Welcome to the Commune podcast.

My name is Jeff Krasno.

Today on the show I welcome Dr. Peter Levine.

Peter is the developer of somatic experiencing,

a neurobiological approach to healing trauma. So somatic experiencing,

or SE, is so utterly central to Peter's work and to our conversation here that I feel like

I should scaffold this episode with a brief primer on the

technique for those who are unfamiliar with it. And of course, I won't do it full justice,

but here it goes. So somatic experiencing is a therapeutic approach designed to help relieve and

resolve the symptoms of PTSD and other

mental and physical trauma-related health problems.

So the key principle behind SE is the observation that animals in the wild, despite regularly

facing life-threatening situations, rarely exhibit symptoms of trauma.

And this observation led to the development of techniques that aim to help humans release that energy

and physiological states associated with traumatic experiences.

So S.E. operates on the idea that trauma symptoms are the effects of instability

of the autonomic nervous system. And it uses body awareness exercises to help people renegotiate and metabolize their trauma

rather than reliving them over and over. So the therapy often involves the introduction of

small amounts of traumatic material which the therapist and client work through together.

The goal is to avoid overwhelming the nervous system and to promote regulation, integration,

and balance. So you don't go right into the center of it, sort of chip away at the edges of it.

So SE uses several techniques aimed at helping individuals notice and regulate their bodily sensations to heal from the trauma. So there's a couple different key techniques that are leveraged.

...