263: Peter Levine - Reconnection for High Conflict Couples (When Your Partner Becomes the Trigger)
About this episode
Neil Sattin and Dr. Peter Levine discuss how to reconnect with a partner after conflict and manage emotional triggers.
You walk into the room, and there's your partner - the person you love - but after last night's fight, just the sight of them sets off the alarm bells in your body. If you've ever felt that, you're not broken, and you're not alone. It's one of the most human things there is. In this episode, I'm back with Dr. Peter Levine - developer of Somatic Experiencing and author of Waking the Tiger - for his fourth visit to Relationship Alive, and our most personal conversation yet. We get into what actually helps when the person closest to you becomes the one your nervous system reads as dangerous: how to settle yourself first, lead with a little honest vulnerability, and find your way back to each other after conflict. Then, in a very practical part two, Peter shows how to work with those moments when just your partner's voice or face leaves you tense or shut down: how to gently separate the feeling in your body from the story you're telling about it, take each other's hand, and walk toward the hard thing together. Along the way Peter shares, with remarkable openness, the story behind his new memoir and what he's learning about living - and loving - fully in his later years. This one is…
More episodes of Relationship Alive!
- 264: Why You Keep Living the Same Story (and How to Change It) - with Megan Macedo
- 262: What High-Conflict Couples Taught Me About Healing the Political Divide
- 261: Sue Johnson - Being Truly Seen: Healing Trauma Through Attachment Science (EFIT)
- 260: How to Turn Your Vulnerability into Your Relationship Superpower - with Ken Page
- 259: Don't Fight Your Negative Thoughts...Join Them! (to Overcome Them)
- 258: When Desire Fades, Come Together - Emily Nagoski & the Science of Longlasting Sexual Connection
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