Dr. Peter Levine on working through a personal traumatic experience

Dr. Peter Levine describes working his way through a personal traumatic experience.

[@petestevens3970]

“Nobody can do it for us, but we really can’t do it alone ... “ Profound truth.

[@jakecorynthian3516]

Couldn’t agree more

[@punyashloka4946]

This is very sad 😥

[@johanneaube9791]

This totally resonates with me! Well said!

[@MjF809]

I worked Prison ER 20 yrs Never underestimate the power of A soft voice, a smile, looking a person in the eyes....and holding sombodys hand.... Just telling someone im right here, im not leaving , you will be ok... Even if you have zero experience... One person can turn fear into hope

[@karenj5462]

I learned about TRE 2 weeks before my mom died. I was with her in hospital room while she passed. I felt empowered knowing that I could be with her holding her hand as she took her last breath. I hugged my brother went to the window and opened it. My teeth started to chatter and I started to shiver and cry, then I wailed, I was shaking profusely. Everyone in the room wanted to put a blanket on me or console me. Yet I knew in my mind exactly what was happening, I told people to leave me alone. I shook, cried and wailed for probably 15 minutes. I knew I was done when my body stopped and I felt peaceful. I was then able to hug and thank others and make phone calls to relatives. No one but me understand that I let the trauma release immediately and I had total peace over my moms passing. I use this anytime I experience a perceived trauma and start to shiver, just let it happen. It feels scary the first time, but now I welcome anytime my nervous system is willing to process old or current shocking experiences.

[@amiestew]

Karen J Thank you soo much for sharing this!! I used to shiver & shake whenever I had deep emotional conversations about my life with family & friends and I Never knew why & have recently wondered why cuz I dont anymore do it anymore cuz on meds I think are blocking this action and now am plauged with chronic pain!! Answered prayer!!!!

[@amazingyear9042]

makes total sense. thankyou for sharing❣️

[@roxannesumners5039]

Thank you, Karen. This is so helpful!

[@sarahdurrant22]

Thank you for sharing this Karen. For many reasons. 🙏❤️

[@catherinesinclair7727]

Wow. Thank you ❤

[@mjinba07]

I spent 30 years treating people in mental health and learned this lesson, simple as it sounds. For a good many folks, being present with them is powerfully healing and, in that, they'll often find the answers and make the changes they need. Many people have a natural inclination to heal, and will do so when given a heart-to-heart witness and encouragement or permission, maybe a suggestion here or there, from someone they put their trust in. As a clinician, one of the most frustrating things in my career was emphasis on interventions that are supposed to mechanically treat the "patient" as if the person is a widget that needs to be correctly manipulated. Interventions can be useful, for sure, but only when they jive with the person's natural course in the first place. And often they just interfere.

[@minervaminerva7906]

Thank you for your comment ! So true, unfortunately, the fixation with interventions and treatments, the latter of which can also do so much damage.

[@mjinba07]

@@minervaminerva7906 It's the "medical model." In other words, it's a way of squeezing people's distress into an actuarial table, and then building a bureaucracy around it and wringing as much money out of all that as possible. "Interventions" are part of the formula. Emotional distress is an industry. I just realized I have a whole rant about this, going well beyond answering you here. I believe it matters so I'll post that separately. That said, if you or someone you love suffered some sort of damage from an "intervention," I sincerely hope you ore they have found a way past it.

[@minervaminerva7906]

@@mjinba07 Thank you, I am pulling through it now, I trust. Five+ years of hell, with an initially undiagnosed physical illness lying at the root of it all, now receiving the medical attention it needs. When I write a book about this journey the title will be "Reise in die Irrsinn und zurück" ... "Journey into Madness and back"... with the words used in their literal meaning. In my view there is value in and a need for certain interventions and treatment, but not in the "actuarial" , self-fulfilling prophecy, one-size-fits-all self-feeding industry kind of way. I appreciate that there are professionals who recognise this. 📯📯📯

[@TappaTapz]

6 years later this is helping me achieve the next level of my healthy mental and spiritual health. Thank you for sharing. Lots of love from Jamaica 🇯🇲

[@CB-sn4xh]

Real Deal Dr. Levine- full.of warmth Compassion & integrity..humble "Wounded Healer"..Big Respect..🙏🧡

[@baharpishgahi90]

Oh god his energy his warm presence, I can listen to him for hours.

