Peter A. Levine – Author Biography
Early Life
Peter A. Levine is an American psychologist and biophysicist. He earned a doctorate in medical biophysics from the University of California, Berkeley, and a second doctorate in psychology — an unusual dual training that let him approach trauma as both a biological and a psychological phenomenon.
Career
Levine spent decades studying stress and trauma, working as a stress consultant for NASA during the Space Shuttle program’s development and serving on task forces addressing large-scale disaster and ethno-political warfare. Observing how wild animals shake off life-threatening encounters, he developed Somatic Experiencing — a body-based approach to healing trauma — and founded the Somatic Experiencing Trauma Institute to train practitioners worldwide. His 1997 book Waking the Tiger: Healing Trauma became an international bestseller.
Major Works
Waking the Tiger: Healing Trauma (1997), Healing Trauma (2005), In an Unspoken Voice: How the Body Releases Trauma and Restores Goodness (2010), Trauma and Memory (2015), and An Autobiography of Trauma (2024), his memoir. His books have been translated into dozens of languages.
Writing Style and Themes
Levine writes at the intersection of science and healing, explaining neurobiology in accessible terms and grounding it in clinical stories. His central insight: trauma lives in the body, not just the mind — animals complete their stress cycles physically, while humans freeze theirs, and healing requires letting the body finish what it started. His work emphasizes titration (healing in small doses), the wisdom of bodily sensation, and the possibility of post-traumatic growth.
Legacy
Levine is one of the founders of the somatic psychology movement. Somatic Experiencing is now practiced by tens of thousands of therapists in more than 40 countries, and his body-based approach has profoundly influenced how the field understands PTSD. He received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the U.S. Association for Body Psychotherapy in 2010.
