Short Video featuring Dr. Peter Levine

Designer of Somatic Experiencing Therapy (SET)

This six minute video features Dr. Levine using his classic slinky metaphor for dealing with emotional processing. His model, SET, is not in wide use although many believe it is an excellent alternative to medications. In a brief review, SET is compared to EMDR, another trauma therapy approach.

In my two most recent books, Sound Sleep, Sound Mind and Life Saving Sleep, similar techniques are described extensively for what we call, "sleep-related emotional processing.” The name refers to the specific problem of residual emotional tension preventing an individual from falling asleep or returning to sleep in the middle of the night upon awakening.

Last, regarding mind-body approaches, one frequently overlooked cause of insomnia in the middle of the night is a sleep breathing event in someone receiving only a partial response to PAP therapy. Although it might seem like a simple matter to adjust the pressures to resolve the breathing events, the fact remains just one or two breathing events in the middle of the night can trigger the nervous system to become fully activated. Thus, the PAP individual wakes up and feels wide awake and unable to return to sleep immediately until some of this new emotional tension subsides.