[@jasongentile7098]

I concur. I use his techniques all the time

[@CB-sn4xh]

Real Deal- modern day Shaman- Humble & Full of Warmth & Integrity, Wounder Healer..

[@trishhoney2172]

This is exactly why if you have to go hospital, take an advocate with you that can stand up for you when you can’t.

[@mingying8398]

The power of compassion!

[@Jaebee2626]

Yes! So powerful and so hard to find these days!

[@jesskolbe609]

Just love his gentle honesty, so thankful for you sharing his experience

[@madisonbell2048]

What happens when we choose bad listeners, who later deny your experience? It’s actual hell.

[@EchosLens]

I call it the secondary trauma. I know because I've lived it, after trusting the wrong person to talk about past trauma with.

[@mjinba07]

Reject them. It's right and good to trust, to reach out for help. The person who abuses that, or just misses the mark, isn't worth suffering on your part. And your benefit is the opportunity to learn how to peg a bad listener in the future.

[@rmooney1000]

Beautiful explanation of trauma processing - we need to do it ourselves AND we need the processing to be witnessed ie we cannot do it alone.

[@NoName_emaNoN]

this man is unconditional love

[@mutausbruch12]

i read the book - he is genius.

[@raphaellavelasquez8144]

I highly recommend have enough money to take care of your basic needs. That goes a long way. (No one mentions that so I thought I would.)

[@GChan129]

I took ayahuasca to help me process my childhood trauma and had a similar body experience. I felt so alone that I asked for help in the form of a woman to sit by me and hold my hand. I’m defiantly independent in my normal life. Then waves of intense full body shaking, exhaustion, tears, shaking, exhaustion, tears in cycles for about an hour. It really helped me let go of so much grief. The fact that two completely different medicines point towards the same technique tells me that it’s the correct answer

[@tulinbeyduz920]

I did a tapping therapy session for the trauma that was inflicted on me as a child by my very abusive mother . I felt like I released bags of pain and being afraid

[@montanamvk]

Wow, so intriguing and awesome, thanks for sharing. I might be misunderstanding something, but what is the second medicine you’re speaking of, please?

[@GChan129]

@@montanamvk sorry, I should have clarified. The second is somatic experiencing therapy. The shaking to release repressed trauma related emotion is the basis of somatic experiencing. So when that naturally stated happening to me when taking ayahuasca, I knew this was the process of healing. How is it than the native people from South America have a trauma healing technique the same as a PHD from the US? Dunno. Just works.

[@mansikakkar5064]

I found Dr Peters work after a medicine journey as well that helped me work through sexual trauma. It was profound how much I released in one session, still integrating. Otherwise it would have taken me years of therapy and others modes. Our bodies are so intelligent. I feel a sacred sense of kinship to the wisdom that is re-emerging through phds. Old/new knowledge that works. Much love.

[@Tadesan]

You are so lucky to have been able to have somebody help you have that experience.

[@godsservant6649]

Thank you for sharing this experience! I still suffer from a TBI suffered from a rear end wreck in February of 2014. Changed by life forever. So hard. Friends and family still don’t understand.

[@64Magick]

*I once experience an extremely painful Trauma via my stomach which I felt I was being stabbed repeatedly over and over and also slammed with a sledge hammer to my gut, than my abdominal area started circulating and pulsing as if an Alien was about to rip open my stomach!!!!!!* *I literally COULD NOT BREATHE, EACH ATTEMPT FELT LIKE A DAGGER PIERCING THRU ME........I REALLY THOUGHT I WAS GONNA DIE RIGHT AT MY DESK AND I COULDN'T YELL OR CALL OUT, BECAUSE NOBODY WAS HOME AND THAT 1-YELL WOULD'VE BEEN MY LAST BREATH....SO I DECIDED TO DO EFT AND HO'OPONOPONO TOGETHER WHILE ''MIND BREATHING'', AND WITHIN AN HOUR WHEN MY GUT SETTLED I HURRIED TO THE KITCHEN TO MIX SEA SALT AND STILLED WATER AND DRANK IT QUICKLY FOR ITS TRACE MINERALS AND DRANK THE FRESH COCONUT WATER THAT I WAS SAVING FOR LATER!!* *ANOTHER 2-HOURS LATER...ITS AS IF NOTHING EVER HAPPENED....BUT MY MIND WAS STILL PROCESSING THE WHOLE TRAUMATIZED EVENT FOR AT LEAST A WEEK IF NOT TWO!!*

