about Dr Levine
Trauma therapy for the future can be more important than trauma therapy for the past.
As a young child, I was endlessly fascinated by natural phenomenon. Indeed, my mother described how I, by the age of ten, inadvertently discovered Newtons first law and Archimedes law of fluid displacement. I believe that this passion, and tenacity for understanding natural laws, has guided me throughout my life. My fascination and engagement in life has served me well in the development of my body of work, discovering the roots of trauma and their healing pathways. My early years had trials and tribulations, as many do, and like others who have experienced childhood trauma, I was guided by my own compelling need to heal. I guess you could say that much of my research was “me-search.”
As a young adult, entering a PhD program in Medical and Biological physics at the University of California, Berkeley, I had a prophetic dream which set the arc of my explorations of trauma and of the human condition. In this dream, I was walking towards a two-column elevator with spherical entry ways. I realized that this was an autonomic ganglion. When I entered into the door, I felt an ominous presence. As I looked around, I discovered that it was the cold disapproving look of an important mentor I had in undergraduate school. His mechanistic worldview had no room for feelings and sensations; and he certainly would not approve of my new direction towards the study of “life-energy.” In the dream, I went through the autonomic door and there was no turning back. Then in 1978 I met Stephen Porges and we shared a passion for bottom-up processing and emergent properties. My relationship with Porges and this prescient dream heavily influenced the development of Somatic Experiencing®.
Over the past 50 years, as I developed SE™, and then taught it to anyone who would listen, I mentored thousands of therapists and healers worldwide. My passion turned to be a “Johnny Apple Seed,” spreading my knowledge around the world. And now this passion is being extended to dedicated Faculty members who are passing on this legacy.
Peter A Levine, PhD
Developer of Somatic Experiencing®
Founder and Faculty, Ergos Institute of Somatic Education
Founder and Advisor, Somatic Experiencing International
Senior Clinical Fellow and Advisor, The Meadows Addiction Treatment Center
About Somatic experiencing®
Trauma is not what happens to us. But what we hold inside in the absence of an empathetic witness.
I am a dancer I am free
I am a dancer I am the sea
the wave rolls in I arch my back
the wave crashes I snap my knees
because I am a dancer I am the sea
I am a dancer I am free
- Dr. Levine, a dream about Curiosity
Peter A Levine, Ph.D., is the developer of Somatic Experiencing®, a naturalistic and neurobiological approach to healing trauma, which he has developed over the past 50 years. He holds a doctorate in Biophysics from UC Berkeley and a doctorate in Psychology from International University. He is the Founder and President of the Ergos Institute for Somatic Education, dedicated to CommunityOutreach and Post-Advanced Somatic Experiencing® Training, and the Founder and Advisor for Somatic Experiencing International. He has taught at the University of California, Berkeley; Mills College; Antioch University; the California Institute of Integral Studies; and the Santa Barbara Graduate Institute. His work has been taught to over 30,000 therapists in over 42 countries.
Dr. Levine is the author of several best-selling books on trauma, including Waking the Tiger, Healing Trauma (published in over 29 languages); In an Unspoken Voice, How the Body Releases Trauma and Restores Goodness; and Trauma and Memory, Brain and Body in a Search for the Living Past.
In recognition of his groundbreaking therapeutic works, Dr. Levine has received Lifetime Achievement awards from Psychotherapy Networker and from the US Association for Body-Oriented Psychotherapy, an honorary award as the Reiss-Davis Chair in Los Angeles for his lifetime contribution to infant and child psychiatry, and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Association for Training on Trauma and Attachment in Children (ATTACh) for “his lifelong commitment to healing children through research, education, and outreach.” He served as a Stress consultant for NASA in the early space shuttle development and has served on the American Psychological Association task force for responding to the trauma of large-scale disasters and ethnopolitical warfare. He is currently a Senior Fellow and consultant at The Meadows Addiction and Trauma Treatment Center in Wickenburg, Arizona, and continues to teach trauma healing workshops internationally.
