Healing Trauma: A Pioneering Program for Restoring the Wisdom of Your Body Paperback – October 1, 2008

This is truly a healing book. I wish I knew of it sooner. I think it can be useful to anyone who has had some sort of trauma in their life -big or small. You don't realize how life's events can effect you down the road. I actually was recommended this book after I started seeing someone after my mother's sudden death. But it is so much more and I find it is useful dealing with my PTSD from a prior car accident, too.What I like most about this book is how easy it is to read. The author has a way of writing that gets to the point and makes complicated issues quickly understandable. This book is a healing gift to yourself. I got the book with the CD version and I would agree with other reviews that the kindle version without the CD would not be the same. Plus the price for this kind of help is unbeatable!

I discovered somatic after going through some trauma and realized I needed help and not talk therapy but something more. This book comes with downloadable audio exercises and they do go deep. Just be cautious and ready for any emotions and memories to come up. They may come suddenly without warning, but do not stop until they have passed so that you can release that stored trauma.If you want to go slower and deeper than Peter and check out Irene Lyon and her Smart Body, Smart Mind online course, she is trained by Peter and other big names and she has a beautiful online course that is well worth the money because she gives you all the medical info and information and leaves out the spiritual and she really knows her stuff. Check out her YouTube and blog. I currently am in the program and its doing wonders.

This small book, has a large and important content, being pioneering how to heal trauma on any level. The book gives you in deep examples how trauma can get locked in the body and how you can unlock it, giving the body the awareness it needs and deserves. This is a must read for any person who has or has had a traumatic experience, consciously or subconsciously. Also, a must for any therapist working in this field.

In my 5 years of dedication to healing through PTSD, from childhood trauma into adult independence, I have never experienced struggling harder than through Somatic Experiencing & Dr. Levine's practices here. This has been much harder than in previous times, and a much slower process. I share this for anyone who may be in self-doubt or doubt of Dr. Levine's work, to reassure you that the effort is hard but it's worth it.My biggest problem is moving from my head into my body, however, I am slowly climbing mountains- and Dr. Levine's work is unique, unlike any other approach I've experienced. It's not easy and it's not supposed to be easy. Somatic Experiencing focuses directly on the work that needs to be done. To care about your body enough to go through mundane, extremely simple exercises and be dedicated.In 3 years I had been to 13 different doctors in fields of psychology and neurology. I had only a few good experiences, and only in finding Somatic Experiencing have I discovered something radically different. It reminds me of what I learned in overcoming a visceral, biological anti-needle reaction. Your brain doesn't change until your body does.It's not perfect, it's not easy, you may have the greatest doubts and least faith in the midst of these exercises. It might feel boring and uneventful, as if you are doing nothing and it doesn't feel traumatic or even real. But that is just part of how it is, when we are numb, stuck off, unaware, or stuck on, blind. There is no "wrong" way to do these exercises. At first I could feel that I was bad at them somehow, and I had to just keep doing it poorly to get through those bad parts and get better. Doing it poorly was freeing enough that it allowed me to get better. The difficulty of these exercises helped me realize that I don't have to have high standards or be so great at achieving this healing, I can take it much slower. For much of my life, I have been able to lean on my over-active mind as a crutch, a spontaneous creator. But to really learn, I have to struggle. It has to be uncomfortable.I would recommend these exercises to anyone struggling to get out of repetitious habits, addictions, or struggling to gain autonomy & willpower.

I just ordered this book a little over a week ago, and when I read the reviews, I was a little worried that the book would come without a way to listen to the exercises. When I received the book, it did NOT have a CD with it, and at first I could not find the online link to the audio exercises. After a little searching, I found the link to the audio exercises at the very bottom of the book's "Contents" page (soundstrue dot com forward slash healingtrama).As the author recommends, read the front portion of the book BEFORE you do the exercises, and seek therapy if the exercises bring up strong emotional/physical reactions.FYI - If you look at the page opposite the the book's "Contents" page, you will see a box that says, "Medical Alert" (bottom of page). In that box it gives you a website where you can find a trauma competent therapist who understands the exercises in this book. The book inaccurately lists the website as being a dot com website. The correct website is a dot org website.I plan to go through all 12 exercises slowly as the author recommends (Currently on exercise 3). As I start each trauma exercise I plan to continue to practice the prior exercises while incorporating one new exercise at a time. The author seems to hint to that being helpful anyway. I am also listening to the book, "The Body Keeps Score" for a second time.I am hopeful the exercises in this book are what I have needed all along as I did not realize how disconnected my mind and body were until I started doing the exercises. I have always left my talk therapy sessions feeling like, "Well that's money I can't get back." And, "I still feel empty, sad, and anxious. Why won't they help me?" I always thought maybe I picked the wrong therapist, but no matter what therapist I went to, I left feeling the same way.Hope and healing for all of us...