Peter A. Levine

Peter A. Levine, PhD, b. 1942, is an American psycho-physiological trauma theorist, practician, educator, and director of non-profit educational and research organization dedicated to the worldwide healing and prevention of trauma, The Foundation for Human Enrichment.

Levine's psycho-physiological trauma theory is informed by what biologists (ethologists) call the "immobility response", a survival enhancing fixed action pattern evolved in prey animals which is triggered by the perceived imminence of being killed by a predator.

He also is the originator of "Somatic Experiencing" method.

Published works

1999- Healing Trauma-Restoring the Wisdom of the Body, (CD produced by SoundsTrue).

1998- Trauma Therapy for Survivors of Torture, Jorgensen and Mathiasen eds.

1997- Waking the Tiger-Healing Trauma [http://www.traumahealing.com/art_tableofcontents.html see "Table of Contents"] , with Ann Frederick; North Atlantic Books

1997- Memory, Trauma, and Healing - article appeared in Spring 1997 of AHP Journal Perspective. Also in the Journal of Bio-Synthesis.

1994- Understanding Childhood Trauma, "Mothering magazin"

1991- The Body As Healer - Transforming Trauma and Anxiety, unpublished book manuscript,

1990- Revisioning Anxiety and Trauma, in Giving the Body Its Due (ed. Maxine Sheets Johnstone) S.U.N.Y. Press, 1991.

1989- The Substitute Tiger, An Integrative Bio-developmental Approach to Anxiety and Post Traumatic Stress.

1986- Chapter on Stress for 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.

1982- Circle of Damage, Circle of Grace-Stress and Your Children. (Unpublished Manuscript).

1982- Stress, Neurobiology and Behavior Benchmark series on Human Physiology and Behavior, Dowden, Hutchinson and Ross, Inc. (Submitted for Publication).

1978- Stress and Vegetatherapy, Journal of Energy and Character-England (Fall and Winter)

1978- Infra-Uterinee Environment, Stress and Neurological Development, Journal of Behavioral Neuropsychiatry.

1977- Accumulate Stress Reserve Capacity and Disease, University Microfilm 77-15760, Ann Arbor, Michigan.

1977- A Rhythm to Growing. - A Comment on the Body Approaches of Reich and Rolf and the Process of Adaptive Growth, in 'Life and Works of Wilhelm Reich', Viking Penguin.

1964- A Model for Flicker Fusion. Bell Telephone Company, Technical Memoranda.

External links

* [http://www.traumahealing.com/art_nature.html Nature's Lessons in Healing Trauma] - an article by Peter A. Levine
* [http://www.traumahealing.com/art_Chapter1.html Chapter 1 'The Body As Healer'] - excerpt from his book "Waking the Tiger"
* [http://www.theinstitute.org/trauma/levine_int.shtml an interview with Peter Levine] - with Michael Picucci
* [http://www.bodyresearch.org/levinetrauma.htm another dancer's view on Levine's work] - [http://www.bodyresearch.org/chronology.htm Karl Frost] 's introduction to the ideas of Peter Levine
* [http://www.mothering.com/articles/body_soul/grief_trauma/hurt_forever.html It Won't Hurt Forever: Guiding Your Child Through Trauma] - an online article from the Mothering magazine 2002
* [http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G1-15257093.html Understanding childhood trauma] - - an online article from the Mothering magazine 1994
* [http://home.webuniverse.net/babette/Shock.html Rothschild's article on psychophysiological trauma/shock] - citing Levine's naturalistic explanation of trauma