The annual Edna Reiss-Sophie Greenberg Chair and Conference
recognizes professionals who have made major contributions to the field of infant, child, and adolescent mental health
Peter A. Levine, PhD: When I started seeing people who were carrying trauma, I realized that this is something that gets stuck in the body. It's not just something that's in the mind and the brain. When a person would talk about something that was uncomfortable, their shoulders would start to lift and to brace. When you become aware of how they get stuck in the body, then you can move through and come back into the here and now. So when I started working with people in the late 1960s, I was asked to see this woman. She had been suffering from severe panic attacks and agoraphobia. And I could see her body was still frozen. And so I encouraged her and I said, "Just let me be there with you, let me hold your hand and we'll do this together." When she described her experience, she said, "Doctor, it feels like I'm being held in a warm tingling wave." She was feeling supported and feeling a new relationship with her body, a new relationship which was really about healing and about coming back into life. And that's when I realized that there was an intrinsic relationship between trauma transform and different spiritual experiences. When I started to write what became An Autobiography of Trauma: A Healing Journey, a friend, a colleague said, "You know, you really should write this as a book. This can really help people in their own healing to hear your story." And that's what motivated the book really. Yes, trauma is a fact of life. But the good news is, it does not have to be a life sentence. And with the right tools, trauma doesn't rule.
Psychodynamic Psychology, Trauma-Informed Therapy, and Cultural Awareness in Clinical Practice
