Peter Levine, PhD on How to Release Trauma from the Body | Align Podcast #574
Align Podcast
Aaron Alexander
4.8 • 900 Ratings
🗓️ 27 December 2025
⏱️ 43 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Start the 2-Minute Nervous System Reset - https://alignbreathing.com/reset
Your body is trying to tell you a story... but you keep ignoring it.
In this episode from the Align Podcast, Peter Levine PhD, founder of Somatic Experiencing, joins Aaron to explore how trauma lives in the body and how we can reclaim our innate healing ability. Peter also breaks down why talk therapy alone often isn’t enough and offers practical guidance for reconnecting with your body’s wisdom.
OUR GUESTPeter A Levine, Ph.D., is the developer of Somatic Experiencing® (SE™), a naturalistic and neurobiological approach to healing trauma, which he has developed over the past 50 years. He holds a doctorate in Biophysics from UC Berkeley and a doctorate in Psychology from International University. He is the Founder and President of the Ergos Institute of Somatic Education and the Founder and Advisor for Somatic Experiencing International, where his work has been taught to over 30,000 healers in over 42 countries. He recently finished his Autobiography, An Autobiography of Trauma, A Healing Journey, and is the author of several best-selling books on trauma, including Waking the Tiger, Healing Trauma (published in over 29 languages); In an Unspoken Voice, How the Body Releases Trauma and Restores Goodness; and Trauma and Memory, Brain and Body in a Search for the Living Past.
PETER LEVINE🔷 LI ▶ https://www.linkedin.com/in/peter-a-levine-34207430/📸 IG ▶ https://www.instagram.com/drpeteralevine/📘 FB ▶ https://www.facebook.com/peteralevinephd/AARON ALEXANDER📸 IG ▶ https://www.instagram.com/aaronalexander/🤳 TIKTOK ▶ https://www.tiktok.com/@alignmethod👉 SUBSCRIBE ▶ https://www.youtube.com/@AlignPodcast?sub_confirmation=1🌐 WEBSITE ▶ https://www.alignpodcast.com
TIMESTAMPS00:00 Intro00:30 The Big Question: Am I Enough?07:00 What Is Trauma and How It Manifests in the Body10:00 Why Talk Therapy Isn’t Enough 15:20 The Need For Empathy 22:30 Rewiring the Nervous System29:10 How Trauma Affects Relationships36:00 Accessing Inner Power40:30 Words of Wisdom for the Next GenerationABOUTAaron Alexander is a pioneering manual therapist and movement coach with over 5 years experience. He is the founder and creator of The Align Method, author of The Align Method book, and host of The Align Podcast which has ranked #1 in Nutrition on Apple Podcasts.Aaron has worked with some of the world’s greatest professional athletes, performers, and celebrities to help relieve pain, improve strength, better flexibility, and ease the mind and body.On this channel, Aaron interviews renowned experts in a range of fields focused on improving the mind and body. This mind and body podcast will teach you all that you need to know to become the healthiest version of yourself by integrating simplified ancient techniques and the foundational principles of The Align Method to strengthen your body, balance the mind, and activate healing systems in daily life. The mission? To be the best personal growth podcast about healthy habits, redefine functional movement, and make fitness who you are; not what you do.
TOPICS
1. Somatic Experiencing2. Trauma in the Body3. Nervous System Regulation4. Healing Practices5. Emotional Intelligence
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | There's probably no one better in the world to ask this question. |
| 0:03.9 | It's a very common question that I've been curious about for a long time. |
| 0:08.0 | How does trauma or repressed feeling manifest itself in the body? |
| 0:16.0 | What does that look like? |
| 0:18.0 | And is there a path towards completely processing the entirety of one's trauma? |
| 0:27.6 | Well, let me just start with, you know, when I started developing my work in the late 60s and |
| 0:33.8 | the early 70s, you know, this was now at least a decade, 12 years before |
| 0:41.3 | the definition of trauma as PTSD was enshrined in the diagnostic manual. |
| 0:49.3 | And so I had the advantage of not knowing that trauma was supposed to be a brain disorder, |
| 0:59.2 | maybe even a brain disease, that at best could be managed with medications |
| 1:03.8 | and trying to help people change their negative thoughts. |
| 1:07.2 | And it was clear that it was something that happened in the body. |
| 1:11.6 | So, for example, we see something that's horrible and our guts go, |
| 1:17.6 | that's something that happens in the body. |
| 1:21.6 | And as long as it continues to play out in the body, |
| 1:26.6 | it still has the effect of influencing the brain, |
| 1:33.3 | influencing the mind. So I discovered that one had to actually change the body reactions |
| 1:43.3 | in order to change the thoughts and the brain mechanism that were involved in trauma. |
| 1:52.0 | Yeah. My experience with talk therapy is it's felt like I would have been better off just having an insightful friend. |
| 2:04.6 | My experience with my, with therapy that's more body-based and is more of a facilitation of shining a light on tensions within the self that I may not even realize |
| 2:21.5 | we're there. I just called it anxiety or I called it shoulder pain or I called it this aimless void |
| 2:28.8 | that unidentifiable and effable void sensation. Being able to locate that within the self and facilitate the space for it to communicate, |
... |
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