How Trauma Gets Stuck in the Body (and How to Work with It), with Peter Levine

Peter Levine was at a trauma conference in the Middle East when someone in the audience asked a question: "Is it possible to work with a trauma if you don't know what it is?"

So Peter threw the question back and asked if anyone in the audience had a particular symptom that they'd like to work on.

One man raised his hand. It was Haim Dasburg. He just happened to be an expert in the field of treating trauma.

Haim joined Peter on stage. He told Peter about a chronic back pain that he'd been been suffering with for many years.

What happened next was took Haim completely by surprise.

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In this video, Peter Levine will share how he helped uncover an incomplete traumatic response that was stuck in the body.

Traumatic memory is unique in the way it can often live on in the physical patterns and the cognitive patterns that a client might develop after a traumatic experience.

This can become a painful paradox because the very response that may have kept our client from harm can now also be keeping them from healing

Peter is one of the world's foremost experts on treating trauma. He is also the creator of somatic experiencing. When it comes to healing trauma, Peter focuses his work on the body. Because it's there where we can often see the effects of past traumatic experiences.

[fionam]

Serious neck and shoulder tension until I left a toxic relationship and it helped tremendously

[mariocean]

It bothers me that our medical providers don't have this kind of knowledge. What's preventing them from receiving this kind of training?

[omarh]

I'm doing a college paper on alternative treatments to PTSD. I have suffered from this and there's a lot of misconceptions people have about it. I was always told PTSD was a brain thing but it wasn't until i realized the trauma stored in my body that I was able to make progress. In the Army they would always talk about muscle memory during our exercise time and it got me thinking if the body contains neurons just like the brain why cant trauma be stored there?

[shars.]

Through a great deal of meditation, reflection journaling, reading, and listening to speakers I have discovered that parts of the body constrict in order to try and take up less space, to not exist fully in a kind of retraction of energy to protect oneself from exposing the vulnerable areas. Incredible realization for me! Thank you for all you do. ❣️

[androsRoccha]

As a massage therapist, I have had good results on my clients using a different approach, it is amazing how the body reflects the inner secrets of a person. That's so true as I see it every day their progress. I can say I'm very happy with my job by seeing my clients discovering themselves.

[joshuayork]

"" If you feel that tension, and you allow that tension to just slowly move your body, in what way might it move your body? "" This is one of the most usefully powerful phrases I have heard.. In fact, I've been looking for a way to communicate this very idea for a while now. Solid Gold!

[nikkihubbard]

This brought me back to when I was 12 years old and my mom told me she had 6 months to live.. I believe this was the onset of terrible anxiety..

[bethanyrose]

Apologies for not being someone in mental health work or science!
But i found this video very profound as i myself have experience physical symptoms of traumatic memories specifically when i was in almost complete dissociation (no memory of the trauma, but still memory of the person who inflicted abuse) and have had many releasing moments such as this.

Many thanks for this information.

[BassJohn]

This is a wonderful find..

After many years of dealing and working through severe panic attacks, GAD, and all the other stuff it brings with it.. I found that there was a very somatic symptom still ever present.. it would escalate when my stress levels were high, or I'd been through a stressful event.. but even at times of relative calm.. it's just there.. I'm at my wits end.. I'm starting work with an actual trauma counsellor. I can't find anyone who understands my symptom.. it sounds fairly straightforward enough.. basically it's issues surrounding stomach/solar plexus area.. any 'exertion' can cause a panic attack. At it's worst, I've literally had panic attacks just rolling over in bed.. literally. Like my body is so wound up like a rubber band stretched to it's maximum.. but it's more than that.. I just know there is unhealed trauma. I've had moments of immediate respite when I've talked about some childhood events.. I just can't sustain it. Sorry to write a lengthy post here.. but I just need to let this out in an environment where there is a chance someone will understand what it might be. I'm frustrated and in tears, because it's stopped some aspects and dreams of mine.. and things like training at the gym.. any movements that involve bending over exacerbate it so much that it leads to panic. I just want to release it once and for all.

Thankyou for reading, love to hear from anyone who experienced the same. It just feels like such a mystery symptom.

I hope you all find the healing you deserve :)

[marcybrimo]

I have a client who has constant back pain without an injury. He was constantly criticized as a child by his father. I will ask these questions and do this within EMDR Therapy and see what results.

[anniesduex]

I definitely believe one can store past memories in the body. I experienced it in my 60's. I was doing a breathing treatment called S R I. Somantic respiratory international. I had a memory of my father touching me inappropriately when I was a child. An only child. It helped me work through why I ended up in my paturlar career, and some hidden anger.

[michellemildwater]

Since 2003 I have worked with traumatized trafficked people. I had the privilege to receive a training with modules that were spread out over to start with a two year period. Peter Levine and Dian Poole were the main trainers and this intensive introduction to somatic experiencing was an inspiration.

[verkstedet]

Re-living traumatic situations again in the register of the whole body is to me a condition for working out the contradictions in the vegetative system created by these incidents. When this occurs, it leads to spontaneous recovery of the vegetative system’s functions. Spasms in the musculature loosen, spontaneous recovering of breathing occurs, the skin changes colour, the patient gets better sight and as some say, it is easier to think clearly.

[michelefortino]

trauma will manifest in physical symptoms which can cause disease such as cancer. The mind is the engine that controls our thoughts, it can be used for healing or destruction. We should take inventory of how we feel physically and how to remove/address the emotional attachments to a past emotion such as anger, resentment, etc.

[divinadivina]

I had this terrible disconfort on the belly, hard as a rock, and during meditation, I focused healing and reiki onto that area and started massaging it. Thoughts came while having an inner talk and after a few minutes started crying non-stop, like a child that had been abandobed. I had those thoughts, 'they will not come back', 'Mum, I'm here...' and feeling like reaching outone of the arms out to reach someone

[thetuckinlady]

I interpret this approach as paying attention to bodily sensations and leaning into it to find out what it is trying to communicate with us. What I found most interesting about this video was the part where Haim was asked to notice whether the tension was uniform and where it might want him to move his body.

I experience muscle tension and aches all over my body almost every day, and one of my approaches has been to do a body scan, notice the sensations, and help my body relax with hot showers, hot water bags, self-massages, hip-opening stretches, sun salutations, progressive muscle relaxation, and bilateral eye movement. All of these have been very helpful in managing my pains, but I do them as part of my daily routine, not intending to sit with the pain and emotions that might be coming up right after. I give myself time to sit and experience the emotions during the day when I notice them rising in my body. I have started feeling too activated, which could mean that I do not integrate enough. I think I am also missing out on crucial insights that I could get by tapping into the emotions that arise right after my practices. I am curious about trying the approach talked about in the video and seeing how it works for me.

[Sofiyanaviolet]

Oh i remember this. I helped a friend because i saw the trauma behind his feet pain and it was gone when i brought him back into time and to let go. Everything we go through is a lesson to grow. Peter is right on point. When trauma release the body through past life regression of hypnotherapy the physical pain slowly disappears. Thank you fot sharing⭐️🙏🏽

[Ladida]

I see that since I have been working so much on my spiritual part of me, every trauma shows on me right away. Before that, there was a huge delay, a lag phase, for many years and then it hit hard.

[bakerwbakerw]

That's the perfect description of Shadow work or pain body work. Thank you thank you thank you

[popeyeandolive]

Focusing on the physical pain then allowing all feelings and memories to surface without attaching to any of them, useful insightful memories or physical memories are processed by either journalling or art work any feedback is welcome.