Peter Levine Quotes

Powerful Peter Levine for Daily Growth

About Peter Levine

Peter A. Levine, Ph.D., is an internationally recognized trauma expert, psychotherapist, and the founder of Somatic Experiencing® (SE), a body-based healing approach that focuses on resolving trauma by helping individuals release traumatic shock, tension, and energy. Born in 1940 in Berlin, Germany, Levine escaped with his family to Israel at age three, shortly after the Holocaust. This early exposure to violence and displacement would later influence his work on trauma resolution. After moving to the United States, he earned a doctorate in psychology from Columbia Pacific University in 1977. In the 1960s, Levine worked as a wildlife biologist in Africa, where he observed how wild animals naturally cope with and recover from life-threatening situations. This observation led him to develop the principles of Somatic Experiencing, which emphasizes the importance of the body's natural healing responses in dealing with trauma. Levine published his groundbreaking book, "Waking the Tiger: Healing Trauma," in 1997. The book, a best-seller for over two decades, has been translated into more than 25 languages and introduced SE to a wide audience. In it, Levine presents a comprehensive understanding of trauma and offers practical techniques for healing and transformation. Throughout his career, Levine has worked with various populations, including veterans, first responders, disaster survivors, and children. He continues to teach, train, and write about the importance of healing from trauma and living life more fully as a result. His most recent book, "In an Unspoken Voice: How the Body Releases Trauma," further explores the role of the body in trauma recovery. Peter Levine's work has had a profound impact on the field of psychology, offering a transformative approach to healing from trauma that is widely recognized and practiced around the world.

Interpretations of Popular Quotes

"The unresolved trauma in the body is enacted unconsciously. We reenact it in our relationships and in our encounters with the world."

This quote by Peter Levine suggests that untreated traumatic experiences can manifest involuntarily in a person's behavior and interactions, particularly in their relationships and daily life. Essentially, the unresolved trauma is not just a memory stored in the mind; it affects the body as well, leading to patterns of thought and behavior that may seem unexplained or irrational. By understanding this connection between unresolved trauma and its potential influence on our actions and interactions, we can work towards healing and resolving these traumas, improving our overall emotional health and wellbeing.


"Trauma is not a disorder of memory; it's a disorder of safety."

This quote implies that trauma isn't primarily about forgetting or remembering past events, but rather about feelings of safety or lack thereof. The traumatic response arises from an individual's perception that they are no longer safe in their environment. It suggests that healing from trauma is not just about processing memories but creating a sense of security and control to help the person manage and integrate those memories into a broader, more balanced narrative of their life experiences.


"Healing traumatic symptoms requires that the survivor feel safe enough to relive the original experience, but without being retraumatized."

This quote emphasizes the importance of creating a secure environment for individuals who have experienced trauma to process their emotions, memories, and feelings associated with the traumatic event. The key is to enable them to re-experience the original traumatic situation without being further traumatized or re-victimized during this process. This approach allows them to heal and recover from the effects of trauma in a safe and controlled manner.


"When we bring our full attention to the physical sensations in the body and allow them to discharge, we are no longer bound by time and can fully inhabit the present moment."

This quote by Peter Levine suggests that when we focus on the bodily sensations we're experiencing and allow those feelings to pass naturally (i.e., discharge), we free ourselves from the constraints of time and fully engage in the present moment. In essence, he is emphasizing mindfulness as a means to break free from being stuck in the past or anxious about the future, allowing us to truly live in the now.


"Trauma is not a destiny. The capacity to heal and transform is built into every being."

This quote by Peter Levine suggests that while traumatic experiences can occur, they do not have to define or limit one's life. It emphasizes the inherent ability of all beings to heal from trauma and transform their lives for the better. In essence, it reminds us that even in the face of adversity, resilience and growth are possible if we choose to embrace healing and transformation.


If you look back over the history of computing, it started as mainframes or terminals. As PCs or work stations became prevalent, computing moved to the edge, and we had applications that took advantage of edge computing and the CPU and processing power at the edge. Cloud computing brought things back to the center.

- Peter Levine

Became, Brought, Moved, Computing

There has been an ebb and flow in enterprise IT of centralized versus distributed.