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PETER A LEVINE, PhD
February 19, 1942
EDUCATION
B.S. University of Michigan, 1964: Physics Engineering; and Minors in Mathematics and Psychology
P.h.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)
P.h.D. International University, Los Angeles, 1978; Independent Directed Tutorial, Psychology
EXPERIENCE
1985 - Current
Founder and President of the Ergos Institute of Somatic Education
1994 - Current
Founder and Senior Advisor for the Foundation for Human Enrichment, Lyons, Colorado. A.K.A Somatic Experiencing® Institute.
2007 - Current
Senior Clinical Fellow and Advisor to The Meadows Addiction Treatment Center in Wickenberg, Arizona
2003 - Current
President and Editorial Director of Ergos Institute Press (An Imprint co-publish with North Atlantic Press), Encinitas, California
2001 - 2007
Guest teacher for CIIS - California Institute of Integral Studies, San Francisco, California
2001 - 2007
Distinguished Faculty, Santa Barbara Graduate Institute, Santa Barbara, California
1994 - 2006
President and Director of the Foundation for Human Enrichment, Lyons, Colorado
2004 - 2005
Advisory Board: Trauma and Resiliency Resources - Treatment program for Emergency workers, firemen, and police involved in WTC/911
1999
Member of Task Force, Institute of World Affairs, Psychologists for Social Responsibility and Presidential Initiative on Ethnopolitical Warfare and Large Scale Disasters, World Forum, Twin Lakes, Connecticut. Development of post graduate level curriculum and training for response to large scale disaster and ethnopolitical conflict.
1995
Consultant Colorado Center for Bio-behavioral Health, Colorado
1994 - 1997
Consultant, Pain and Rehabilitation Clinic, Mapleton Center and Community Hospital, Boulder, Colorado
1988 - 1989
Guest Teacher OASIS: International treatment program for refugees and torture victims, Copenhagen, Denmark
1987 - 1990
Guest teacher for the Danish Psychiatric hospitals at Nykooping & Viborg, Denmark
1987 - 1989
Guest Teacher at the Bodynamic Institute, Copenhagen, Denmark
1986 - 1990
Consultant at the Hopi Guidance Center; clinical training for native therapists.
1986 - 1989
Guest teacher for CIIS - California Institute of Integral Studies, San Francisco, California
1985 - 1989
Co-teacher with Richard Olney M.A., Hypnosis and Body Experience, a series of professional residential training programs, Arizona
1980 - 1990
Program director and primary teacher in the Somatic Experiencing training program for Body Oriented Therapy, Berkeley, California
1985 - 1987
Community Affairs co-director for Ergos Institute, Flagstaff, Arizona
1985 - 1986
Stress Consultant for Sheriffs Department of Coconino County, Arizona
1984
Faculty, Somatic Psychology at Antioch College, San Francisco, California
1983
Teacher in Residence and Director of the Extended Study Program, Esalen Institute, Big Sur, California
1981 - 1982
Visiting Faculty at the University of New England, College of Osteopathic Medicine in the Department of Clinical Principles and Practice & Continuing Medical Education
1981 - 1982
Consultant at the Blueberry Treatment Centers for Autistic Children in Brooklyn, New York, with Dr. Mira Rothenberg
1980 - 1981
Consultant at the Stress and Pain Center, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
1978 - 1979
Consultant to NASA Ames: Stress Factors in Space Shuttle Flight (Project Director; UC Consortium with NASA)
1978 - 1979
Instructor at Antioch College, San Francisco, California
1977 - 1979
Lecturer at the Department of Health and Medical Sciences, University of California, Berkeley, California
1976 - 1977
Field Facility Advisor for Humanistic Psychology Institute Saybrook University, San Francisco, California
1970 - 1971
Lecturer in Contemporary Natural Sciences Program at the Department of Physics and Zoology at the University of California, Berkeley, California
1969 - 1970
lnstructor (acting): Zoology, University of California, Berkeley, California
1969 - 1970
lnstructor: Life Sciences, Mills College, Oakland, California
1962 - 1964
Research Assistant; Electronic Defense Group and Department of Psychology, University of Michigan with Professor Wilson P. Tanner on electronic prosthetic devices for the blind.
1961
Technical Assistant, Bell Telephone Laboratories, Murryhill, New Jersey with Leon D. Harmon in Neuro-cybernetics on the "Artificial Neuron" Project.
