A Somatic Approach to Healing Trauma: From Survival to Wholeness

8 hours ago

7 min read

#MentalHealthProfessionals #TherapistTools #ClinicianResources #PsychologyTools #TherapySkills #SomaticHealing #TraumaTherapy #ProfessionalDevelopment

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Heads up:

This one’s mainly for those in my audience who provide psychotherapy services (i.e. therapists, social workers, psychologists, nurse practitioners, and other mental health professionals). If you’re reading as a client or just curious, the ideas can still be interesting, but they aren’t a substitute for personal mental health care.

As mental health professionals, we spend a great deal of time learning about the different ways people experience, respond to, and recover from difficult life experiences. We explore therapeutic approaches, familiarize ourselves with new research, and continue sharpening our knowledge and skills so we can better support the individuals we serve. One area that continues to offer opportunities for learning and deeper understanding is the relationship between the body and trauma. While we often recognize the importance of addressing thoughts, emotions, and behaviors in our clinical work, what about the experiences our bodies continue to carry? How might our understanding of trauma change when we consider the body's role in the healing process? This week, I want to share a training featuring two well-known voices in the field of trauma treatment, Peter A. Levine, PhD, and Arielle Schwartz, PhD. Their conversation explores trauma, resilience, and the experiences that shape our understanding of healing. Registration for this two-hour online conversation is currently FREE for a limited time! If trauma, resilience, and the relationship between the body and healing are areas of interest to you, this may be an opportunity worth exploring.

Understanding Trauma Through the Body

For more than five decades, Peter A. Levine has contributed to our understanding of trauma and the body's role in recovery. He is the developer of Somatic Experiencing®, a body-awareness approach that focuses on helping individuals resolve the effects of traumatic stress. His work has helped bring greater attention to the ways traumatic experiences can affect the nervous system and how the body may hold responses connected to those experiences. However, this particular training offers something a little different from a traditional discussion of trauma treatment. Rather than focusing primarily on techniques or clinical interventions, Dr. Levine will share more about his personal experiences and the journey that influenced his work. Drawing from his book, (affiliate link) An Autobiography of Trauma: A Healing Journey, he will explore early experiences of violence, resilience, and the roles that joy, imagination, and bodily wisdom played in his life.

The Wounded Healer's Journey

One of the topics that makes this conversation particularly interesting is the concept of the wounded healer. As mental health professionals, we are often in the position of helping others navigate experiences that we may also have some personal understanding of. However, supporting someone else's healing does not mean we have completed every part of our own. What does it look like to help others while continuing to make sense of our own experiences? How do our personal stories influence the way we understand the people we serve? These are some of the questions explored through Dr. Levine's experiences. The conversation also considers the influence of mentors, dreams, neuroscience, and other unexpected sources of insight throughout his journey. For those of us working in mental health, there is value in exploring these questions. Our professional knowledge and personal experiences can both influence how we approach our work. Making room for continued self-reflection allows us to remain curious about the experiences that shape our understanding of healing.

What You Will Explore During This Training

During this two-hour conversation, participants will have an opportunity to explore several areas related to trauma and recovery. Topics in (affiliate link) A Somatic Approach to Healing Trauma: From Survival to Wholeness include childhood trauma and early resilience, the influence of joy and imagination, the wounded healer paradox, and the relationship between personal stories and the healing process. The presenters will also discuss how trauma can become a doorway to greater meaning rather than something that has to define a person's identity. The conversation considers the importance of sharing our stories with care and support while recognizing that healing does not always unfold in the ways we expect.

Meet Your Presenters

Peter A. Levine, PhD

Dr. Levine holds doctorates in medical biophysics and psychology and is the developer of Somatic Experiencing®. He is also the founder of the Somatic Experiencing Trauma Institute. His internationally recognized book, (affiliate link) Waking the Tiger: Healing Trauma, has been translated into 22 languages. His other publications include (affiliate link) In an Unspoken Voice: How the Body Releases Trauma and Restores Goodness and books addressing childhood trauma and resilience.

