Marian W. Thompson, LCSW, SEP

05/22/2026

Just wrapped up a week in Houston as a practitioner assistant at Somatic Experiencing Advanced 1. Here I am with a few of the wonderful women on the assistant team.

Sometimes I scroll Instagram and see people promising to "reset your nervous system," and I find myself wondering about their training.

What I am sure of is this: for six days the SE students here at Advanced 1 spent their mornings in lectures, their afternoons watching demos, and then were invited to choose a single piece of unresolved material from their lives and work with it all week in small practice groups.

What I witnessed was students learning so much about themselves — and about each other's nervous systems. The content of what happened to someone was rarely the focus — it was what their body was still holding that guided the work. This is what it actually looks like to learn to make space for, contain, track, and hold another nervous system.

I am so honored to assist with these trainings. ❤️

05/15/2026

Back in Houston for the week — my hometown! — assisting at the Advanced Somatic Experiencing training. There's something really special about seeing colleagues and students from the first two years in Austin along with other students and assistants from around the country.

I keep learning just as much from the students as I do from the material and our amazing trainer, Dave Berger.

Exhausted doesn't even cover it, so I'll let the pictures do the rest of the talking.

05/13/2026

The drop in your stomach when you hear you partner's disappointment The numbness you've learned to live with without ever asking what it's protecting you from.

Somatic attachment work helps you turn toward those places so the deepest healing can happen.

04/28/2026

Your body has been waiting for permission to say something. 🦋

01/30/2026

01/13/2026

In somatic work, we're tracking frozen energy—what didn't have anywhere to go when it happened.

What wasn't safe to say? What wasn't safe to feel? What self-protective movement didn't get to complete?

We get you moving, help those incomplete responses find their finish line, then we rest. We build your capacity to track and tolerate the emotions, sensations, and images that surface.

Your nervous system remembers. Let's help it find resolution.

01/05/2026

I have over 1000 followers! Here's a little bit about my journey. Did I mention that I'm an introvert?

Being on social media has brought up a lot for me over the past year. But listening to my body, coming back to my center, observing, riding the wave of expansion and contraction. All of these things helped me get through it!

If you're interested in a more somatic approach to therapy, I have a few spots available in the new year ✨✨

Happy happy new year!!

12/08/2025

As a somatic experiencing practitioner, I see this all the time: people carrying losses they were never given permission to grieve.

These aren't the losses that come with rituals or casseroles. They're the quiet ones—the life that didn't unfold the way you imagined, the parts of yourself you had to let go of to move forward, the dreams that closed when other doors opened.

And because no one acknowledges them, we often don't either. We just keep moving. But the body keeps score.

In somatic work, we locate where that grief lives in the body. We create space for it to be felt, witnessed, and allowed to move through—not intellectualized or rushed, but honored with the tenderness it deserves.

Because acknowledging the grief is often what sets us free. It's what allows transformation. It pulls us out of feeling stuck and opens us back up to what's actually possible in the life we have now.

It won't look like you thought it would. But it can still be extraordinary.

12/02/2025

Before we dive into anything heavy, I invite you to slowly turn your head and look around the room.
Notice the colors and textures. See where your eyes naturally want to land.

This simple practice helps you arrive—to come into the present moment and into your body.

It's also a way of signaling safety to your nervous system. When we're in fight-or-flight, we often get tunnel vision. By looking around, we're gently reminding your system: "I'm safe in this moment."

Sometimes your eyes will land on something that feels grounding—a color, a picture, a texture. We'll remember that. Later, when things get more intense, we can come back to it as a resource.

Everyone's nervous system is different, and this practice can affect people in different ways. That's what I love about Somatic Experiencing—there's no rigid protocol. We stay curious together about how these invitations land for you. We add resources, adjust as we go, and follow what your system needs.

Safety in therapy is co-created, moment by moment. And it starts when you walk in the door.

11/01/2025

That clenched jaw. The 0-to-100 reactions.

The way you slam cabinets harder than you meant to or snap at the people you love.

These might be signs of an incomplete fight response—your nervous system still braced for a threat that's long past.

Often it starts when fighting back or expressing anger wasn't safe. Maybe in childhood or during a threatening situation where you had to disown your natural defensive response.

You learned that fighting back meant more danger— or that it made no difference at all. So you pushed it down, made yourself smaller.

Your nervous system adapted to survive. But it also learned to stay ready. It turned up the sensitivity dial and never turned it back down.

Years later, you find yourself bracing—even when you're safe.

Your jaw clenches without you realizing. A minor frustration activates your whole system. There's heat and energy with nowhere to go.

Your body is trying to complete something it started a long time ago.

When we work with it somatically, we're not trying to suppress or "fix" this response. We're helping your nervous system learn new patterns—practicing activation with safety.

This might look like:

Noticing where fight energy shows up in your body - where does it begin?

Exploring small, safe movements that engage your fight response in a regulated way (like squeezing and releasing)

Helping your body remember that it's safe to feel your own power—that anger can move through you without being dangerous

Your anger isn't a problem to solve. It's a protective response that needs updating with new learning.

So many of us carry hypervigilant fight responses. You're not alone in this.