[@daniefisher]

Very similar to Emotional CPR. Especially the part about listening to our body’s expression without words

[@TheHealingVibrations]

I work as a energy healer, after trauma and my dark night of the soul, I too release emotions and trauma through shaking. I teach this to my students, it can be your hands moving, your stomach tensing, your whole body shaking for 30 minutes and hour, then the process stops and you become lighter..... this is the new way to work. It works over distance as well, I have just as profound healings through my distance healing as I do with in person or group work.. MIND BODY AND SPIRIT...

[@thomasdoyle9748]

I shook for a day after giving birth. Wondered why. The wife

[@nicoleurdang4909]

What’s really profound to me in this video, aside from Peter’s honesty, and amazing description of what he went through, is that it wasn’t a partner, child or best friend, but a total stranger holding his hand that enabled him to process this in a healing way. We are truly all connected in a fundamental, primal way.

[@mjinba07]

It's been a long time since this video was put up, so I don't know how many people will see this comment, but it's important to post. After some 30 years as a clinician in mental health, I watched our field degrade in many ways and it's more important now than ever. The "medical model" of mental health treatment is a way of squeezing people's distress into an actuarial table, and then building a bureaucracy around it and wringing as much money out of all that as possible. "Interventions" are part of the formula. Emotional distress is an industry. Before insurance companies got savvy to an untapped market, mental health services and treatment were typically seen as "loss leaders" for hospitals, agencies and clinics, serving communities and attracting consumers to their other services. An insider's look at the mental health industry today shows clinician salaries frozen at about 1985 levels, an "industry standard" of very high productivity [read, billing], and high levels of clinician burnout. The field, now, is heavily served by young clinicians, mostly young women, who have little experience and plenty of compliance with an increasingly parasitic system. Not to say that clients and "patients" can't get anything out of it, treatment can still be useful. That, of course, is what drives most counselors and therapists. But you can't bill for compassion or witnessing, or accommodating the person's own process and time frame for healing. The clinician is required to justify and label their medically approved "interventions" and show client "progress" regardless. Dr. Levine can support his wonderful work through books and seminars. Most clinicians are at the mercy of those who hold the purse strings.

[@parus_1671]

Thank you for this comment. I am a young woman training to become a clinician in mental health and the state of the system and how rigid it is makes me scared that this is a doomed path…

[@mjinba07]

@@parus_1671 It's not a good time to be in the field. That said, there is increasing movement towards revenue streams outside of medical insurance, including private pay. If you have $100K in college debt that isn't a sensible option. But if you're certain this is what you want to do, there is terrific need and collaborating with other dedicated professionals you might develop a workable business model. My only advice would be to avoid dependence on grants which require a lot of work, are short term, and rather ephemeral - the entire funding source typically dries up or excludes serial awards to the same agency. Efforts do continue to legislate "mental health parity" requirements for insurers. I have little faith in that, given the profit orientation of those bodies, but it may be the best solution for the immediate future. A lot of young women enter the mental health field without appreciating the need for self advocacy. These days it's not enough to do good just for the clients. The field itself needs rehabilitating. If you can work with that, and also keep an eye out for burn-out, it's not a doomed career. Good luck to you!

[@susannec659]

Thank you for the post!

[@frankbreuer42]

Thank you for sharing your personal experience. Deep and enriching ...

[@Rodsupremos]

It's funny because it's hard to understand Pete Levine if you can't understand how a person can be totally pure.

[@thehighpriestess8431]

EMDR is a great tool to process trauma.

[@thephoenix3523]

Thank you!

[@susansmith7030]

Extremely insightful. Wonderfull comment: Motown “ It Takes Two To Let The Sunlight Through” referring to Therapist’s presence , insight , acumen and and guidance.

