Healing Trauma and Spiritual Growth: Peter Levine & Thomas Huebl

In this memorable conversation from SAND 18 Peter Levine, the father of trauma therapy work, and Thomas Huebl, a spiritual teacher known for his work integrating healing of collective trauma, discuss the relationship between healing trauma and spiritual growth. One theme that repeats throughout the discussion is that we are all connected through the traumatization of the world, and that the healing of trauma is a way of returning to the wholeness and fullness of living.


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[Mikecorsale]

“Trauma is a disorder, of not being able to be here and now” - wow, such powerful words...

[craigdesilva]

I like how Peter is half the discussion, but still there writing notes on what he has learned from the other half- do you see many others doing that? The willingness and eagerness to keep learning and know more is one reason why he is a genius!

[VitaleCoachingBoulder]

How can anyone thumb down this conversation? This is art, this is wisdom. This is what we need, to heal.

[titaniumwallace]

Took me 57 years to truely connect with my horrific child hood trauma came with an extreme accidental kundalini awakening. 2 years in and a brutal dark night of the soul is finally starting to integrate and heal but I still know I have a ways to go.

[irynaguziy]

31:40 Peter: "Trauma is about broken connection - to Self, to Other, to Spirit"
33:10 Thomas: "It's a paradox - Trauma is what divides us the most, and it's what connects us the most"
🙏
Experienced it so vividly in my relationships

[carleypetillo]

When I was in darkness I felt an inner voice that lead to shifting to gratitude. As I started guided meditation for gratitude I started feeling trauma more powerfully. I felt God was telling me this is my journey . I meditated for trauma release. I saw Jesus and I knew I needed to repent. After I repented I surrendered the most beautiful light and love so much love filled my room. I forgave myself and released so much darkness. Thank you

[blooming]

It’s so beautiful when people who are passionate about life and healing come together to support each other and share understanding and knowledge, and ultimately grow and heal together.

[nishasankaran]

Peter Levine's contribution to the world...what a man ❤

[islandbirdw]

As a person struggling to cope with and heal from trauma I found the explanation of Trauma as being trapped in the past so resonated with my experience. The feeling of having a “hole” in oneself also sounds so familiar.
Most people don’t really want to know the nitty gritty of a person in trauma. I feel a big social pressure just to “get over it” but suppression hasn’t ever helped me, I really must process the trauma myself before I can release it.
I see the accident like a slow motion video of glass shattering or perhaps like the accident in space in the movie gravity. I’m still caught up in this terrifying cascade of events that is still evolving. I still have little stable ground below me, I’m in free fall with little hope for a positive outcome. I find the image that one can heal from trauma but it will leave a scar and will change a person, most true for myself.

[iergjsglsdhgoajsfjaslkdf]

47:40 when she says "It took me 60 years" -- I hear you. It took me 40. My body knew this whole time, and there were signs, but it took 40 years for the memories to fully erupt into my consciousness and for me to admit what happened.

[rul]

I love this deep experience when Thomas says, ‘process awareness’ - ‘love can not unfold’- ‘spiritual practice is coming into the fundaments of life’! The last one i feel very strongly now that I am almost 78 and dealing with a therapist with my trauma. (After 30 years of spiritual growth!) it’s about saying yes on all levels to what life wás and ís. Not easy stuff I can tell you.

[DREAMSANDSOUL]

We are now starting collectively to take the steps of healing our trauma. Pioneers like Otto Rank, C. G. Jung, Virginia Satir, Peter Levine, Bowlby, Gabor Mate, Franz Ruppert have paved the way.

[Ngan.marianguyen]

Peter is already a legend himself. But Thomas is truly an extraordinary man. I really love the way he speaks and communicates things. So insightful and sophisticate.

[Gabareznik]

What a beauty, trauma unites us: Empathy is the key. Thank you so much all of you, for this precious moment. Great Love for you!

