Chris Kresser: So Peter Levine does a work. He’s developed a body of work called somatic experiencing, or SE, for short. And it’s aimed at healing from trauma and it’s really interesting work. He studied animals and how animals respond to trauma. And then of course it goes far beyond that. But that’s one of its roots. And he developed basically a system for how to approach trauma. And you can get trained in that body of work and become a somatic experiencing practitioner. My wife actually has done not all, but most of that training. So I know a little bit about it. And if I have a patient who has experienced significant trauma, whether that’s emotional or psychological or physiological trauma, I would typically refer out to a skilled somatic experiencing practitioner. And you can look them up online and develop a relationship with one locally and in many places.
In terms of what that brings to the treatment, it’s kind of what I was talking about before. If the patient is dealing with a lot of trauma and their nervous system is still kind of in shock from that trauma, and it’s stuck in that pattern and you’re not making any progress with the other stuff that you’re doing, then referring them out for this kind of work can be really helpful.