Grounded in biological, ethological, and neurological scholarship, this book introduces a radical and innovative method of dealing with the psychological, somatic, and psychosomatic aspects of trauma. Levine demonstrates that confusion between an unresolved natural response and an actual mental disorder can obscure proper treatment and diagnosis. Reviews: "This book is great for anyone who is engaged in dealing with resolving and healing trauma, whether as professional or lay people. It argues that the body is healer and psychological scars of trauma are reversible but only if we listen to the voices of our own body. Peter Levine shows how to move beyond trauma by engaging the bodily process that sound have happened, rather than merely reliving what happened and thus retraumatising the individual. Peter Levine's approach allows us to access the problem at its physiological roots through the felt sense, which gives us the instinct of an animal and an intelligence of the human being acting together. He offers a means of dealing with deep trauma frequently presnet in hostages, bombing victims, victims of terrorism, following accidents, sexual abuse, rape victims, birth trauma and anything that interrupts the natural progression of an event. The book is divided into four sections: Section I: The Body as Healer Section II: Symptoms of Trauma Section III: Transformation and Renegotiation Section IV: First Aid for Trauma. Section I describes the truine brain-reptilian instinctual brain, the mammalian or limbic emotional brain and the human brain or neo-cortex, the rational brain. Section II discusses the core of the traumatic reaction and how this is linked to psychosomatic symptoms, including chronic fatigue syndrome. Section III deals with the blueprint for repetition of trauma, the trauma vortex, the healing vortex and how through transformation this can be renegotiated so that the energies in the body can be enabled to flow in a more healthy direction. As a Craniosacral Therapist, I have found this work of Peter Levine invaluable in helping me to help my clients to resolve long forgotten traumas which are stopping them from" -- Ann Roden "Every life contains difficulties we are not prepared for. Read, learn, and be prepared for life and healing." --Bernard S. Siegal, author of Love, Medicine, and Miracles "Levine's work is full of wide-ranging implications, rock-solid science and clearly expressed ideas. It is a most important book...quite possibly a work of genius." -- Ron Kurtz, author of The Body Reveals and Body-Centered Psychotherapy |