One of psychological trauma’s most insidious effects is how radically and completely it can take away someone’s sense of safety.
That’s often why job number one for many practitioners is making sure to create a safe space for trauma survivors within the confines of treatment, which is essential . . .
. . . but it’s only half of the equation.
According to Peter Levine, there’s a very important follow-up step – and it’s all about knowing how to empower patients with the resources they need to make themselves feel safe – when you aren’t there.
Peter shows us one way to do it in this short video. Check it out – it’s just 4 minutes.
To find out more about some of the keys for treating trauma, including 6 steps for tracking trauma through the body, check these courses out.
Have you ever worked with a patient struggling to regain their sense of safety after a traumatic experience? Please share your comments below.
Hi, I love that what Peter just did to feel safe by holding the body or container as he called it.
I am a trauma survivor, and this tool sound great, I will certainly try it again, I guess it’s remembering to do it.
Hello there, I found your wicked site on Yahoo and all I can say is wow you have an amazing website!!!
Thank you for making this accessible to so many people.
Looking forward to the webinar!
Seems like Pat Ogden also promotes the “hand covering the heart” gesture. Adding the cross-arm to “cuddle” oneself seems like a natural way to self-nurture and protect. I’ll be adding this tool to my growing toolbox — thank you!
Love this.
I just tried it. Heart rate became a source of comfort.
Reminds me of when I used to put a ticking clock beside my puppy, because it helped her sleep.
Nice memory.
I can’t believe you’re not playing with meht–at was so helpful.
I’m looling forward to learn Peter’s aproach more and the latest treatments, too! Thank you.
I look forward to learning more about the latest treatments, and this conversation is an important one that in a brief snipet, laid out some key components to regaining a sense of safety.
Thank you so much for teaching and sharing on Trauma I so admire and learne from you Ruth and Peter.Peter Levine book Wakeing the Tiger I have found a great resourse for myself as a practioner and clients have found it so helpful those that have bought it.
kindest regards
annemarie
Thanks for sharing Peter’s approach to healing trauma. I too can’t afford to pay for the whole program but will be looking forward to hearing his comments on Wednesday.
The technique Peter described in this interview is simple, and looks like it would be very helpful. I liked his description of the body as the container of our emotions. That concept offers a good foundation for work with trauma-impacted clients.
Amlooking forward to Peter Levine’s approach to healing trauma. Though I can’t afford the complete paid programs, I do appreciate the possibility of listening in to the free webnard. Very grateful!
Shestelle
I,, too, look forward to this training program. Thank you very much, Ruth. You are helping in a hugh way by giving all of us information and the how-to to enable your audience in becomming better and wiser practioners.
In my training program, I teach a segment on trauma and shock using the work of Peter as well as William Emerson, PhD. I have worked with many clients and students using these techniques with great success. I have worked for 14 years in Israel where we have treated deep levels of shock and dissociation. I am always happy to learn more and to share the learning with others. Thank you for this opportunity.
Hope I can get a link to listen at later time as I am in another training on Wed.
I value Peter’s teachings!
I’m looking forward to this webinar as this information really helps students who don’t feel safe at school – especially those who have learning disabilities and who are bullied.
I’m looking forward to the webinar. The insights from Somantic Expereincing are invaluable.
What a great web log. I spend hours on the net reading blogs, about tons of vaoiurs subjects. I have to first of all give praise to whoever created your theme and second of all to you for writing what i can only describe as an fabulous article. I honestly believe there is a skill to writing articles that only very few posses and honestly you got it. The combining of demonstrative and upper-class content is by all odds super rare with the astronomic amount of blogs on the cyberspace.I have bookmarked, Dugg, and I joined the RSS subscription. Thanks! ….
I’m looking forward to the trauma webinar and will stay up till 11PM to see it. I hope I will remember to do the container exercise more often. Thank you very much. Just seeing Peter Levine and hearing his voice is soothing. so sometimes I just listen to one of his CDs. Greetings from Germany
I look forward to this series and Peter’s ideas on somatic experiencing. The latest neurobiological research confirms the importance of the mind-body connection. It is great to see tools to help heal the body, not only the cognitive aspects of trauma. I hope Peter will address how to work with people who dissociate to the extent of DID. My experience is that while some “parts” readily accept and learn self-soothing, emotional management, and arousal regulation tools; other parts sabotague at the same time.
Looking forward to this webinar. Thanks.
Thak-you again , Ruth for putting this together. I am do looking forward to watching this. And telling colleagues and Family to watch this,as so many of us have been impacted by trauma.
Really interesting and useful. HOWEVER, my experience is a lot with ‘introjects’ both my own (historically) and many of my clients. So, by my own definition, an introject means something toxic got inside. This is often the result of the projections of the ‘other’. And this is often the case with people who have had relational trauma.
So, with this exercise, wrapping oneself around, which is aimed at comfort and ‘holding’, to the degree that there are still internal introjects, it could make the person feel worse, as in closing within something foreign, to the real self.
I will try this with my client work, but with the proviso that it could feel worse or better, and each way, that tells us something. And if the answer is that it makes worse, then to explore that.
Jo. ( jo2dayone@tiscali.co.uk )
Is there a specific time on Wednesday for the Webinar ?
Also a thank you for the information….always helpful to have !
The webinar will be broadcasted for free on Wednesday at 5pm ET and again at 6:30pm. During the 5 o’clock session we will have staff available to answer any questions you might have. If you’re interested in watching the webinar, you can sign up by clicking the link at the end of the blog post.
The holding exercise, Peter just showed, created an immense selfrespect in me, while i was holding the child, who was never willingly held, mothered or nurtured. Selfrespect, selfesteem so often endangered by the many people who need denial of suffering, and shame/abuse someone suffering from prenatal ptsd, RAD, DID all over again, silencing them in enforced dissociation, a timeless kind of nonexistence. When this enforcement translated into being but ultimatums by 2 sons, to do so, something broke. Something defiant also rose in me. A refusal to go back into my cage of enforced dissociation. Accepting that by doing so i would lose all my relationships. The last ones still standing, those with the 4 children i gave birth to and raised as a single parent. And yet, besides the unbearable grief about that, i am finding solace into being a more stable me, a more true me. Accepting it is not my problem that others cannot relate to my symptoms of trauma, my deep suffering. Nor am ii ever my symptoms. Fully aware this decision might bring my physical death, yet also curious where it will lead. Remembering death was my only comfort when i was 2 years of age. Longing to return from where i came/originated, knowing that to be a safe place. Yet fear of death was overwhelming, when this shift first occurred undeniably. Now i am surrendering to the process, knowing their is no other way through. Knowing i will keep trying to defy Peter’s words to me in Paris, that prenatal trauma’s are incurable. So far i did not complete full transition. But there are changes, i have build resilience and now have many therapeutic tools, that can help me regain stability much faster. I also found some supplements, that make suicidal depressions last much less time, and not as severe as they used to.