The Thinking Practitioner

🎙 Recognizing & Touching Trauma (with Dr. Peter Levine)

By popular demand! Originally aired as Episode 108, Til’s conversation with Dr. Peter Levine quickly became one of our most listened-to episodes ever — and it’s easy to hear why. The developer of Somatic Experiencing®, bestselling author of Waking the Tiger, and student of Ida Rolf shares how trauma lives in the body, how hands-on practitioners can recognize it, and how we can be most helpful when it shows up on our tables. Whether you missed it the first time or you’re ready for a second listen, this one rewards a revisit.

✨ Topics:
• How bodyworkers can recognize trauma as it’s held in the body — bracing, breath holding, and the “snapshot” of past responses
• The vagus nerve and gut-brain feedback loops: why 80% of its fibers carry signals from body to brain, and how to send the “all clear”
• What wild animals and NASA astronauts taught Dr. Levine about resilience and bouncing back
• Why pushing too hard backfires: “talking to the shoulders” with patient, supportive touch instead of forcing change
• Dr. Levine’s evolving view that Ida Rolf was “largely correct” about fascia — and how nervous system and tissue work fit together
• The four women who shaped his work: Charlotte Selver, Magda Proskauer, Ida Rolf, and Mira Rothenberg
• Trauma as “what happens in the absence of an empathetic other” — and how practitioners create relative safety
• Scope of practice: where bodyworkers’ trauma work ends and psychotherapy begins
• Healing rituals, shamanic traditions, and why community matters in trauma recovery
• Practitioner self-care, burnout, and Dr. Levine’s end-of-day river ritual

✨ Resources:
• Somatic Experiencing® International — trainings and practitioner directory: https://www.somaticexperiencing.com
• Peter A. Levine, Waking the Tiger: Healing Trauma
• Peter A. Levine, An Autobiography of Trauma: A Healing Journey
• Mira Rothenberg, Children with Emerald Eyes

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✨ Watch the video / connect with us:
• Whitney Lowe – https://academyofclinicalmassage.com | https://facebook.com/WhitneyLowe | https://twitter.com/whitneylowe | https://www.youtube.com/@whitlowe
• Til Luchau – https://advanced-trainings.com | https://facebook.com/advancedtrainings | https://instagram.com/til.luchau | https://www.youtube.com/@AdvancedTrainings/podcasts

📧 Email us: info@thethinkingpractitioner.com

The Thinking Practitioner Podcast is intended for professional practitioners of manual and movement therapies — bodywork, massage therapy, structural integration, physical therapy, osteopathy, and similar professions. It is not medical or treatment advice. Rolfing® is a registered trademark of the Dr. Ida Rolf Institute.