This veteran’s story had me in tears
Last week I got to participate in my continuing education through the Somatic Experiencing method.
On the last day of the training we got to see a video of Peter Levine working with a returning war veteran suffering from PTSD.
This demonstration totally hit home! I was in tears.
Coming from a war torn country, I know so many who suffer from this particular trauma.
What am I saying, I know I do, too!
In some way everyone in my country suffers from it to some extent, which is part of the reason why we, as a nation, can't seem to be able to really create a non-violent society that works for everybody. I doubt we ever will unless we figure out how to attend to our individual and collective wounds.
As I was watching this war veteran heal from his trauma in the capable hands of Peter Levine, I remembered that this was the reason I decided to study Somatic Experiencing.
I was looking for a way to help one of my beloved suffering from PTSD and I knew we had to address the bodymind (the literal connection between the body and the mind) and the nervous system if we were going to be effective.
I asked around and researched and kept coming back to Peter Levine’s work.
I found a practitioner to work with so I could try it myself before I recommended it to others. That’s how I ended up in the training myself.
What I love about it is that it’s totally aligned with what I believe and practice: that our body knows how to heal - If we just listen!I love that as a therapist I don’t need to do anything to the client, I don’t need to try to fix anything, to label them with a certain condition or even know anything about it.
It’s about listening to the nervous system and tracking it to see how it manifests in the body in the form of sensations, feelings, behaviors or images. Once that is set in motion the body finds its way to regulation.
If you'd like to watch Peter Levine working with Ray the veteran I just told you about, here's the link to the video.
https://youtu.be/bjeJC86RBgE
Trigger warning: Peter talks a bit about what happened to Ray and how it affected him.
I would love to hear your thoughts and answer any questions about how this work in general and if you'd like to know more about what it's like to work with me as a Somatic Therapist with these kind of methods.