niinjah's review against another edition
5.0
This is a very informative book that I found useful (and working as a psychologist I'm always looking for books that might help me with helping others). It has many examples and exercises you can use on your own, and I also like how he compares our reactions to those of other animals. There are also some great case studies in the book, that demonstrates eloquently what he means when he explains the theory behind the treatment. An essential book for all trauma therapists!
kat_pines's review against another edition
5.0
This book and CD are amazing. The hairs on the back of my neck stood up as I read. It made me appreciate that my difficulties stem not from being a lazy or bad person but from having a body trying to protect me, and a body with stuck energy. The exercises work. Truly life changing.
morgan_blackledge's review against another edition
4.0
Healing Trauma: Restoring the Wisdom of Your Body is a brief introduction to Dr. Peter Levine's research, theory and clinical work in assisting recovery from PTSD symptoms.
Somatic Experiencing is the clinical modality based on Dr. Levine's theory and research.
Somatic Experiencing differs from conventional talk therapy. Rather than linguistically interpreting the trauma and reframing the event in a more adaptive way (cognitive restructuring and narrative integration).
Somatic Experiencing facilitates a "direct" experience of the trauma symptoms as body sensations via (a) systematic imaginal exposure coupled with (b) mindful awareness of emotionally significant body sensations, and (c) guided modulation and long term retraining of dysregulated body states.
In other words, rather than sitting around and talking about the trama, the client lays down on a massage table and re-creates the trumatic event in their imagination while being guided to "feel their feelings in their body" and "discharge" (i.e. down regulate) the feelings via "pendulating" (i.e. alternating between focusing awareness on the intense dysregulated body sensations and neutral body sensations).
To all you psychotherapist out there, if this sounds a whole lot like systematic desensitization via imaginal exposure coupled with somatically oriented mindfull awareness and grounding techniques, than I think you're dead on.
I'd say the major differences are that Somatic Experiencing clinicians use touch, posture and proximity in a way that is more closely related to physical therapy or bodywork.
Somatic Experiencing is based on the assumption that trauma symptoms are the result of a chronic dysregulation of the autonomic nervous system (ANS) brought on by chronic or acute traumatic exposure.
According to Dr. Levine's research, mammals automatically regulate ANS survival responses by spontaneously "discharging" excess energy via involuntary movements such as shaking and deep spontaneous breaths after exposure to a survival challenge. Humans inhibit this discharge process due to enculturation and rational thinking processes.
In other words; we humans inhibit our natural emotional regulation because we're all up in our heads and generally freaked out by our own vulnerability and mortality and because we're scared to show our vulnerability (e.g. trembling and crying) after a threatening event because we're afraid other people will think we can't keep our shit together. So we bottle up all of our trauma feelings and over time we get all fucked up by it.
Somatic Experiencing attempts to restore our inherent mammalian capacity to self-regulate by retraining the individual to more skillfully release the energy stored in the body, during and after a traumatic event.
In other words, Somatic Experiencing trains you to (a) get out of your head and into your body, and (b) barf out all the toxic, pent-up trauma energy, and eventually (c) retrain your nervous system so that you don't bottle that shit up anymore.
Warning: it's important to note that Somatic Experiencing lacks sufficient randomized control trials to validate its efficacy compared to other "gold standard" trauma treatments such as Prolonged Exposure.
Additionally, there are few to no exclusively distinct features of the Somatic Experiencing model that are not otherwise represented in other empirically validated therapies for trauma.
If your curious, I recommend this program as a primer on the theory and model. But before you drink the cool aid. Remember that there are other, more thoroughly researched, evidence based trauma treatments that should be considered as a primary course of treatment for PTSD.
If you buy this program, be forwarded, it leaves the stratosphere (in the bad way) in some of the final chapters. What began as clinically sound(ish), theoretically plausible(ish) assertions morph into new age(ish) theoretical hokum faster than you can say "angle-dust".
