A personal somatic experiencing session with Peter Levine himself

I had the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to have a session with Peter Levine himself, the pioneer who brought Somatic Experiencing into the world.

Peter’s input has forever changed how we work with trauma today. This article is a personal account of my experience attending a master class with Peter in Australia and the serendipitous moments I was graced with. I am sharing it to give hope to people who have been on a long, seemingly endless journey through the dark night of the soul. Mine lasted about six years, but there is finally a lot of light coming into my life, and I am now stepping up with strength into leadership roles in my community.

When I heard that Peter Levine was coming to Melbourne for the master class “Imagination and Dreams”, I felt pulled to go straight away. I had this inner knowing that he would be working with me personally on stage at this training, even though it felt like wishing for a million dollar lottery win. But so many things worked out well for me, even though I was incredibly scared to go after my initial excitement. During the training, I experienced beautiful processes of co-regulation and of connecting with myself and others in new ways. It was a gift to meet old SE friends from 13 years ago and to explore my dreams in an embodied, somatic approach to unlock often deeply spiritual messages.

I had asked Peter a question during his master class about a recurring nightmare I had as a child, and he suggested working with me on stage. In the nightmare, geometric shapes and dots would meet and slot into each other. There was an unspoken rule that some forms were never meant to touch or connect. If they did, the terror I felt was immense. The SE community was there holding space while Peter worked with me. I was able to be myself, stay tuned to the sensations in my body, and let them guide me. When my nervous system threatened to flood, Peter offered to put his feet on mine, which helped me regulate my system immediately—respectful human touch is often the best option, especially with early childhood trauma.

Peter led me through a beautiful process in which I released a deep shock that had been held since childhood. The initial shaking of my upper body spread all the way down to my legs, and life-force energy entered through my feet, accompanied by warmth. When this happened, it felt like magic. I was then able to understand from the inside that life itself has certain rules and laws that no one must break, and that sometimes it requires shamanic strength to set boundaries. These rules are simple yet powerful. I sense Indigenous communities have a lived and felt sense of them; maybe they are the only ones who can teach us how to obey these earth rules.

Despite being on stage, I was so connected with myself that when Peter gave me a direction that didn’t align, I could voice what my body needed. We need to trust our senses, even if someone gifted like Peter is leading us. Our own bodies are always our biggest teachers.

Peter also invited me to talk about my late husband, and I could honour him, his deeply spiritual groundedness with his healing gifts, in front of my SE family. This meant a lot to me. Healing of grief needs community. When Peter asked what my husband would want for me, I burst out, “to be happy and sing”. I then got to sing in front of 120 people. I asked everyone in the room to hum while I channelled overtone and throat singing sounds that came through me. I had my eyes closed and couldn’t see that people were sobbing while I sang. Some of them came up to me afterwards and said that my sound connected them to something bigger and touched them deeply. 

When I had just arrived in Melbourne a few days earlier, a SE friend reminded me of a promise we had made to each other eight years earlier. We were both assisting at an SE training, and our teacher paired us up: “How do we see ourselves in a few years’ time if unabashedly following our biggest dream?” We both promised each other to follow that calling. Mine had been singing on stage, channelling sound medicine to transform and heal people. My friend had chosen a huge, massive goal, and she had been keeping her word! When I remembered our promises, I said that I had given up on that dream, that I had been barely singing, and maybe it was all just an ego trip.  She just smiled at me knowingly.

On day three of the master class, I had this moment of grace before class: I was walking on the jetty, and something struck me like lightning. I was able to completely surrender and to be grateful for my journey. For all of it, every single bit. I could even see my husband’s death and the difficult circumstances afterwards, the shredding of my nervous system by his family, giving up our home, and losing all structure as a very precious gift to me. It had given me this opportunity of a complete rebirth and the death of my ego. This was not a spiritual quick bypass; it was a gift of time after years of feeling the deepest grief, the most cutting loneliness, despair, and hopelessness. 

So much had led to this moment on the jetty, where I finally let go with one breath. And then the universe took me by its hands, and I did end up being on stage with Peter, and in that very session, I sang and channelled sound scopes. 

Coming back from Melbourne wasn’t easy—I felt so held by my Somatic Experiencing family, and all of a sudden found myself back in a brand-new community in Western Australia, with doubt creeping back in and my old holding patterns no longer serving me. For a while, I was trying too hard to make things happen instead of trusting the flow of life. But something had undoubtedly become undone in a good way for me in Melbourne; I was unwinding from the inside out.

Some days I felt like an acorn wanting to burrow deep into the earth, on others like a caterpillar chrysalis melting and dissolving into a new form inside a cocoon. I had to reorient to the new me and find a new rhythm. It took me a while to realise that there was nothing scary about this process; it just took its own time. I joined a yoga studio (I have zero discipline to do it on my own) and jumped headfirst into contact improvisation dance. Moving my body every day became a non-negotiable to be in flow, be creative, and hold the immensity of life while embracing both joy and grief.

It has taken me two months to integrate this session on the big stage, and it has required a whole lot of creativity and courage to try new things. I am not finished integrating. But I do feel more connected, with both feet on the ground and anchored. I am more trusting, so I can let go more. I can recognise life’s offerings with its moments of magic away from expectations of outcome and trying. I have had many more beautiful moments where sound just travelled through me. I have spontaneously sung in groups, and I have been following the call to step forward and serve my new community with offerings like qigong and sound healing. What has settled inside me is pouring out now.

I hope my sharing gives hope to anyone who feels like they are in a dark tunnel with no light coming in. It will change; this is not permanent. And it does take a lot to stay hopeful when a transformation spans over many years. May you be able to follow your intuition and reach out for help. May you be kind to yourself on days when you are struggling and unable to do the things that help you.