Stress Management, Alternative Medicine, Physiological Aspects, Psychotherapy, TA & NLP 

Authors Peter A. Levine with Ann Frederick assert that trauma and post-traumatic stress are rooted mainly in the body, and that healing from trauma requires repairing the relationship between the body and the mind. The first section overviews the physiology of trauma – humans and animals “freeze up” when exposed to life-threatening situations, but whereas animals allow the energy created by that immobility response to pass through them and then carry on as normal, humans’ advanced brains and culture prevent the human body from processing that energy, and so it remains, causing symptoms of post-traumatic stress. The second section describes these symptoms in detail, the third provides ideas about how to process and integrate trauma, and the fourth is a crash course on trauma first aid, the steps one can take after a traumatic event to healthily release energy and prevent post-traumatic stress symptoms.