1961
Research Assistant Department of Psychology with Professor P.M. Fitts, Stimulus Response compatibility studies in Human Engineering.
PUBLISHED WORKS
2017
How People Change: Relationships and Neuroplasticity in Psychotherapy. Edited by Marion Solomon and Daniel J. Siegel. Emotion, the Body, and Change by Levine, P. New York, N.Y.: W.W. Norton & Company Ltd.
2017
Joseph P Riordan SEP, MAPS, Abi Blakeslee SEP, CMT, MFT, PhD, Peter A. Levine, PhD (2017). Toddler Trauma: Somatic Experiencing®, Attachment and the Neurophysiology of Dyadic Completion, International Journal Of Neuropsychotherapy (Issue 5, Vol 1)
2015
Levine, P., MacNaughton, I., & Marlock, G. (2015). The Role of the Breath in Mind-Body Psychotherapy. In H. Weiss, C. Young, & M. Soth (Eds.), The Handbook of Body Psychotherapy and Somatic Psychology. Berkeley: North Atlantic Books
2015
Trauma and Memory: Brain and Body in a Search for the Living Past – A Practical Guide for Understanding and Working with Traumatic Memory. Berkeley: North Atlantic Books
2015
Somatic Experiencing: using Interoception and Proprioception as Core Elements of Trauma Therapy, authors: Peter Payne, Mardi A Crayne-Godreau, Peter A Levine, PhD http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00423/full
2015
Levine, P. Somatic experiencing. In E. Neukrug (Ed.),The SAGE Encyclopedia of Theory in Counseling and Psychotherapy.(Vol 2. pp. 951-954). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, Inc.
2011
Freedom from Pain: Discover Your Body’s Power to Overcome Pain with Maggie Phillips, PhD. Boulder, Colo.: Sounds True
2010
In an Unspoken Voice: How the Body Releases Trauma and Restores Goodness. Berkeley, CA: North Atlantic Books
2008
Trauma-Proofing your Kids; a Parent’s Guide for Instilling Confidence, Joy and Resilience. Berkeley, CA: North Atlantic Books
2008
Trauma and Spirituality. In D. Goleman (Ed.), Measuring the immeasurable: The scientific case for spirituality (pp. 85-100). Boulder, Colo.: Sounds True
2007
Trauma through a Childs Eyes: Awakening the Ordinary Miracle of Healing with Maggie Kline Berkeley, CA: North Atlantic Books
2005
Healing Trauma: A Pioneering Program for Restoring the Wisdom of the Body Book/CD, Boulder, Colo.: Sounds True
2003
Panic, Biology, and Reason: Giving the Body Its Due, in Panic, Incites and Origins-Berkeley, CA: North Atlantic Books
2002
Sexual Trauma; Healing the Sacred Wound, Audiobook. Boulder, CO: Sounds True
2001
It Won’t Hurt Forever, Guiding Your Child through Trauma, Audiobook. Boulder, CO: Sounds True
1999
Healing Trauma-Restoring the Wisdom of the Body, Audiobook Sounds True, CO
1998
Trauma Therapy for Survivors of Torture- Jorgensen and Mathiasen eds. Bogen publishers, Copenhagen Denmark
1997
Memory, Trauma, and Healing- article appeared in Spring, 1997 of AHP Journal Perspective. Also in the Journal of Bio-Synthesis.
1996
Waking the Tiger-Healing Trauma, Berkeley, CA: North Atlantic Books (Published in 25+ languages)
1991
Revisioning Anxiety and Trauma, in Giving the Body Its Due (ed. Maxine Sheets Johnstone) S.U.N.Y. Press, 1991
1986
Chapter on Stress in 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
1978
Stress and Vegetotherapy, Journal of Energy and Character -Dorsett England (Fall)
1978
lntra-Uterine Environment, Stress and Neurological Development, Journal of Behavioral Neuropsychiatry
1977
Accumulated Stress Reserve Capacity and Disease, (Ph.D. thesis UC Berkeley, Dept of medical biophysics University Microfilm 77-15-760, Ann Arbor, Michigan
1977
A Rhythm to Growing: A Comment on the Body Approaches of Reich and Rolf and the Process of Adaptive Growth, Life and Works of Wilhelm Reich, Viking-Penguin
1964
A Model for Flicker Fusion. Bell Telephone Company, Technical Memoranda.
CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS
2020 Psychotherapy Networker - Keynote. Received Lifetime Achievement Award
2017 Erickson Evolution of Psychotherapy, Anaheim, CA
2017 Congress on Attachment & Trauma: The Neurobiology of Healing, New York, NY
2017 ATTACh 29th Annual Conference on Trauma and Attachment – Keynote and Lifetime Achievement Award
2016 Foundations Recovery Network, Coronado, CA - Keynote
2015 Jungian Society of Austin, Texas
2015 University of Texas at Austin School of Social Work - Keynote
2014 Psychotherapy Networker Conference – Keynote
2013 Breath of Life Conference – Keynote
2013 Milton Erickson Brief Therapy Conference – Expert Panel
2013 Hochrat Pain Clinic - Keynote
2013 Frankfurt University - Keynote
2013 UCLA and Betty Ford Center – Women’s Symposium – Keynote
2013 UCLA Attachment and Interpersonal Psychology – Keynote
2012 Milton Erickson Brief Therapy Conference – Expert Panel
2012 Breath of Life Conference – Keynote
2011 International Association of Eating Disorder Professionals, Phoenix, AZ – Keynote
2011 National Institute for Applications in Behavior Medicine (NICABM) - Keynote
2011 Life Time Achievement Award for work in Infant and Child Psychiatry, Reis Davis Chair, Psychoanlytic Institute, Los Angeles, California
2010 Lifetime Achievement Award, United States Association for Body Psychotherapy, JFK University, Pleasantville, Califonia - Keynote and Master Class
2008 Sex Therapy, Education and Medicine (STEM), Alvarado hospital, San Diego, CA
2008 Frontiers in Brief Therapy, Milton Erickson Foundation, San Diego, California
2007 Life Energy and the Emergent Therapeutic Paradigm - Keynote
2004 Two years: Meadows Psychotherapy Conference Series
2004 Infant Development Association—presenter
2004 National Institute for Applications in Behavioral Medicine (NICABM) - Keynote and Master Class
2004 Frontiers of Trauma Based Psychotherapy; Cutting Edge Series. University of California, San Diego School of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry
2003 Spirituality and Trauma - UCLA Extension
2003 Southwestern College, 22nd Annual Transformation and Healing Conference, Santa Fe, New Mexico - Keynote
2003 EMDR International Conference - Denver, Colorado - Keynote
2003 Family Systems: Passion and Responsibility, Wurzburg, Germany - Keynote
1998 Six years: Guest Lecturer, C.J. Jung Societies in Denver, Colorado; San Francisco & Los Angeles, California; and Kusnacht (Zurich), Switzerland
2001 Two years: Cape Cod Summer Institute, Albert Einstein School of Medicine - with Bessel van der Kolk MD
2002 San Diego Center for the Treatment of Torture Victims; Workshop presenter 2002 Neurons to Neighborhood - The Effects of Emotional Trauma on the Way we Learn, Feel and Act-Mount St. Mary’s College with Daniel Segal, and Diane Fosha
2002 Responding to Terror and Trauma in Turbulent Times – Keynote, The Association of Traumatic Stress Specialists 10th annual conference
2002 Grand Rounds, Beth Israel hospital, NYC, Music therapy program for the treatment of 911 survivors
2001 Infant Mental Health - Keynote and Grand Rounds with Alan Schore, Cedar Sinai Hospital Los Angeles, California
2001 “Neuroscience and the Somatic Treatment of Traumatic Stress: Integrating Scientific and Therapeutic Models”, Boulder, Colorado - Keynote
2001 “Body Experience and the Expression of the Soul” - Zurich - Keynote
2001 “Post Traumatic Stress as a Reality in the Health Care System”- CME conference, Longmont Hospital; with Robert Scaer MD
2000 Two years: Keynote presenter at Boston Medical School: “Trauma and Attachment” Symposium with Bessel van der Kolk
2001 Presenter: “Family Therapy Networker” conference in Washington, DC
2000 Co-presenter “How to deal with Trauma in Society, in School, and in the Media,”
Simon Wiesenthal Center Museum of Tolerance, Los Angeles, California
