Date:                   June 8, 2020

Bibliographical Information:

Simon, R. (March/April 2019). An Interview with Peter Levine: Turning Psychotherapy Bottom Up. Psychotherapy Networker, retrieved June 8, 2020 from  https://www.psychotherapynetworker.org/magazine/article/2347/an-interview-with-peter-levine

Article Summary:

Peter Levine is a Psychotherapist who uses a technique called Somatic Experiencing to help clients resolve trauma.  Traumatic events that happen often are experienced in a disconnected way and the residual effects of the traumatic experience are stored physically in muscle tension, or internally in other symptomatic ways such as digestion issues or elevate blood pressure. Traditional talk therapy addresses the trauma from only one perspective, that is to talk about it, examine the memory of it, but the physical sensations that accompany the ‘reliving’ of the event are not addressed. Somatic Experiencing (SE) can help to address the traumatic responses of our physical bodies that are ignored when talk is the focus. Bringing the clients attention to what’s happening physically can help them to target the traumatic experience from another angle and the focus on body awareness, such as relaxing muscle tension can help to interrupt the physical responses to the trauma and deal with one aspect of the trauma at a time so that it is easier to address and not so overwhelming. The focus on body sensations help his clients to be physically present in the current moment and in that way they are able to take a more objective perspective on the event that they need to heal from.

Reflection on the State of the Content:

It may seem strange that I chose a psychotherapy article to review, but I have noticed in my work with preschoolers that behaviors are often a result of traumatic events happening outside of school. I am sure that in the midst of a behavioral meltdown, I have dealt with students that are reliving something traumatic that they are not able to put into words. Using an intervention such as this Somatic Experiencing can be a way to help a student disconnect from the traumatic event and anchor them in the present situation at school, so that they can move beyond it, they can pull themselves out of the state of flashback and feel reassured that in this moment they are safe. My hope is to always be sensitive in my behavior management techniques to subtle cues of trauma so that the underlying issue can be referred to the school staff best equipped to help and handle the situation. Social and emotional learning is an integral part of my teaching curriculum and if something as simple as body awareness and breathing can help a student through a difficult moment, I feel articles like this one are important to include in my teaching resources.