[@ginaiosef1634]

Dr. Levine, I thank you for this confession with all my heart! I am grateful for everything you've done, you do and will do!❤ Than hearing a doctor speaking about an OBE or an NDE brings me so much joy, the whole world should know that nobody dies, out of body we feel more real than being alive. Be blessed and thank you

[@islandbirdw]

I too have felt such grief following me relinquishing my first born child to my barren sister and her husband that I stopped eating couldn’t get out of my bed for days, sobbing in what seemed like endless waves and shed countless tears. It was in the midst of my profound grief that I no longer could stay in my body. I think it was at the time the only way to feel relief from the pain and sorrow of giving my first born child to my sister who then returned the gift by not letting me see the baby for more than 4 months. This put me over the edge and I was alone, unable to eat, catatonic in my bed. I suddenly found my self up in the corner of my room looking down at myself. I had been in such pain that the only way to get any relief was to separate from my body. This trauma goes deep and even though I have healed some it is such a deep trauma that I still experience the profound pain and suffering especially after subsequent traumas which I believe does trigger older unresolved grief. I see this as a sort of mental house cleaning. I’ve begun to see trauma as being stuck in some way in your minds eye in the moment the trauma hit you. My visions take place in slow motion and it feels as if I’ve been shattered like a piece of glass in a million shards. I see the lumber coming st my windshield. I had amazing luck and perhaps some skill in that I had both hands on the wheel and eyes on the road. I saw the lumber launch out of his truck into my cars path as each of us passed the other. Combined speed of roughly 90 mph. So even though I’d been able to process previous traumas to some extent the accident was what shook me to the core and I’ve developed a nasty case of PTSD. Thank you Dr Levine for your tireless devotion to work on healing traumas. It had helped me to listen to your stories and your work on trauma. Thank you 🙏

[@regularity2556]

Sounds like you were coerced into giving away your baby. If that's the case, you should fight to get her back, if you can care for a child of course

[@EchosLens]

@Simone You've sure been through one hell of a trauma, I'm sorry to hear it. It sounds like you have had another thing happen too but it's not all the way clear in what you wrote. You started to write about lumber, seeing it but having both hands on the wheel. You wrote that, and something about a combined speed of 90 miles per hour. That's all you said though, after writing about losing your first born. And feeling like broken glass.

[@Medietos]

Wow,to have this level of self-awareness in a moment of trauma! But it takes someone harmonious prior to it,and knowledgeable with a practised prepared mind. Someone less harmonious might not have received the service asked for. With many knots in the energy pathways and nerves,and a stuck soul from life-long impact,one doesn't get as listened to, not believed to know what one needs.Like asking as he did, "can you sit by me and hold my hand for a moment?"OR asking psychiatry to stroke my back. - "Oh no,you can get psychosis from that!" Even though one was used to both massage , stroking,hugs etc. - and asked for it. if things come unexpectedly, that is more of a little shock.

[@contessaannavonfunk5158]

Very nice!!!

[@hermitcrabinavan7244]

The ministry of being there.

[@roykirt3688]

Thank you so much for sharing light in me again,l used to hide my self,not untill you sawed an image of a patient hiding and l hard put my hand at the same time.then l hard to make astep ahead.

[@iamwaveofwaves]

Amazing

[@bell1435]

7:20 that phrase has to be talking about the conscious and subconscious minds. The first one is eternally in darkness without the second one to work together to bring out truth, light, THE knowledge that frees us.

[@spinnettdesigns]

Katsugan movements are so powerful

[@andresramonfranjullandesto9575]

One Thing I Know, is that if You can Live wanting this type of Experience: You'll allways Have them. Now, if you make some Good used of it, Helping Mankind and With Empirical Knowledge, Is Helpfull. Cause in other waysforsome people it could Be Troublesome.

[@babblingidiot7903]

The human body has power beyond the Humanscale and the mind. We don't know the exact power and how far it extend. But we control and continue to use man made materials that only band aids the symptoms of every causes on the body. There still a lot of work and studies that needs to be done. We are not even close to understanding 1/10 of the human body.

[@orsolyavarga7212]

it is very nice!and true and simply! this is mumanity!

[@pattyredmond6963]

how bout when alone from childhood how do you heal those procedural memories

[@nathalieduverna6963]

Talk, write, cry , mediate.....I am doing this work rn

[@chelseaspringer5247]

I feel you

[@bethdawson9240]

we should use this with solders before the goto to war so they no how to use it during trauma.