Arielle Schwartz, PhD, CCTP-II, E-RYT, EMDR-C

Dr. Schwartz is a licensed clinical psychologist, certified complex trauma professional, EMDR Consultant, and Kripalu yoga teacher. She is an internationally recognized speaker and author of eight books, including (affiliate link) The Complex PTSD Workbook, (affiliate link) EMDR Therapy and Somatic Psychology, and (affiliate link) The Post-Traumatic Growth Guidebook. Her work integrates relational therapy, somatic psychology, EMDR, parts work, and therapeutic yoga.

Training Details and Registration

A Somatic Approach to Healing Trauma: From Survival to Wholeness

Featuring Peter A. Levine, PhD, and Arielle Schwartz, PhD

Date: November 11, 2026
Time: 1:00 PM to 3:00 PM Central
Format: Live online training
Registration: FREE for a limited time
Continuing Education: Up to 2 CE hours available for an additional fee.

There is no cost to register for this training. If you are unable to attend live, you can still register and receive three days of access to the archived recording once it becomes available.

For those interested in continuing education, there is an option to purchase a CE package after registration. The live CE package is offered at a discounted rate of $59.99 for those who register and purchase before the end of the webinar. A separate self-study option is also available for those who prefer to complete the training later. Lifetime access to the recording is available through an upgrade.

[Register for the FREE Training Here: https://my.pesi.partners/51N3MQ7/3GPH3QM/]

Please keep in mind that the free registration opportunity is available for a limited time. If this training is of interest to you, I encourage you to take advantage of the opportunity while it is available. Continuing education credits and recording upgrades are separate purchases.

Keep Learning, Keep Growing

As always, continuing to sharpen our knowledge and strengthen our skills is part of growing in our professional roles. We will not always have an immediate answer for every clinical question, and there will always be more to learn about the experiences that bring people into our offices. Sometimes, learning something new introduces us to a different way of understanding a familiar concern. Other times, it gives us an opportunity to revisit what we already know and consider how we might approach our work differently.

If trauma treatment, somatic approaches, and the relationship between the body and healing are areas of interest to you, consider attending the training, (affiliate link) A Somatic Approach to Healing Trauma: From Survival to Wholeness. You may find something in the conversation that encourages you to think about your clinical work from a different perspective. And when an opportunity to learn from experienced voices in the field comes along without a registration fee, it may be worth making room for it in your schedule.

A friendly reminder here, to help us keep creating free educational content, the EnvisionCo Blog participates in affiliate partnerships. If you choose to purchase a course through our links, we may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. If this article resonated with you, we’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments, or have you share it with a friend or colleague who might need this resource today. Small conversations about mental wellness can make a meaningful difference. We are all works in progress. And please remember that wherever you are on this wellness journey, do not worry about getting it perfect; just get it going. Until next time. Happy reading!

Affiliate Link

As we explore the relationship between trauma, the nervous system, and the healing process, it is also worth remembering that our own well-being deserves attention. As mental health professionals, we spend a great deal of time creating space for others to process their experiences, build resilience, and move toward healing. However, the demands of everyday life, including financial stress, can sometimes make it harder to create that same space for ourselves. When high-interest debt becomes another source of ongoing pressure, consolidating eligible balances into one predictable monthly payment through a SoFi Personal Loan may be worth exploring, particularly if you qualify for a lower interest rate. Loan approval, rates, and terms vary, so consider whether this option fits your financial circumstances. (If you apply through my affiliate link and are approved, SoFi gives both of us a $300 bonus as a thank-you.) After all, supporting our own well-being is part of making room for continued growth, reflection, and the capacity to show up fully in the work we do.

“Trauma is a fact of life. It does not, however, have to be a life sentence.” ~Peter A. Levine, PhD

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