The people who agree to share their experience here do so with generosity. Behind these words are intimate journeys, sometimes difficult ones. I am grateful to them for being willing to share what they have been through. I welcome their words here with gratitude, in the hope that they help clarify, for those who are still hesitating, what this work can be
"To say and describe what is not visible to the naked eye is complex."
Because words will never match what we feel — what lingers, seeps in, and then becomes engrained.
And yet this is exactly what happens during Somatic Experiencing sessions with Paulette Matkovic. The first session may seem strange to you, unproductive. And rightly so. Strange, because it resembles none of the various therapies I had tried before. Unproductive, because the point here is not to be productive but effective. And the difference is great. The sessions are effective because they take root in everyday life. Gently, these crystallisations that hold us back dissolve, as if by magic. You sometimes feel it during the session; the body responds directly to what is lived, named, felt. You also feel it in the time that follows the sessions. The anxieties, the difficulty of being, dissolve without our even noticing. And yet something has changed — we feel it.
The magic at work is not that of a fairy's wand, of some outside grace that would put back in place what life's incidents had displaced. It is an inner grace, guided by Paulette's kindness and intelligence. The dissolving follows a surprising path: it takes hold through new associations of lived traumatic moments. The feelings and emotions experienced then are associated differently by the brain and the body, which seem to communicate beyond consciousness: the chemistry works. Brain and body send information back and forth in a kind of lift effect. What had been crystallised by the body following a message from the brain, and vice versa, dissolves. And the two tell each other, in spite of us: it's alright. You can move forward.
Paulette is the trusted person who will guide you through this path, gently.
— Sonia Pastecchia
Translated from French