I am often asked how I can work with a subject as morbid as trauma without becoming burned out or depressed. My answer to this question is that witnessing the transformation that takes place in people when they master their traumas has proven to be a deeply sustaining and uplifting experience in my life.

Peter A. Levine

Categorized in : My Life I Am Life Work

Trauma is hell on earth. Trauma resolved is a gift from the gods.

Peter A. Levine

ptsd hell earth

I have come to the conclusion that human beings are born with an innate capacity to triumph over trauma. I believe not only that trauma is curable, but that the healing process can be a catalyst for profound awakening - a portal opening to emotional and genuine spiritual transformation. I have little doubt that as individuals, families, communities, and even nations, we have the capacity to learn how to heal and prevent much of the damage done by trauma. In so doing, we will significantly increase our ability to achieve both our individual and collective dreams.

Peter A. Levine

spiritual dream believe

If you bring forth that which is within you, Then that which is within you Will be your salvation. If you do not bring forth that which is within you, Then that which is within you Will destroy you. —THE GNOSTIC GOSPELS

Peter A. Levine

within-you salvation ifs

The second noble truth states that we must discover why we are suffering. We must cultivate the courage to look deeply, with clarity and courage, into our own suffering. We often hold the tacit assumption that all of our suffering stems from events in the past. But, whatever the initial seed of trauma, the deeper truth is that our suffering is more closely a result of how we deal with the effect these past events have on us in the present.

Peter A. Levine

suffering looks past

When people have been traumatized, they are stuck in paralysis-the immobility reaction or abrupt explosions of rage.

Peter A. Levine

reactions rage people

Trauma is a fact of life. It does not, however, have to be a life sentence.

Peter A. Levine

sentence fact trauma life

The effects of unresolved trauma can be devastating. It can affect our habits and outlook on life, leading to addictions and poor decision-making. It can take a toll on our family life and interpersonal relationships. It can trigger real physical pain, symptoms, and disease. And it can lead to a range of self-destructive behaviors.

Peter A. Levine

family poor pain life

The paradox of trauma is that it has both the power to destroy and the power to transform and resurrect.

Peter A. Levine

both destroy trauma power

While studying the effects of accumulated stress on the nervous system, I began to suspect that most organisms have an innate capacity to rebound from threatening and stressful events.

Peter A. Levine

studying nervous events stress

Trauma causes us to have an internal experience that is frightening, angry, and shameful. When we feel threatened, as we do when we are traumatized, our entire organism is geared up to find the source of that threat and to do something about it.

Peter A. Levine

find feel angry experience

Trauma and sexual abuse are two of our most pressing human and societal problems. They must be studied by unbiased scientific investigation rather than polarized by hysteria and politics.

Peter A. Levine

human problems abuse politics

Though suffering and trauma are not identical, the Buddha's insight into the nature of suffering can provide a powerful mirror for examining the effects of trauma in your life. The Buddha's basic teaching offers guidance for healing our trauma and recovering a sense of wholeness.

Peter A. Levine

mirror nature suffering life

Whether trauma will be a cruel and punishing Gorgon or a vehicle for soaring to the heights of transformation and mastery depends upon how we approach it.

Peter A. Levine

heights will trauma transformation

In top-down processing, which is normally what we do in psychotherapy, we talk about our problems, our symptoms, or our relationships. And then the therapist often tries to get the client to feel what they're feeling when they talk about those kinds of things.

Peter A. Levine

problems feel feeling things

To my parents, Morris and Helen, I give thanks for the gift of life, the vehicle for the expression of my work, and for your continued full and unequivocal support from both sides of the physical plane.

Peter A. Levine

gift parents work life

Abortions can be, and frequently are, traumatizing, as are other invasive surgeries performed to the sexual and internal organs. All or any of these 'violations' can cause loss of vitality, diminished capacity for erotic connection and pleasure, and other symptoms of trauma.

Peter A. Levine

connection trauma pleasure loss

Now, what happens whenever there's a loud sound is that it startles us, right? And we arrest what we're doing, and we try to localize that sound because that sound could be a threat. That's something that's hard-wired in our bodies.

Peter A. Levine

something doing try sound

If frightening sensations are not given the time and attention they need to move through the body and resolve or dissolve, the individual will continue to be gripped by fear.

Peter A. Levine

body fear time attention

I am profoundly indebted to the legacy of Wilhelm Reich, whose monumental contribution to the understanding of energy was taught to me by Philip Curcurruto, a man of simple wisdom and compassionate heart.

Peter A. Levine

me man wisdom simple

We may forget, or be unaware of, how prevalent it is to be sexually traumatized by events that are generally not thought of as traumatizing.

Peter A. Levine

how thought events forget