[@MiamiPush2theLimit]

Beth Dawson that would be great.

[@claire-shrinkit]

Preach!! I've been saying this for years

[@duaineking6163]

Wow

[@Tadesan]

I am utterly alone. Every Friday night. Every weekend. Is hell. It's funny how every trauma therapy is centered around people who are never alone.

[@aytak3642]

I understand. Make sure you do something every day that uses your voice loudly, and move, and try art and music - doesn't need to be good. Just make sure you are doing things for you. I think we stop looking after ourselves because no one else cares to look after us. It is important you do look after yourself, because you matter.

[@EchosLens]

Several people in these comments were alone, then asked for help. Asking is being an advocate for yourself and is also empowering, I find.

[@janedough2492]

How do I heal the procedural memory from emotional abuse?

[@catherinesinclair7727]

Hello - it takes work ..EMDR helps- it is free on the NHS in some parts of England

[@Tadesan]

As far as I can tell, you can't. Mental health does not assume 'normal' so if you don't know what to ask for, your therapist never has to tell you. I have no idea how to live a functionally healthy life and nobody will even offer me suggestions. I go to work. I come home and I'm alone. I watch my life slip away. I'm supposed to be happy with that. Hugs

[@laurenpaterson3475]

Write down and write what a good parent would have done to comfort you when u abused a calm voice that says you are okay you are loved

[@EchosLens]

I think you heal them the same way as Levine talks about here, because trauma is trauma and emotional abuse is hella traumatizing. I'm looking for a therapist that is familiar with Levine's work, or similar.

[@primordiallab]

@@Tadesansearch for EMDR and look through practitioners till you find someone you like. You can do zoom consults so distance no problem. Finding the right therapist can and will make all the difference to your empty unfulfilled life. You will require more than 10 sessions. Expect it. No immediate fix. Relax into expectation of improvement, healing, and give yourself a chance

[@mellow5123]

Well, lay it on me. What's the technique?

[@candaniel]

A well-meaning person on the outset, but a very disempowering message at the core. Did he really say that you need other people for healing? Learn to trust yourself and God. Others can still help of course, but you will not be dependent on them. Healing is not dependant on other people, only on God.

[@staciefrank2391]

Oh I am so sad that happened to you. 😔

[@pattyredmond6963]

i' missin something what is the method

[@basementdwellers5688]

patty redmond - make contact with a caring person, and allow your body to experience and move through its responses to the trauma at its own pace. Observe and accept what your body is doing at that time as best you can. This takes practice. Not enough space to explain here. Read Levine's books for more details.

[@musikalitet]

Could you recommend one book, or what book to read, to understand what the metode is he is talking about. very very interesting.. warw

[@gmoore6476]

@@musikalitet waking the tiger is one of the most accessible

[@dg1006]

He is known for “Somatic Experiencing” technique for healing trauma.

[@EchosLens]

@Patty Levine created, for the contemporary mental health field, the technique he calls 'somatic experiencing'. Check out one of his books, or check on KZbin for guided somatic experiencing -- but have someone there with a soothing voice to sit with you and hold your hand.

[@pattyredmond6963]

that's hy we can not ee our own face we reflect off one onther could be why jesus said do unto others as you would have done ubto you

[@Tadesan]

Jesus is why I don't have a foreskin. I hate jesus.

[@justkeepmovingforward.3888]

Aaaaaand...

[@marilynmoney2771]

Sounds like an NDE

[@garypuckettmuse]

Rage that someone accidentally hit you? Really?

[@AnnabellaRedwood]

Why not? It makes sense to me even though it was an accident that he would feel rage.

[@waitingodsgrace]

Yes, its a natural physiological response

[@BASEDinMaine]

It wasnt an "accident" it was neglect. An accident happens only when you are doing things properly. The teenager ran a stop sign due to her lack of awareness and brutally smashed this guy. Id be furious at the time.

[@RebeccaLynnMusic]

So you didn't listen to everything he said?

[@garypuckettmuse]

@@RebeccaLynnMusic I assume that is a Trump style statement which is weaseled out of by putting a question mark at the end? Own your statement, don't disown it by putting a question mark at the end. Or, ask a question.