Help me become a Somatic Experiencing® Practitioner

My name is Lena and I am raising €7,360 to complete a three-year Somatic Experiencing® Practitioner training, a step that brings together more than 30 years of dance, my work with the body and movement, my own experience with trauma and recovery, and the professional path I want to build for the future.

For most of my life, my body has been at the centre of what I do. I started dancing when I was seven years old and went on to train in ballet and contemporary dance, study dance at university, complete a professional ballet teacher training, and work as a dancer, performer, lecturer, dramaturge and cultural producer.

But a few years ago, my relationship with my own body changed completely.

When my body stopped making sense to me

In 2020, during the pandemic and a period of major changes in my professional and personal life, I experienced my first panic attack. At the time, I did not understand what was happening.

Over the following years, I experienced a wide range of physical and emotional symptoms: panic attacks, depressive states, inflammatory skin reactions, recurring respiratory infections, chronic exhaustion, a constant lump in my throat, tingling and numbness in my face, burning eyes and a growing feeling of being disconnected from myself.

I went through medical examinations and tried different approaches to understand what was happening. My medical results did not provide an explanation for the severity of what I was experiencing. Eventually, I reached a point where I could no longer work as much as I had before.

During these years, I also moved from Germany to Portugal and was building a new life and professional path there. But despite everything I was doing to understand what was happening, I still had no real explanation for why my body was reacting this way.

For someone whose entire life had been built around movement and a deep awareness of the body, one of the hardest parts was feeling that I no longer understood my own body, almost as if it had turned against me.

Discovering Somatic Experiencing®

In 2023, after physical causes had been investigated, a doctor suggested that I also look at what might be happening on an emotional level.

Through my own research and a recommendation, I found a practitioner working with Somatic Experiencing® (SE).

Somatic Experiencing is a body-oriented therapeutic approach that works with the physiological and nervous-system responses associated with overwhelming experiences and trauma. Instead of focusing only on talking about what has happened, it also invites us to notice sensations, bodily responses and patterns in the present moment, and to develop a different relationship with them.

I began having sessions and, within the first few appointments, I experienced a significant change in my symptoms. This was not a magical overnight cure, and some symptoms returned at different points. What changed most profoundly was my relationship with my body.

I began to understand that my body was not my enemy.

The sensations I had been afraid of could also be understood as signals. I learned to notice them, listen to them and respond to myself with more awareness and compassion.

For me, this was a turning point.

From dance to Somatic Dance

Over time, I realised that this new understanding could not remain separate from my lifelong work with dance and movement.

In 2025, I began developing my own Somatic Dance Sessions in Lisbon. These sessions combine simple somatic movement exercises, free dance and guided improvisation, drawing on my decades of experience as a dancer and teacher.

There is no choreography to get right and no expectation to perform.

The aim is to create a space where people can reconnect with their bodies, move in ways that feel accessible to them, explore expression without aesthetic pressure and develop greater awareness of what is happening inside.

Seeing how people respond to this work has made something increasingly clear to me: this is the direction in which I want to continue growing professionally.

My next step

I now want to undertake a three-year Somatic Experiencing® Practitioner training with Somatic (https://somatic.pt/), the Portuguese training provider for Somatic Experiencing®.

The training will allow me to deepen my understanding of trauma, the nervous system and body-based processes and, in time, to work professionally with clients as a Somatic Experiencing Practitioner.

My long-term vision is to build a professional practice that brings together the different parts of my experience:

• individual Somatic Experiencing sessions

• Somatic Dance and movement-based work

• workshops where people can experience and learn about somatic approaches

• my background in dance, performance, teaching and dramaturgy

I want to continue developing ways of working with the body that make space for individual experience rather than demanding that everyone move, feel or express themselves in the same way.

Ultimately, I hope to make somatic approaches more accessible to people who may benefit from them and to contribute my own perspective as a dancer, movement teacher and future practitioner.

Why I am asking for your support

The training is a significant financial commitment for me as a freelance cultural worker.

The total cost is:

€5,950 - three-year Somatic Experiencing® Practitioner training

€150 - mandatory introductory seminar

€1,260 - 18 mandatory supervision sessions (€70 each)

Total: €7,360

(The fundraising goal is slightly higher to cover the transaction fees charged by GoFundMe.)

Every contribution, no matter the amount, would bring me one step closer to making this next chapter possible.

And if donating is not possible for you, sharing this campaign is just as valuable. You might know someone who is interested in somatic work, trauma-informed approaches, dance, movement or simply in supporting someone who is building a new professional path.

Thank you for taking the time to read my story, for supporting me, sharing the campaign or simply helping me spread the word.

I am deeply grateful for every form of support!