The Battle We Couldn’t Finish: Somatic Experiencing for the Fight Response
💫 Are You Ready to Reclaim Your Power?
Often, when we’re in an unsafe situation and unable to defend ourselves—because expressing anger would have led to emotional or physical danger—the fight response gets suppressed. That incomplete energy can remain stuck in the body, showing up later as anxiety, difficulty setting boundaries, helplessness, psychological bypassing, or anger that feels like it’s constantly “on.”
Why Does This Happen?
A helpful way to understand it is through the lens of an animal in the wild. If an animal is chased by a predator, its nervous system mobilizes to run. If that doesn’t work, the next survival impulse is to fight. When the sympathetic fight response is activated, adrenaline floods the system—but if the fight can’t happen, that energy gets trapped. Sometimes, it stays stuck for decades.
I often see this in clients who, as children, had aggressive or unsafe parents. Speaking up or fighting back would have led to more danger, so the body chose a more protective strategy: freeze or fawn. But underneath that is often a reservoir of fight energy that needs to complete so the person can feel safe to set boundaries and speak up again.
Somatic Experiencing® offers a gentle, effective way to release what’s stuck—without having to relive the past. We don’t pathologize this—we honor it. We work with the body, not against it, to restore a sense of safety, agency, and strength.
1. We Start With Safety
Before we touch any fight energy, we build your capacity to feel safe enough in your body. This might include:
Grounding: feeling the support of your feet, back, or chair
Orienting: gently looking around the room and letting your eyes land on something neutral or pleasant
Resourcing: connecting with a memory, place, or person that brings you warmth, strength, or support
These become your anchors—places to return when things feel intense.
2. Tracking Activation—Without Overwhelm
In SE, we bring gentle awareness to what’s happening inside (interoception) and how we are in space (proprioception). We track sensations without judgment and pendulate—touching into activation in small doses, then returning to safety.
Signs of stored fight energy might include:
Clenched jaw or fists
Pressure in the chest
Heat or a readiness to push
A spike in alertness
We don’t need to revisit the traumatic event. The body knows how to unwind, given the right conditions.
3. Following the Impulse to Complete the Response
One of the most powerful tools in SE is following the body’s natural impulse to complete the original defensive response.
When we bypass the thinking mind and ask the body what it wanted to do, clients often find:
A spontaneous urge to push, strike, or run (even imagined)
A desire to say “no,” or set a verbal boundary
Movements through the spine, shoulders, fists, or legs
In session, we might use:
Slow-motion reenactment
Resisted pushing against hands, pillows, or resistance bands
Imagery or micro-movements to help the body feel completion safely
⚠️ Why slow? Because catharsis (intense, fast emotional release) doesn’t actually resolve trauma. Slowness allows the nervous system to integrate each fluctuation of response, pendulating between empowerment and helplessness as needed—until the full loop is complete.
When the body gets to do what it never could, we often see:
✨ shaking, heat, spontaneous breath, softening, tears, or a deep sense of relief.
4. Integration: From Fight to Empowerment
Releasing fight energy isn’t about getting rid of anger—it’s about reclaiming your power.
Clients often report:
Feeling clearer, stronger, and more assertive
Increased capacity to say “no”
More access to healthy boundaries
Less reactive anger, and more grounded strength
The same energy that once protected you can now help you stand tall in your life.
❤️ You’re Not Broken—Your Body Just Needs Completion
If you’ve ever felt like you’re “too angry,” “too tense,” or “too much,” it may be that your body is carrying a fight response that never got to finish.
Through Somatic Experiencing, we don’t pathologize that—we honor it.
We work with the body, not against it, to restore your natural capacity for safety, strength, and self-expression.
Curious about working this way? I’d love to support you. :)