I love the somatically oriented approach. But the field needs an update hella bad. For a much more sound overview of the current state of the art in trauma treatment, read Dr. Basil Van Der Kolk's The Body Keeps Score. It's fruity enough to slake your thirst for rainbow skittle flavored cool aid, while remaining substantial enough to satiate your hunger for meat and potatoes.
In the end Somatic Experiencing is redeemable because it's (a) big hearted and (b) an effective trauma treatment for a lot of people (myself included). But the science really needs to step into this century.
Somatic Experiencing is the clinical modality based on Dr. Levine's theory and research.
Somatic Experiencing differs from conventional talk therapy. Rather than linguistically interpreting the trauma and reframing the event in a more adaptive way (cognitive restructuring and narrative integration).
Somatic Experiencing facilitates a "direct" experience of the trauma symptoms as body sensations via (a) systematic imaginal exposure coupled with (b) mindful awareness of emotionally significant body sensations, and (c) guided modulation and long term retraining of dysregulated body states.
In other words, rather than sitting around and talking about the trama, the client lays down on a massage table and re-creates the trumatic event in their imagination while being guided to "feel their feelings in their body" and "discharge" (i.e. down regulate) the feelings via "pendulating" (i.e. alternating between focusing awareness on the intense dysregulated body sensations and neutral body sensations).
To all you psychotherapist out there, if this sounds a whole lot like systematic desensitization via imaginal exposure coupled with somatically oriented mindfull awareness and grounding techniques, than I think you're dead on.
I'd say the major differences are that Somatic Experiencing clinicians use touch, posture and proximity in a way that is more closely related to physical therapy or bodywork.
Somatic Experiencing is based on the assumption that trauma symptoms are the result of a chronic dysregulation of the autonomic nervous system (ANS) brought on by chronic or acute traumatic exposure.
According to Dr. Levine's research, mammals automatically regulate ANS survival responses by spontaneously "discharging" excess energy via involuntary movements such as shaking and deep spontaneous breaths after exposure to a survival challenge. Humans inhibit this discharge process due to enculturation and rational thinking processes.
In other words; we humans inhibit our natural emotional regulation because we're all up in our heads and generally freaked out by our own vulnerability and mortality and because we're scared to show our vulnerability (e.g. trembling and crying) after a threatening event because we're afraid other people will think we can't keep our shit together. So we bottle up all of our trauma feelings and over time we get all fucked up by it.
Somatic Experiencing attempts to restore our inherent mammalian capacity to self-regulate by retraining the individual to more skillfully release the energy stored in the body, during and after a traumatic event.
In other words, Somatic Experiencing trains you to (a) get out of your head and into your body, and (b) barf out all the toxic, pent-up trauma energy, and eventually (c) retrain your nervous system so that you don't bottle that shit up anymore.
Warning: it's important to note that Somatic Experiencing lacks sufficient randomized control trials to validate its efficacy compared to other "gold standard" trauma treatments such as Prolonged Exposure.
Additionally, there are few to no exclusively distinct features of the Somatic Experiencing model that are not otherwise represented in other empirically validated therapies for trauma.
If your curious, I recommend this program as a primer on the theory and model. But before you drink the cool aid. Remember that there are other, more thoroughly researched, evidence based trauma treatments that should be considered as a primary course of treatment for PTSD.
If you buy this program, be forwarded, it leaves the stratosphere (in the bad way) in some of the final chapters. What began as clinically sound(ish), theoretically plausible(ish) assertions morph into new age(ish) theoretical hokum faster than you can say "angle-dust".
I love the somatically oriented approach. But the field needs an update hella bad. For a much more sound overview of the current state of the art in trauma treatment, read Dr. Basil Van Der Kolk's The Body Keeps Score. It's fruity enough to slake your thirst for rainbow skittle flavored cool aid, while remaining substantial enough to satiate your hunger for meat and potatoes.
In the end Somatic Experiencing is redeemable because it's (a) big hearted and (b) an effective trauma treatment for a lot of people (myself included). But the science really needs to step into this century.
mlindner's review against another edition
Restarted 14 March 2019. Had got to p. 46 and got to p. 32. Restarted & finished 10 January 2021.
More...