The character arc of Peter Levine
A life drawn by Character Arc from the public record
Born in 1942 in the United States. Between then and now sit a doctorate in medical biophysics from the University of California at Berkeley, a second doctorate in psychology, work as a stress consultant for NASA while the Space Shuttle programme was being developed, fifty years developing an approach to trauma built on bodily sensation rather than thought, a training foundation established in Boulder, Colorado, an institute of his own, teaching in pain clinics and hospitals around the world, a lifetime achievement award in 2010, and a method taught to more than thirty thousand practitioners. The line below draws the story so far, in order.
Drag along the line to move, pinch or use the buttons to look closer. Tap the line to pluck it, or any mark for its card. Drawn from the public record of his life; the sources are at the foot of the page.
Who is Peter Levine?
Two doctorates and a NASA contract, and the question was about animals.
He came at this from the hard sciences. He received his doctorate in medical biophysics from the University of California at Berkeley, and a second doctorate in psychology. That combination, the physics of a body and the study of a mind, is the whole of what he went on to do, and very few people hold both.
He worked as a stress consultant for NASA while the Space Shuttle programme was being developed, which means his early professional question was what happens to a human being under conditions nobody has been in before, and how you would know.
What he developed over the following fifty years is Somatic Experiencing, an approach to trauma and stress related conditions. Its distinguishing move is where it puts the attention: on internal bodily sensation, on what the body is registering from inside, rather than on thoughts or on emotions, which is where most talking therapy looks. The starting observation is the one everybody has seen and nobody explains, that a hunted animal shakes itself off after the danger passes and carries on, and a human being frequently does not.
He established a foundation in Boulder, Colorado, to train practitioners in it, and is founder and president of an institute of somatic education and founder and adviser to an international body. His work has been taught to over thirty thousand practitioners in more than forty two countries, and he has taught in pain clinics, hospitals and treatment centres around the world. In 2010 he received a lifetime achievement award from an American body psychotherapy association.
The method is debated. The encyclopaedia describes it as a form of alternative therapy, and the evidence base is argued over in the way most newer therapies are. That argument is about the work rather than the man, and it belongs beside the rest of it.
The moments
Peter Levine's timeline.
The 1970s
Medical biophysics at Berkeley
Milestone, and it changed everything. A doctorate in the physics of a living body.
A second doctorate
Milestone, and it changed his direction. Two doctorates, one in the body and one in the mind.
Stress consultant to NASA
Milestone, and it changed everything. Working out what happens to a person in conditions nobody has been in.
The 1980s
Stay in the hard sciences
Crossroads, decided.
The paths laid out: follow the body question, taken, or stay a consultant. The method has since been taught to over thirty thousand practitioners in more than forty two countries.
The question about animals
Milestone, and it changed everything. Attention to what the body registers from inside, rather than to the thought.
The 1990s
Somatic Experiencing
Milestone, and it changed everything. Fifty years on one approach, built from the body upwards.
A training foundation in Boulder
Milestone, and it changed everything. A place to train other people in it, so it did not depend on him.
The 2000s
Clinics and hospitals
Everyday, and it changed his direction. Teaching it where the hardest cases actually are.
The 2010s
A lifetime achievement award
Milestone, and it changed his direction. His own field, honouring the contribution while still arguing about it.
Thirty thousand practitioners
Milestone, and it changed everything. Thirty thousand practitioners, in more than forty countries.
The 2020s
The method is debated
Setback, and it changed his direction. The encyclopaedia files it as alternative therapy, and the field argues.
The trainings run in more than forty countries now and he is still teaching at eighty four. What he set moving is a change of address for one whole question: thirty thousand practitioners who, when somebody is frightened, now ask what the body is doing rather than only what the person is thinking.
Your turn
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His started with a biophysics doctorate and a question about animals shaking. Yours is already further along than you think, and drawing it takes about five minutes.
Peter Levine: frequently asked questions
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Where does this timeline of Peter Levine's life come from?
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Sources
- His own institute's published pages, for his doctorates, the NASA work, the method and the practitioner numbers.
- Professional biographical sources, for the Boulder foundation and the 2010 lifetime achievement award.
- English Wikipedia's article on Somatic Experiencing, which describes the method and files it as alternative therapy.
- English Wikipedia has no biographical article on him, so this page is more carefully attributed than most in this gallery.