Peter Levine PHD - TRAUMA STORED IN THE BODY: SOMATIC EXPERIENCING

How are traumatic memories stored in the body? How has Somatic Experiencing helped thousands of people release the symptoms of trauma through bodily practices rather than talky therapy? How did Peter resolve his own devastating childhood trauma? What will a trauma aware society be like?

In this episode we have the fascinating question of the different ways traumatic memories are stored to think about, and how the body itself and not only the brain is instrumental in the way the memory’s are made and processed, and so in how we might ease the symptoms of the trauma later on. We’re going to delve into the brain-body connection in traumatic memory, looking at the way trauma can influence our bodily states and so in turn the way we can use bodily methods in a bottom-up approach, to re-train the brain to feel safe and integrate traumatic memories. 

For this there can be no better person than the psychotherapist, Dr. Peter Levine, the creator of the Somatic Experiencing therapy method, founder of the Institute of Somatic Education and author of many books on trauma and therapy, including “Waking the Tiger”, “Healing Trauma”, “Trauma Through a Childs Eyes”, “Trauma and Memory” which we’ll be discussing today, and his brand new book, which this episode is happy to celebrate the release of “An autobiography of Trauma: A healing Journey”.

Minus 1 minute

What we discuss:

00:00 Intro.

06:00 Conscious memories start earlier than we might imagine.

07:00 Descartes was wrong, better “I move, I sense, I feel, I have images, I have thoughts: therefore I am.”

07:30 The mid-1960’s session with Nancy that started it all for Peter.

14:20 The 3 different nervous system bodily states: fight or flight, freeze and social engagement.

20:00 Body/Nervous system bi-directionality: Influences between Polyvagal theory and Somatic Experiencing.

26:00 Exercises to switch the hyper-aroused message coming from the body.

29:00 Animal kingdom research into ‘shaking off’ daily life threatening experiences.

31:00 The very sensations that help animals release, are scary to us so we block them.

31:40 Vitality, movement and exuberance VS a disembodied society.

33:20 As children we learn to limit our exuberance, so as not to disturb adults.

35:30 Different types of memory and the role of the body in recording them.

36:00 Declarative conscious memory.

36:45 Autobiographical conscious memory.

38:30 Emotional unconscious memory (associative).

39:00 Procedural/body unconscious memories (to protect oneself).

39:45 Peter as Chiron “The Woundd Healer” archetype.

45.10 Being heard, witnessed and listened to: why reflection and mirroring are important.

47:00 “I don’t think there is consciousness without being mirrored”.

47:40 A trauma aware society.

51:00 Being heard and mirrored leads to resilience.

54:00 Peter’s devastating childhood trauma and shame: “An Autobiography of Trauma”

57:00 Confronting shame tends to intensify it.

59:30 Why share such a personal vulnerable story with the world?

01:01:00 The dream that helped him choose whether or not to publish this deeply personal story.

01:02:20 Encouraging others to tell their stories: cathartic sharing.

01:04:45 Sharing vulnerability with the compassionate other.

01:05:30 Is trauma required to transform or is it just an inevitability of life?

01:07:00 Trauma is a rite of passage towards being truly compassionate.

01:07:40 Gabor Mate, “Compassionate Enquiry”.

01:08:00 Curiosity can’t co-exist with fear, use it to shift the process.

References:

Peter Levine, “An Autobiography of Trauma: A Healing Journey” 2024

(Available at Ergos Institute, Barnes & Noble, Amazon, Amazon UK, Inner Traditions, Books A Million, and Bookshop.org)

Somatic Experiencing

https://www.somaticexperiencing.com/home

Peter Levine, “Trauma and Memory” 2015

https://g.co/kgs/vAzjvB2

“Hand in Hand: Parenting by connection” episode, Listening technique

https://www.chasingconsciousness.net/episode-18-parenting-by-connection-maya-coleman