A Pioneering Program for Restoring the Wisdom of Your Body

As a therapist, I can recommend this book to others. It has many useful exercises you can do with clients (if you so choose). The basic dynamics of trauma are explained so it could be useful in identifying trauma symptoms and confirming a mental health diagnosis.

No audio download with the download for the Kindle book which I paid full price for. The book without the audio CD is only have the package. Hard copy and paperback both come with the CD. Would it be too much to have the entire package?

The content of this book is excellent. However, a significant part of the information relies on a CD with specific exercises. I recommend if you purchase this that you buy it as a new book NOT Kindle.

Peter Levine is a brilliant man and I really like his work. I only gave this book three stars, not because of the written content, but because when I received the book it was lacking the promised CD that comes with it. That was a slip on the suppliers end that I really didn't appreciate, because the reason I bought this book in the first place was to do the exercises that are on the CD.

This is such a good book. Peter Levine explains things in a way that I really understood. Coming from a background of growing up in a cult, this book helped me so much with so many of my reactions. By reactions, I mean also non-reactions. Numbness, wanting to run, etc. When I have had therapists instantly try to put me on medication, this book gets to the root of that place in me that hasn't been visited for a long time. Now mind you, I am a successful, fun and some people would think, well adjusted person. But there has been a deadness to me that goes from coldness to over reacting when my intuition spikes. I am usually right which is what is difficult, but my reactions have been overblown at time for the situation. Or - I maybe shouldn't have gotten myself into the situation in the first place, possibly "acting out the trauma"? Not totally sure yet, still learning but I am using this as an addition to therapy, meditation and exercise. Thanks for reading my stream of consciousness. Just know that you will have some pretty powerful "a-hah" moments when you read (or listen to the audible) of this book. If you've truly had trauma, I think this will resonate with you. Sending you good thoughts.

Two years ago, I suffered respiratory failure. I was placed in a coma and paralysis for five weeks in hopes to prevent brain death / death. I lived, but have suffered an atrophied muscles, osteoporosis ( I'm a 50 year old male) and neural damage and since the trauma, I have suffered tremendous pain throughout my body. So far, no doctor, no medical testing have been able to relieve the pain or even find a cause.
I truly was contemplating suicide. My only alternative was to see if I could control the pain with my mind.
On the advise of a counselor, I borrowed this eight tape set. No matter what you have had happened to cause the trauma, I sincerely recommend this tape series! Peter Levine has a series of exercises and case studies that in some manner will be able to help victims of trauma to relieve the pain emotionally or physically.
I can't promise you 100% relief. But the series helped me.
The tape series describes some of Levine's cases, the trauma and the aftermath for each patient. What I found was (despite what the trauma was) that the patients thoughts and healing processes were appropriate to what I felt in my own situation.
I wouldn't suggest that the tape series is the stand alone cure for the traumatic incidents in everyone's lives. But, would HIGHLY recommend it as a helpful tool in conjunction with other treatment, be it medical or mental health.
I listen to these tapes when I need some extra emotional support to get through especially painful times.
John Row

Book comes w cd's for guided meditations but kindle version doesn't nor is it clear when u buy the kindle version that the cd's are necessary part of the package. So kindle version a waste of money. Buy physical book.

Healing Trauma
By Peter A. Levine, PhD
ISBN 978-1-59179-658-9 (Sounds True, 2008)
Peter A. Levine, PhD, author of Waking the Tiger, spent 35 years studying the effects of trauma on the body. In Healing Trauma, he has written a slim companion book to the first book, describing his 12-phase trauma-recovery program and providing an audio CD of his somatic experiencing exercises.
This book may be useful for those who have experienced a minor trauma and who would like to try using Levine's techniques. However, for those with a more complex trauma history (multiple losses or an abuse history), I recommend this book and CD be used in conjunction with therapy, as the techniques are oversimplified in the book.

Rahasya Poe, Lotus Guide Magazine and Author of "To Believe Or Not To Believe: The Social & Neurological Consequences of Belief Systems"

I am a wholistic health and energy management practitioner. Any food or supplement or reading I use that I consider important to my mental, physical, emotional, spiritual health is tested energetically for the “truth” and integration of it before my consumption. I have no life to waste on careless consumption in these realms. My recommendations reflect this process. Levine is the trauma resolution expert. This manual is appropriate for anyone desiring the release from the burdens of traumatic residual in their life.

