(HS Levine 052518 2017) Addressing the Emotional Roots of Physical Pain

Course overview

Meet TJ. He's in pain and has been for seven years. No medications have helped. All tests are inconclusive. Acupuncture relieves some of his pain but that relief only lasts a day or two. Peter Levine reports noticing, almost immediately, two significant things about TJ. He moves stiffly without fluidity in the spine and he is shut down with little access to his feelings and no language to make sense of what's going on with him. Peter, reading the "unspoken language" of his body, expresses curiosity about a slight movement of TJ's hands and feet. From that unfolds an imaging exercise that ends with a release of stress, tears and TJ feeling lighter. The session moves forward, fueled by Peter's attention to the smallest details-a change in TJ's skin color, quickening of his pulse, lengthening of his spine. Building on each step, TJ experiences stress release, has breakthrough moments of understanding, expresses a growing sense of "lightness" and reports an ongoing decrease in his physical pain-all without talking about the pain or any actual touch.