Using different ways of communicating is a step toward this goal. With shifts and changes, of course, comes some discomfort as well. But we have the tools to navigate that. How do we step into these shifts of discomfort in ways that feel real and honest and also fun and exciting? As you see these shifts and changes, please let us know what you think at listening@traumahealing.org. 

Warmly, 

Rebecca