“Waking the Tiger, Healing Trauma” Peter A. Levine Book Review by Seneca Denise Malone, M.A.

In “Waking the Tiger, Healing Trauma”, Peter A. Levine takes an in-depth look at trauma. Levine is a renowned expert in trauma therapy. He uses modern neuroscience and age old practices to make a strong about the body’s natural capability to recover from traumatic experiences. This book gives an extensive understanding of trauma and provides practical tools for individual healing journeys. It includes profound wisdom about awakening the body’s inherent healing capacity.

The author explains that trauma is not so much about the triggering event, but more about how the body reacts to extreme stress. Understanding this helps to simplify what trauma really means and eliminates its associated stigmas. Levine explains how physical reactions become stored in the body after experiencing trauma and these can persist long after the initial encounter.

He goes on to spotlight instinctual processes that are activated during traumatic events by using observations from human behavior and wildlife behaviors as examples. Wild animals have built in systems to dispel energy produced during dangerous situations, whereas humans usually repress these instinctual responses due to societal norms or interference by thoughts. Such repression can trap energy inside our bodies, resulting in…