FINAL THOUGHTS of Mr Levine in ‘Waking the Tiger’ I must confess that the miracles of healing I have seen, make it hard to deny the existence of an innate natural wisdom whose laws provide order in the universe. Any organism, subject to these laws, tracks its way through even the most horrific experiences imaginable….
Oscillating between expansion and contraction Oscillating between the extreme polarities of ‘desire and resist’ generates the rhythm essential for the transformation of trauma. In surrendering to our own needs to feel safe we apparently need to go to the threshold of death’s door. Organisms have evolved wave-like processes to cure the effects of trauma: the…
Transformation Transformation is the process of changing something in relation to its polar opposite. When you transform from a traumatic to a peaceful state, you have to experience it through the felt sense faculty: a nervous system that oscillates between immobility and fluidity, emotions fluctuating between fear and courage, and perceptions shifting between narrow &…
Re-negotiation When re-negotiating trauma we engage the universal law of polarity. This law is used to deliberately swing between the resistance/pain and desire/pleasure feeling states. In moving from the periphery of the experience to the freezing ‘shock core’, the unresolved frozen patterns are neutralized by flexible patterns as the activation is increased. Somatic experiencing is…
Re-enactment The phenomenon that drives the repetition of past traumatic events is called re-enactment. It is the final destination of the downward spiral in the development of trauma symptoms. It represents the organism’s attempt to complete the natural cycle of activation and de-activation that accompanies the response to a threat. Re-enactment is more compelling, more…
Acting IN <> Acting OUT The strategy of internalizing instinctive, defensive procedures is a form of a re-enactment. We could call it ‘acting in’. To commit violence on oneself is the method preferred by our culture for various reasons. One of the positive aspects in the recent escalation of violence ‘acting out’ is that it…
Psychosomatic symptoms Traumatic symptoms not only affect your emotional and mental states, but your physical health as well. When no cause for a physical malady (from Candida Overgrowth?) can be found, stress and trauma are the most likely candidates. Trauma can make someone blind, mute, or deaf; it can cause paralysis in legs, arms, or…
Traumatic anxiety Traumatic anxiety is the aroused state that will not go away. The elements that form traumatic anxiety are: the ceaseless search for the danger, the ongoing sense of danger, the feeling of helplessness, the inability to find it, dissociation, The word ”fear” comes from the old English term for danger. ”Anxious” is derived…
Traumatic Coupling In traumatic coupling, one stimulus is strongly linked to a particular response and together they override normal orienting behaviors. A common example of traumatic coupling occurs when traumatized individuals panic, when sexually aroused. Sexual arousal leads to panic, inability and helplessness rather than intense enjoyment. Some people may believe that they were sexually…
Expurgated Excerpts from Dr. Levine’s book ‘Waking the Tiger’ Part II Trauma Symptoms The first symptoms of trauma usually appear shortly after the event that created them. There is a way to take back control of our bodies that was lost when traumatic effects became chronic. You can deliberately arouse the nervous system and then…
Chronic Helplessness With hyper vigilance there are no normal orienting responses. This has serious ramifications for traumatized people. It will impair their overall ability to function effectively in any situation, not just those that require active defense. A function of the orienting response is to identify new info as we become aware of it. When…
Resilience Of the 4 key components, helplessness is only experienced when you suffered an overwhelming threat to your life. Yet, this profound sense of helplessness is nearly always present in the early stages of ‘overwhelm’ from a traumatic event. When the threat or event is over, the intense helplessness and immobilization effects will wear off,…