Peter A. Levine

Peter A. Levine, PhD (19 February 1942–) is an American therapist, author and educator who specializes in the treatment and understanding of chronic stress and tonic immobility, more commonly known as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (or PTSD). Dr. Levine is the developer of Somatic Experiencing® (a body awareness approach to the treatment of trauma) and founder of the non-profit educational and research organization dedicated to the worldwide healing and prevention of trauma, The Somatic Experiencing Training Institute (formerly known as The Foundation for Human Enrichment). He is also an author of numerous books about trauma and post traumatic stress disorder, including In an Unspoken Voice: How the Body Releases Trauma and Restores Goodness and the New York Times Best Seller Waking the Tiger: Healing Trauma.

Career

Levine's psycho-physiological trauma theory is informed by what ethologists, or biologists who specialize in studying animal behavior in the wild, call the immobility response, a survival enhancing fixed action pattern evolved in prey animals which is triggered by the perceived imminence of being killed by a predator. Levine’s approach, as taught through Somatic Experiencing, is an slow, graduated and indirect approach to the trauma event, with a focus on completing the initiated survival responses, that were unable to complete at the time of the trauma, and discharging the immense amount of neurological memory that Dr. Levine believes is stored in the peripheral nervous system. This discharge is characterized by shaking or trembling, as well as vasodilation. This discharge helps the client to better integrate the broken sensory fragments of the event, and establishes, what Dr. Levine calls, “Creative Self-Regulation”. This is in contrast to most “talk” therapies, where the therapist tries to rally the client to accept what has happened, possibly through the retrieval of a lost episodic memory of the event.

Peter A. Levine, PhD, holds doctorates in both medical biophysics and psychology. The developer of Somatic Experiencing, Dr. Levine was a stress consultant for NASA on the development of the space shuttle project and was a member of the Institute of World Affairs Task Force of Psychologists for Social Responsibility in developing responses to large-scale disasters and ethno-political warfare. Levine’s original contribution to the field of Body-Psychotherapy was honored in 2010 when he received the Life Time Achievement award from the United States Association for Body Psychotherapy (USABP).

He also is the originator of "Somatic Experiencing®" method, a body-awareness approach to healing trauma healing of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).

Education

B.S. University of Michigan, 1964: Physics Engineering; and minors in mathematics and psychology.

Ph.D. University of California, Berkeley, 1977: Department of Medical and Biological Physics: Group in Biophysics (Interdisciplinary Program in Physical Biology; Life Science, Neurophysiology, and Physiological Psychology.)

Ph.D. International University, Los Angeles, 1978; Independent Directed Tutorial, Psychology.

Published works

2010 

In an Unspoken Voice: How the Body Releases Trauma and Restores Goodness

2009 

Trauma Proofing Your Kids: A Parent's Guide for Instilling Confidence, Joy, and Resilience  : With Co Author Maggie Kline  : North Atlantic Books Link

2008 

Healing Trauma: A Pioneering Program for Restoring the Wisdom of Your Body (Book + CD with 12 Somatic Experiencing exercises). Sounds True[1].

2006 

Trauma Through a Child's Eyes: Awakening the Ordinary Miracle of Healing. Co : Author Maggie Kline North Atlantic Books

2003 

Sexual Healing. Transforming the Sacred Wound, (CD produced by SoundsTrue[2]).

1999 

Healing Trauma-Restoring the Wisdom of the Body, (CD produced by SoundsTrue).

1998 

Trauma Therapy for Survivors of Torture, Jorgensen and Mathiasen eds.

1997 

Waking the Tiger-Healing Trauma see Table of Contents, with Ann Frederick; North Atlantic Books

1997 

Memory, Trauma, and Healing  : article appeared in Spring 1997 of AHP Journal Perspective. Also in the Journal of Bio-Synthesis.

1994 

Understanding Childhood Trauma, Mothering magazin

1991 

The Body As Healer  : Transforming Trauma and Anxiety, unpublished book manuscript,

1990 

Revisioning Anxiety and Trauma, in Giving the Body Its Due (ed. Maxine Sheets Johnstone) S.U.N.Y. Press, 1991.

1989 

The Substitute Tiger, An Integrative Bio-developmental Approach to Anxiety and Post Traumatic Stress.

1986 

Chapter on Stress for Psychophysiology. Systems, Processes, and Application, A Handbook, eds. Coles, M., Donchin, E., and Porges, S., Guilford Press, 1986.

1983 

Chronic Perinatal Stress as a Predisposing Factor in Autism and Childhood Psychosis, a Neurodevelopmental model suggesting strategies in treatment and prophylaxis. In: Symposium on Autism co-sponsored by University du Quebec a Montreal and San Francisco State University.

1982 

Circle of Damage, Circle of Grace-Stress and Your Children. (Unpublished Manuscript).

1982 

Stress, Neurobiology and Behavior Benchmark series on Human Physiology and Behavior, Dowden, Hutchinson and Ross, Inc. (Submitted for Publication).

1978 

Stress and Vegetatherapy, Journal of Energy and Character-England (Fall and Winter)

1978 

Infra-Uterinee Environment, Stress and Neurological Development, Journal of Behavioral Neuropsychiatry.

1977 

Accumulate Stress Reserve Capacity and Disease, University Microfilm 77-15760, Ann Arbor, Michigan.

1977 

A Rhythm to Growing.  : A Comment on the Body Approaches of Reich and Rolf and the Process of Adaptive Growth, in 'Life and Works of Wilhelm Reich', Viking Penguin.

1964 

A Model for Flicker Fusion. Bell Telephone Company, Technical Memoranda.

External links

• Nature's Lessons in Healing Trauma - an article by Peter A. Levine
• Chapter 1 'The Body As Healer' - excerpt from his book Waking the Tiger
• an interview with Peter Levine - with Michael Picucci
• another dancer's view on Levine's work - Karl Frost's introduction to the ideas of Peter Levine
• It Won't Hurt Forever: Guiding Your Child Through Trauma - an online article from the Mothering magazine 2002
• Rothschild's article on psychophysiological trauma/shock - citing Levine's naturalistic explanation of trauma