2000 Co-presenter: Open Society Institute, Croatia East/East Program: Systems in Transition, Preventing Violence in Dubrovnik, Croatia
2000 Peace Building in the 21st Century; Co-sponsor “Pathways to Peace” and the “Noetic Society;” Dubrovnick, Croatia - Keynote
1999 Three years: Speaker, National Institute for the Clinical Application of Behavioral Medicine, Palm Springs, California and Hilton Head NC
1999 Responses to Overwhelming Threat; Theory and Treatment Jerusalem Israel
1999 Guest Teacher, Gaza Mental Health, Gaza City
1996 Four years: American Polarity Therapy Association - Keynote
1999 Speaker: “The Biology of Emotion” with Candice Perts; Naropa Institute, Boulder, Colorado - Keynote
1997 Trauma Conference, Naropa Institute - Keynote
1997 Oasis Tenth Anniversary, International Conference, Copenhagen, Denmark - Keynote
1997 International Polarity Conference - Keynote
1996 AHP (Assoc. of Humanistic Psychology) International Conference - Keynote
1995 The International Somatics Congress - Congress International de Somatotherapy - Keynote
1995 "Unifying the Elusive Symptoms of Post-Traumatic Stress and Closed Head Injury; New Models for Treatment" - Rehabilitation in-service, Mapleton Center at the Boulder Community Hospital, Colorado
1991 "Somatic Contributions to the Healing of Sexual Abuse” University of California Extension School of Public Health
1991 "What Is The Child's Reality? The Child in the Hospital,” Washoe Medical Center, Reno, Nevada
1989 Three years: National Guild for Structural Integration - Keynote
1989 "The Ordinary Miracle of Healing" at Washoe Medical Center, Reno, Nevada.1989 – "An Integrative Approach to Anxiety and Post-Traumatic Stress". The Second Nordic Psychophysiology Conference, Lynkooping, Sweden
1988 National AMTA - "Body Feeling and Self” - Keynote
1987 Two years: Grand Rounds, Nevada - Mental Health Institute and the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, School of Medicine, University of Nevada, Reno: "What Constitutes Therapeutic Milieu in a Hospitalized Setting?" (A panel discussion); “Body/Mind Relationships; A Synthesis of Developmental and Psycho-physiological approaches in the Non-drug, Somatic (body-oriented) Treatment of Psychopathologies”; "The Substitute Tiger; Shock as a Critical and Neglected Factor in Treating Phobic States and Other Psychopathologies." Reno, Nevada
1987 "The Body in Health Care." YWCA, Reno, Nevada
1984 "Beyond the Relaxation Response: Self-regulation and Healing for Clinicians." U.C.L.A. School of Medicine
1983 "Towards a Biology of Body Work." Keynote Speaker. New Visions in Psychotherapy JFK University
1982 Grand Rounds, Pacific Medical Center UCSF (Department of Psychiatry): "Another Look at Carbon Dioxide Inhalation in the Treatment of Stress Underlying Various Psychopathologies."
1982 "The Body and the Person: Towards a Somatic Model of Health" (U.C. Extension School of Public Health), Consultant, Coordinator and Participant
1981 "The Perinatal Period: Interface of Biology and Behavior" (with S. Porges). Esalen Institute, Coordinator and Participant
1980 "Conceptualizing Energy Medicine." – presenter and co-organizer - (U.C. Extension School of Public Health)
1979 "Biology of the Affectional Bond." University of California, Berkeley, Health and Medical Sciences; Stanford Research Institute International: Ergos Institute, and Esalen Institute; Coordinator and Participant
PROFESSIONAL SOCIETIES
American Psychological Association
Humanistic Psychological Association
Guild for Structural Integration – inactive
International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies
CERTIFICATIONS
American Board of Medical Psychotherapists, Fellow and Diplomat
American Board of Stress Practitioners
The American Institute of Stress, Fellow and Diplomat
ISSSEEM - International Society for the Study of Subtle Energies & Energy Medicine
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