My friend Peter Leviné, who has died aged 78, was a psychotherapist of great compassion, who valued independent judgment over orthodoxy.
Peter’s commitment to a progressive and rational humanism was deeply influenced by his mother, Doreen Byrne (known as Bill), who at one stage ran a children’s home for teenage girls, and his father, Eugene (Genia) Leviné, a refugee from 1930s Germany who settled as a biology lecturer in London, where Peter was born. His Russian Communist grandfather, Eugen Leviné, had briefly led the Munich soviet republic in 1919, before being tried for high treason and executed by the German government, when the republic was overthrown.
Peter went to Marylebone grammar school, and spent his early adulthood in 60s bohemian north London. During that time he met Bente Teller, with whom he had a son, Jan. He ran a removal business, Tiger Trucks, and later delivered post in Highgate while undertaking social work training at Middlesex Polytechnic.
After working for Barnet social services, in 1983 Peter relocated to North Yorkshire. He made a home in Whitby with Yvonne Lawrence. During the high-profile Cleveland child abuse crisis in 1987, Peter was a social services manager there, working with children and families. Friends describe how deeply Peter cared about what was happening, and that children be listened to. Around that time he also started training in the branch of psychotherapy known as transactional analysis, with the Northern Guild for Psychotherapy, which was founded by Christine Lister-Ford and Jennie McNamara.
Peter’s work as a psychotherapist was extremely fulfilling for him. Many clients and colleagues have also talked about his success in helping people find hope, self-acceptance and meaning.
In the early 2000s he formed part of a small team developing transactional analysis expertise in Russia – training visits that reconnected Peter with his family history. From 2005 until 2016, with the GP Margaret Jackson, Peter co-pioneered a new model of psychologically informed support groups to address the isolation and challenges faced by people living with long-term chronic illnesses.
Intense, forthright and honest, Peter could intimidate. But he was also kind, emotionally steady, and open in his pleasures – which ranged from cycling and playing the guitar to cryptic crosswords, food, independent cinema and, latterly, crown green bowls. A polymath raised to argue his point with confidence, he enjoyed the tussle of disagreement, and was undaunted by being corrected. I met him in the early 80s, and our friendship involved long happy disagreements about the Labour party, global capitalism, modern art, and opening car windows while driving.
Living with terminal cancer amid Covid restrictions was hard, as opportunities for contact with his many cherished friends thinned, and life moved online. Poor health limited Peter’s options but he remained mentally and socially alive, with the Guardian a constant pleasure. He was buried with a copy, including his last half-completed cryptic, and an issue of Cycling Weekly.
Peter is survived by Yvonne, Jan and three grandchildren.