- Peter Levine

Ebb, Been, Enterprise, Distributed

With the premise that we look for technical co-founders to run a company, I view myself as being a coach to that technical co-founder. I can help them with their business issues, with the growth issues of taking a company from a very early stage to something much larger.

- Peter Levine

Very, Larger, Technical, Premise

When I was a developer, I couldn't buy a pencil. I had no budget, nothing.

- Peter Levine

Nothing, Buy, Developer, Budget

Despite the best intentions, companies often become culturally dysfunctional. This occurs when leadership has a perception about the culture that conflicts with reality, or leadership behaves differently than what might be written down.

- Peter Levine

Best, About, Written Down, Behaves

Old companies that had nothing to do with software in the past all have software development activities to unlock the invention that's occurring inside of these organizations. And so the developer is a very important part of that overall ecosystem.

- Peter Levine

Software, Very, Ecosystem, Invention

Technical co-founders are great at envisioning where the company's going from a strategic standpoint. They have what I call the 'gut-feel' of building out their business.

- Peter Levine

Going, Technical, Strategic, Standpoint

I can certainly imagine a day where task workers, enterprise workers no longer communicate via email but instead use some social vehicle that looks a lot like consumer social networks we see today.

- Peter Levine

Some, Social Networks, Consumer

It's easier to coach a technical founder how to be CEO and manage a business than it is to teach a professional CEO the nuances of that particular business.

- Peter Levine

Business, Technical, Nuances, Manage

If you believe that the mobile phone is the next supercomputer, which I do, you can imagine a datacenter that is modeled after, literally, hundreds or thousands or millions of mobile phones. They won't have screens on them, but there'll be millions of lightweight mobile-phone processors in the datacenter.

- Peter Levine

Believe, Next, Phones, Lightweight

Doing processing locally has its advantages. For instance, the cost of an endpoint CPU and memory is a 1000x cheaper than the cost of CPU and memory in the server. And in many places around the world, connectivity and transmission costs are sometimes far more expensive than the device.

- Peter Levine

Doing, Cheaper, Server, Device

In the old days, I'd have to go as a company, buy computer resources, buy servers, buy storage, and lash it all together. It took a long time to stand up. Now, if I need, I can go to Amazon or Rackspace and buy some computer power nearly instantaneously.

- Peter Levine

Some, Buy, Nearly, Lash

The organization reflects the behavior and characteristics of the CEO, and that establishes the culture. Foster an environment of open communication, and the organization inherits a culture of open communication.

- Peter Levine

Culture, Characteristics, Reflects

I have really become a huge believer in the power of open source.

- Peter Levine

Power, Believer, Huge, Open Source

It doesn't matter what's written on a coffee mug or on a 'culture' slide; what you do as a CEO, day in and day out, and how you behave will define your company's culture.

- Peter Levine

Will, Matter, Your, Slide

There's going to be a symbiotic relationship between the edge and the cloud.

- Peter Levine

Cloud, Edge, Going, Between

Probably, if I created a venture fund, I would create a firm with virtual services not too different from the a16z model, but without employing people. So I would get CPOs, engineering talent, marketing people who wanted to be involved with the venture fund and provide services.

- Peter Levine

Without, Virtual, Firm, Employing

When you and I go to work, and we use a computer to work and find that our work apps are completely onerous and the apps we use at home are quite easy, we wonder, why can't it be simpler, easier, quicker, and less expensive?

- Peter Levine

Work, Use, Quicker, Simpler

As a former CEO and senior executive, there was a time when I did not quite understand the profound impact a CEO has on the culture of a company, even though I always knew culture was important.

- Peter Levine

Impact, Always, Though, Former

When you are only one vendor, there is a very low rate of innovation. You think the old architecture is just fine, and it can just happily exist for many years.

- Peter Levine

Innovation, Think, Very, Happily

I think with the proliferation of mobile devices and then, eventually, the Internet of Things, we literally have supercomputers in our pockets and supercomputers that will hang on telephone poles and in light bulbs.

- Peter Levine

Think, Hang, I Think, Poles

I look at Boston-based companies all the time... There's certainly great companies in Boston. If the deal makes sense on the merit of the deal itself, we'll go and do the deal.

- Peter Levine

Boston, Deal, Certainly, Merit

A self-driving car will have 200-plus CPUs. That's a data center on wheels.

- Peter Levine

Car, Data, Wheels, Center

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