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In Somatic Experiencing, we work very slowly. When trauma occurs in our life, it comes at us too fast, too much, too soon. Trauma is an experience that overwhelms the normal capacity of our nervous system: we are unable to integrate the experience. Titration, is a concept in chemistry where one tiny drop of a volatile subsance is added to an opposite volatile substance, allowing time for the neutralizing chemical reaction and energy dissipation to finish before introducing another drop. If the two substances were combined without titration an explosive and volatile destabilizing reaction would take place. But if they are added in a slow and titrated way, much like we do in SE, we only get little reactions, and ones that the nervous system is able to
integrate. As the nervous system is given time and space to integrate each titration, healing occurs without re-traumatization and without further destabilization. In our culture and society we are accustomed to "talk therapy" and telling the story. However, when unresolved trauma is concerned, we often overhwelm the capacity of our nervous system again in the retelling, and our brain and physiology mobilizes again to respond to these old events that are still present in our body. The titration process slowly taps into this trapped arousal and provides enough time and space for these small titrations to be integrated, moving the nervous system toward stabilization, dissolving the trauma.