Waking The Tiger

From Chapter 3: Wounds That Can Heal

When a young tree is injured it grows around that injury. As the tree continues to develop, the wound becomes relatively small in proportion to the size of the tree. Gnarly burls and misshapen limbs speak of injuries and obstacles encountered through time and overcome. The way a tree grows around its past contributes to its exquisite individuality, character, and beauty. I certainly don t advocate traumatization to build character, but since trauma is almost a given at some point in our lives, the image of the tree can be a valuable mirror.

Although human beings have been experiencing trauma for thousands of years, it is only in the last ten years that it has begun to receive widespread professional and public attention...

Contents
Introduction
Prologue
Giving the Body Its Due
Finding a Method Body and Mind The Body As Healer How To Use This
Book
Section I: The Body As Healer
1. Shadows from a Forgotten Past
Nature s Plan Why Look to the Wild? Trauma is Physiological It s About Energy
2. The Mystery of Trauma
What is Trauma? Chowchilla, California Waking the Tiger: A First Glimmering
3. Wounds That Can Heal
Trauma Is Not a Disease But a Dis-Ease
4. A Strange New Land
Trauma is Not a Life Sentence The Strange New Land Trauma! What We Don t Know Can Hurt Us A Traumatized Person s Reality Get On with Your Life Who Is Traumatized? Causes of Trauma
5. Healing and Community
Shamanic Approaches to Healing Somatic Experiencing® Acknowledging the Need to Heal Let Us Begin Calling the Spirit Back to the Body
6. In Trauma s Reflection
Medusa The Felt Sense Let the Body Speak Its Mind Using The Felt Sense to Listen to the Organism How the Organism Communicates Sensation and the Felt Sense Rhythm: All God s Children Got It
7. The Animal Experience
The Animals Do It Too When the Reptilian Brain Speaks, Listen! One with Nature Attunement The Orienting Response Flee, Fight...or Freeze The Return to Normal Activity Animals as Teachers
8. How Biology Becomes Pathology: Freezing
The Stage is Set Blame It on the Neo-cortex Fear and Immobility As They Go In, So They Come Out Like Death Itself It s a Cumulative Effect How Biology Becomes Pathology
9. How Pathology Becomes Biology: Thawing
Nancy Re-examined: A First Step It s All Energy Marius: A Next Step Renegotiation Somatic Experiencing Gradated Renegotiation Elements of Renegotiation
Section II: Symptoms of Trauma
10. The Core of the Traumatic Reaction
Arousal What Goes Up Must Come Down Trauma is Trauma, No Matter What Caused It/ Exercises The Core of the Traumatic Reaction Hyperarousal Constriction Dissociation/ Exercises

Peter Levine, Ph.D. is the originator and developer of Somatic Experiencing® and the Director of the Foundation for Human Enrichment. He holds doctorate degrees in both Medical Biophysics and Psychology. During his thirty year study of stress and trauma, Dr. Levine has contributed to a variety of scientific, medical, and popular publications. His book, Waking the Tiger: Healing Trauma is in its fifth printing and receiving wide international attention. Peter was a consultant for NASA during the development of the Space Shuttle, and has taught at hospitals and pain clinics in both Europe and the U.S., as well as at the Hopi Guidance Center in Arizona. He lives near Lyons, Colorado, on the banks of the St. Vrain River.

"Every life contains difficulties we are not prepared for. Read, learn, and be prepared for life and healing."
Bernard S. Siegal, M.D., Author of Love, Medicine & Miracles and Peace, Love, and Healing

"Fascinating! Amazing! A revolutionary exploration of the effects and causes of trauma."
Mira Rothenberg, Director Emeritus of Blueberry Treatment Centers for Disturbed Children, Author of Children With Emerald Eyes

"It is a most important book. Quite possibly a work of genius."
Ron Kurtz, Author of Body Reveals and Body-Centered Psychotherapy

"Levine effectively argues that the body is healer and that psychological scars of trauma are reversible but only if we listen to the voices of our body." 
Stephen W. Porges, Ph.D., Professor of Human Development and Psychology, University of Maryland
 
"A vital contribution to the exciting emerging science of mind/body interaction in the treatment of disease."
Robert C. Scaer, M.D., Neurology, Medical Director, Rehabilitation Services, Boulder Community Hospital

"Peter Levine s work is visionary common sense, pure and simple."
Laura Huxley, lifetime partner and collaborator of Aldous Huxley
 
[Waking the Tiger] is an excellent resource for those who have been traumatized or know someone who suffers from trauma, like a soldier returning from war. Finally, there is help that doesn t ask us to relive what happened and re-experience the pain. Instead, it follows the body s wisdom in its search for renewal and healing.
Soaring Again