THE COVID MONTHS | PETER EUGENE HUGH LEVINÉ

Peter, one of the first Psychotherapists to train with Northern Guild, has sadly died recently. He was warm, funny and loveable and oozed charm. Over the next two days we take a look at his life and his work in a series of posts from family, friends and colleagues.

EARLY LIFE

Peter was born in 1943, during the war years, in Paddington, London to Eugen ‘Genia’ Leviné, the son of the martyred Communist Revolutionary Eugen Leviné[i], and his wife Rosa Leviné. Genia, of Russian Jewish heritage, was brought up in Germany.  When the Nazis came to power he escaped by the skin of his teeth, in danger both as a Jew and Communist. He fled to Britain where he met Doreen ‘Bill’ Byrne a strong and interesting Irish woman whose Catholic mother and Protestant father had had to flee Ireland because their mixed faith relationship was disapproved of by their respective families.

For the first seven years of his life, Peter and his parents lived communally with other refugee families in London, experiencing a Bohemian lifestyle and multiple homes. Both his parents were committed intellectuals and free thinkers with liberal ideas grounded in socialist ideals.  During the course of his childhood, Peter lived in over twenty different homes, including a brief period as an evacuee during the worst of the London bombings when, with his mother, he stayed in Sleights just outside Whitby. When he was seven years old his parents separated.

Between the ages of seven and eleven, Peter lived with his mother. At one stage Bill, now with a new partner, moved to a Cornish Commune where she stayed for a year living amongst other radical thinkers. Peter, treated not as a child but as an adult by the whole community, lived in a tent in the garden on the cliff top. It was a lonely existence and one that later, as a psychotherapist, gave him deep insight into loneliness, isolation and depression and made him an ardent believer in the power of involvement between therapist and client.

Bill went on to take a post as a school matron at a boarding school where she and Peter both lived for a brief time. It was an odd and discordant change, moving from the outdoor solitariness of his tent to a regimented, highly controlled indoor environment.

Perhaps the most settled phase of the time living with his mother was in Telscombe just outside Brighton. Here he was finally able to attend the same primary school for two or three years, eventually passing his 11+  

 Peter moved back to London eventually to live with father, Genia, in a dilapidated Bloomsbury basement flat. He attended the Royal Philological School, known today as Marylebone Grammar School. He left school during his A Levels, deciding that he did not want to keep studying.

STARTING TO WORK

Peter had an intriguing variety of early jobs which included working as a  bicycle mechanic in Georgy Moore’s bicycle shop, reflecting his lifelong love of cycling. Eventually, he moved on to working for Manpower Services Employment as a Manager before branching out again and setting up Tiger Trucks in the early seventies, a small removal business.  

His son, Jan, writes’…  Me and my school mates used to pile into the back of dad's bright yellow transit van being thrown around like popcorn in a heated saucepan. Terrific fun.

Working the odd weekend helping dad with a move made me feel very grown up.

I remember sitting with him in a smoke - filled Tiger truck office after school, playing cards and watching him chatting away, with a fag in his mouth, enjoying the banter with all his drivers as they came in and collapsed onto the office sofa after a long working day. I could already see that he was good with people.’

MARRIAGE AND PARENTHOOD

In 1969, aged twenty-three, Peter met his first wife Bente, who came from Copenhagen. The couple settled in London where their son, Jan, was born. Peter and Bente eventually separated when Jan was seven years old. Peter, a doting father, remained fully involved in the life of his much loved son.

A NEW PROFESSION AND A NEW LOVE

By his mid-thirties Peter decided that he wanted to train as a Social Worker.  To finance his studies at Middlesex Polytechnic he worked for several years as a postman.

In 1980 Peter met Yvonne Lawrence, while still studying for his CQSW. Yvonne was studying for a PGCE at the Institute of Education at the University of London. The couple were introduced by Peter’s friend Judith who was also Yvonne’s course tutor.

An Adventure In Whitby

In 1983 Peter & Yvonne moved to Whitby together when Peter was appointed to a Social Work post in the town. Planned as a short adventure and time out from London, Peter spent the rest of his life in Whitby with Yvonne. He and Yvonne became very rooted in Whitby where they lived together in the same house for thirty seven years, becoming an important part of the community.

MIDDLESBROUGH SOCIAL SERVICES AND THE CLEVELAND AFFAIR

Peter moved from Whitby to Middlesbrough Social Services, initially as a Social Worker and later as a Social Work Manager. He led  a Children and Families team and later a Duty Team. In 1987 his work took him into the heart of the Cleveland Child Abuse Crisis. It was a very stressful and distressing time for everyone and Peter, like many of his colleagues, worked very long hours.

Psychotherapy Training 

In 1988, Peter began training as a Psychotherapist, eventually qualifying as a Certified Transactional Analyst (C.T.A.) and leaving social work to establish a full time NHS practice in Psychotherapy for over twenty years.  Peter’s psychotherapy practice reconnected him with his Russian roots in an entirely unexpected way. As part of the Northern Guild Russian Training Programme, Peter wrote of his experience in True North Therapy, Simultaneous Translation[ii]

Jennie McNamara writes,

‘In the early days of knowing Peter he loaned me a book about his grandfather, Eugen, I had only just returned from my first trip to Russia in 1989, and I was struck by the synchronicity as Eugen had been born and raised in St Petersburg (then Leningrad). Over the years Peter joined in the regular Northern Guild trips, run on a voluntary basis, to train the Russian students helping to organise and deliver psychotherapy workshops. He was passionate about this work and gave generously of his time and energy in supporting individual students as they worked toward their final Psychotherapy exams. This involved the students coming to the UK for extra support and tuition. Peter hosted several students and their families over many years and forged strong bonds with individuals that enabled them to feel welcomed and supported in this country. His contribution to and ongoing belief in the value of  the Russian training programme has been invaluable and consistent for over 30 years, he was much loved and respected for his knowledge, skills and above all for his love and humanity which stretched across the generations and from one country to another.

My abiding memory is of standing in deep snow with Peter in a beautiful square in St Petersburg surrounded by large tall elegant building which once housed the wealthy Russian families in pre- revolutionary times. It was 30 degrees below freezing and we stood looking at the place where his Russian ancestors had once lived. Peter found some discomfort connecting with the lived experience of being in the place where his once wealthy great grandparents, brought down by the revolution, had lived and where their son had left home to follow his communist ideals. Ironically, one hundred and two years later, Peter was buried on the same, date June 3rd, that his grandfather had been sentenced to death in 1919.

Baby Genia, Peter’s father, with Eugen and Rosa LEVINÉ, Peter’s grandparents, in 1916

Peter worked with a GP Surgery in Sleights throughout his professional life as a psychotherapist. With Dr Margaret Jackson he set up and led innovative groups, Living with Health & Illness, for those with chronic health issues which explored the links between physical and emotional wellbeing. The groups received funding from the NHS and the successful outcomes were subject to thorough research.

Peter finally retired aged seventy-five. He became very actively involved in his local Labour Party, enjoyed Crown Green Bowling, book and film clubs and keeping up with friends and family both in Denmark, the UK, Germany and Norway. He is survived by his partner Yvonne, his son Jan, daughter in law Annette, and  grandchildren Josephine, Maya and Olivia.

tomorrow three personal tributes to Peter

[i] https://spartacus-educational.com/GERlevine.htm

[ii] https://www.truenorththerapy.co.uk/home/the-covid-months-simultaneous-translation-memories-of-group-therapy-in-russia-by-peter-levine-certified-transactional-analyst