[Wildflowersong]

“Healing is about the environment you create.” This is key for me and for others who are stuck in situations which are perpetually traumatizing (abusive family systems etc).

[professormaxtrinity]

These guys are very inspiring. I so appreciate their work for surely, the healing they've been involved in has touched the whole collective! If life is a river and you don't know how to swim then, you're in a state of perpetual drowning, a state of struggle. When you feel you can't swim, the river is a threat and so Life is experienced as a perpetual threat. And every day, life keeps going so you must keep going in this constant state of threat. The natural response is to tense up and struggle and this only makes things worse. Part of the challenge is, learning how to swim while in the flow of life. For me, I had to come to many epiphanies. I came to the epiphany that, "you can't struggle out of struggle, you have to relax out of struggle." This epiphany lead to a variety of practices aiming at relaxing the body and mind. In the relaxing I naturally float to the surface of the river of life which I equate to the present moment. The surface of the river is still full of waves, splashes and current but, I can see the patterns because, I'm not drowning in them. After years of alternating between drowning and floating, I gained enough insight to the patterns to be able to actually navigate to different patterns of flow intentionally. I did not change the river, I did not change life but, I learned how to swim and how to get myself through rough waters when they present. I eventually learned how to swim and the river became a different experience. Life became a different river. If you can swim, the river is not a threat, not even the challenging parts. When you can swim, the river becomes an adventure, a sport and a co-creation with Life. You can even find the shoreline at points but, that is a whole other subject. Learning to relax and remain calm in any situation has helped me gain skill in swimming. Spending time in reflection and contemplation has created an environment conducive to epiphanies and the epiphanies have fired up the necessary energy to change my response and simultaneously dissolve obstacles, melting away the "stuck" parts. This is a working metaphor for my own healing of personal trauma and the resulting healing that emanates from my current experience. Peace and many blessings.

[jers-personal]

Thomas is on a different level, I love the way he conveys complex concepts and simplifies them so effortlessly

[elisabethcrawford]

I listened to this message very carefully, I've been in serious physical pain for almost 6 years. I had initially been to so many doctors trying to see it from a physical perspective. Eventually because of the pain I couldn't work so I studied it day and night, just studied everything about why I would be in pain. Chiropractors, medical doctors, MRIs, test, blood test, reiki, massage, acupuncture- you name it, I've done it- doctors always will try to give you a physical reason, from herniated disc to bulging disc, bad genetics, whatever to give you a reason. It wasn't until I looked at it from a traumatic emotional experience perspective that things actually got way worse, it was my emotions trying to distract me from what was happening inside. So that touched a nerve, an epiphany- I realized things inside cause severe physical pain- it manifests as pain when you don't release it, it gets stuck. I started having dreams about my energy not moving. It showed itself as like a figure eight-8 needing to move inside of the body. Remember we are all energy beings, that is science.

[makaylahollywood]

I've listened to this over my time of recovery. My experience is exactly as explained- slow, increments. It's truly spiritual for me as though i connect with another world.I am alive and here.

[ALightInTheForest]

Such a powerful (and needed) distillation of experience and knowledge - thank you for sharing this. The question and answer session toward the end of the video was also very powerful. I identified with the woman who said that it had taken her 60 years to come to her awareness (in response to Peter Levine's comment that one can be led quickly (by a skilled practitioner) to the core issues). It took me years, starting around 1990, to find that skilled practitioner (many therapists and four psychiatrists), and existing through years of darkness, but I knew deep within that my body and mind were trying to heal and become whole. In fact, I would say my entire life was in preparation of that moment of becoming embodied - two years of hard, deep work to be present, to be in the here and now. I'm grateful that I had the resources - emotionally, financially, spiritually - to see the process through -sixteen years. I believe that my healing has allowed, in some mysterious and beautiful way, for there to be transgenerational healing within my family. I believe that has been part of my purpose, and that most of that stored, deflected and deferred energy has been transmuted into love.