As a mindfulness based psychotherapist, author and teacher, I found the advice in this book to be very helpful. I find that when such good strategies as presented here are combined with mindfulness meditation, which provides a way of of establishing a healthy, non-reactive inner therapeutic space in which difficult emotions, depression, anxiety and trauma can heal. If you would like to couple this sound advice with the healing power of mindfulness, then I also recommend 'The Path of Mindfulness Meditation' available through the store.

Everything I know and have experienced about trauma, meditation and the healing process has been magnified a thousand fold in reading Peter Levine's book, Healing Trauma. One of the most helpful aspects of this book is that it is a short-read, and is written in simple language with an accompanying CD of exercises. The author walks you through a step by step process, clearly and resonantly illumining the path of, "Restoring the wisdom of your body."

This is an excellent book for professionals working in the area of mental and emotional health who want to better understand trauma and it effects, and how to work with people to support them in releasing trauma. It is easy to read and understand, is very well researched and has a step by step process for healing trauma. It is the most informed book I have read on this topic that has minimal information and understanding in the area of health, and in society in general. It is written with compassion and understanding of the complex experience of trauma and if someone working in the health field, or a client asks me about an easy to read and most helpful book to assist their understanding of the experience and healing process of trauma this would be the first book that would come to my mind. Peter Levine has presented a ground breaking piece of work that will make a difference for anyone who wants to heal their trauma or support others through the healing process. If you work in this field I believe it is essential reading and I thank Peter Levine for sharing his knowledge and wisdom.

In an early chapter about compulsive repeating, the author doesn't prevent me from getting re-traumatized by discribing a deeply traumatic experience of a vietnam-veteran in each and every detail without this being in any way necessary for explaining the point of compulsive repeating. Trust was gone, and as I read in one of the recessions that there are seemingly more "examples" like this, I'm not sure yet if, and if yes, in what way, I want to read on. This far, only one star. Or maybe two.

Bought this book and as an adult survivor of childhood abuse found this book extremely helpful. It was especially good in helping with body memories and re-establishing protective boundaries - both integral to the ongoing healing process. Highly recommended.

This set of cassettes/CDs is an excellent introduction to Somatic Experiencing. Since I have already read 2 books by Dr. Levine, I was looking for more exercises to address trauma. Most of the cassettes are informational.

I had the fortune to train with Peter Levine last month. I am a psychologist and Levine's training was the best I have ever attended. I have found his work to be quite powerful. The audio program has really helped me to understand how he works. The exercises and suggestions as well as case examples are all helpful.

What a disappointment this learning course was! First of all, it's just too long, too tedious and repetitive, and in serious need of a major edit and re-mix. There are some good ideas intended to be presented here, and sometimes they actually work--like on the third disk, with the presentation of the story of Marius, a young man who had been attacked and bitten by a pack of dogs as a child, and who undergoes the process of healing his trauma and reclaiming his personal power. The rest of the course, however, fails to impress or deliver.
For the most part, it is overly cerebral and conceptual. And the exercises are too general and contrived to be personally useful. Since most trauma healing is a deeply emotional and personal process, I would have liked to see healing exercises that were more open-ended and allowed for the listener's own imagination to wander to its own destinations, and come to its own conclusions, rather than to be told where to go, which "herd"of animals to travel in, how to feel, and how and when to resolve its own traumatic experience. Thumbs down for me.

You start this book thinking that this is the reason why I'm suffering but the techniques he created don't seem to work at all. They look artificial and you get an instinctive feeling that they're not gonna work, and for me they really don't seem to have an effect. I'd suggest you go to a Rosen Method practioner. This method has scientific evidence of how it works and seems to cure everyone's stuck feelings who has tried it.

I was introduced to the work of Peter Levine several years ago with his book "Waking the Tiger" so was very interested to see his most recent work. After reading it and listening to the CD I have been pleasantly surprised by its impact. As a psychologist treating people who have been traumatised I find the work challenging and sometimes difficult due to vicarious traumatisation. His book and CD will not only be a useful resource for my clients but will assist me to stay healthy while I help others. Highly recommended.