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Summary: ...a vital contribution...
Review: ...a vital contribution to the exciting emerging science of mind/body interaction in the treatment of disease.
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Summary: A redeeming message for trauma survivors
Review: ...I found "Waking the Tiger" an engrossing approach to the problem of how trauma creates damaging and often enduring symptoms. Dr. Levine's concept of the "freeze response" in the face of overwhelming threat provides a missing link to symptoms such as dissociation that our old ideas of "fight or flight" fail to explain.Even more important to trauma survivors and their therapists is the redeeming message that immobilization in the face of threat is an automatic biological response that is not voluntarily chosen by the victim. This was vividly portrayed in an episode of the TV series "Cagney and Lacey" in which Cagney, a tough and well-trained police officer, becomes the victim of a rape and later struggles with the helplessness she experienced while it was occurring. The January 2003 issue of Clinical Psychiatry News reported that an overwhelming majority of victims of sexual assault describe a moderate or high level of paralysis occurring during the assault, consistent with Dr. Levine's observations. The "freeze response" is also addressed in an article on fear in the March 2003 issue of Discover magazine. Dr. Levine also provides an astute protrayal of the nature of memory by acknowledging that memories are not literal recordings of events but a complex of images that are influenced by arousal, emotional context, and prior experience. Like a painting, memories may even transform over time as new experiences add layers of meaning to the images. While remembering the past can be an important aspect of therapy, appreciating the subjective quality of memories is crucial to integrating them appropriately into the healing process.
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Summary: A Good Companion Book to His Tape Set
Review: After suffering a major life threatening illness several years ago, I've struggled with chronic pain that lasts every day, all day. I've literally seen EVERY specialist, every test conceivable to diagnose let alone treat my pain. I've been left with the conclusion that an inner, holistic manner is the only thing left to treat the pain, because drug treatment leaves me basically in a state better left to those in hospice and who have given up.
Dr. Levine has 30 years experience in dealing with patients suffering severe pain and the overiding factor that the pain interferes with even the most simple aspect of living a normal life.
Waking the Tiger presents case studies that are representative of how pain affects us. Levine gives simple exercises to help break through the web of pain so that we can go about enjoying life again.
I can't just recommend going out and buying this workbook and all your problems and pain will be gone by the time you finish reading it. But it does give you faith in the inner strength we all have to control our pain in conjunction with other treatment. And believe it or not, that inner strength MAY be enough to make the difference between needing to be doped up all the time, not being able to enjoy life.
I recommend Dr Levine's material. I'm not pain free and never will be but I am better because of it.
John Row
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Summary: One of the Best Keys for Healing from Trauma
Review: As a Psychologist specializing in trauma treatment, I can wholeheartedly recommend Peter Levine's book, Waking the Tiger. Peter offers hope and method for people to find healing. His work is a core piece of what I have found helpful in supporting others to heal from trauma. Very helpful for professionals and survivors.
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Summary: Promising is right
Review: As a psychologist with 20+ years experience, I am less than enamored with Peter Levine's work, and here's why:
I realize lately that through many "brief therapy" approaches, both therapists and clients are looking for quick answers to rather complex problems. Those of us who have traditionally done longer term therapy already knew that it wasn't so easy. We also knew - or at least should know if we want to offer hope - that humans have an innate drive toward health, in spite of "trauma." When Levine points out the complexity of trauma, even as an em-bodied experience, he takes a "radical" approach - but really nothing new. Now many therapists and clients are "discovering" the baby that was thrown out with the bathwater. I give Levine credit for re-opening our eyes, but, frankly, this in not new material. Real growth producing therapy is a broad endeavor, not a six session "technique"....
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Summary: Read, learn, and be prepared for life and healing.
Review: Every life contains difficulties we are not prepared for. Read, learn, and be prepared for life and healing.
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Summary: Overturning Ingrained Misconception
Review: I give this book five stars for two key points, one of which I almost missed near the end of the book and in a single sentence. The first winning point is his criticizm of how we treat people who are traumatized. We leave them alone, thinking they just need time. Time does not, as we are taught, heal all wounds and many of us have waited decades for that misconception to kick in and become real. First Aid for trauma is crucial. If you think you or someone in your family might encounter trauma at least once in their life, you might want to be prepared to help. This book will teach you much about trauma. The second winning point states simply that our memories were never intended for reliving and recalling trauma ad infinitum. I had to stop wonder what I was taught about memory. Does this sound familiar: "Don't make me remind you again or I'll give you something you'll never forget!"? Mix that with the pressure in school to remember stuff for testing and grades leading to success or failure before the whole world. How many of us developed memory skills in fear? It's little wonder our brains can incubate a memory that can become strong enough to just take over... bigger than godzilla! That insight deserves 5 stars because I then realized that I have a brain as I have a foot, but I am more than a collection of parts and bigger than any one of them that isn't working properly. This book quietly flipped a switch and the light bulb came on so I could see that my poor brain was killing itself trying to perfectly remember events that the rest of me would like to forget. I give my brain an E for effort, but I am retraining it now; and I can say, "thanks, brain, but no thanks. I'm too busy too think about that right now. And you don't have to remember this to remind me later, either because I have a better idea. Want to hear it?"
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Summary: Exciting and Promising Material for Trauma Healing
Review: I just logged on to order yet another copy of "Waking the Tiger", a thoroughly invaluable book which I am constantly recommending to friends, colleagues and clients. This groundbreaking book that has permanently altered the way I approach therapy, trauma, and the body. "Waking the Tiger" completes an essential piece that has been missing in therapeutic and medical practices, namely that trauma is not in the event or the story, but in the nervous system. Dr Levine, through his research and vast clinical experience, has discovered how so many common physical ailments and so-called medically untreatable syndromes are actually residues of thwarted trauma reactions incurred during routine surgical procedures, falls, perinatal stress and other childhood accidents and traumas. He shows us how the body has a natural and innate, and seemingly miraculous, capacity to heal once these reactions are understood and guided. It is a very exciting and empowering book, and offers new hope and common sense explanations to people who have up to this time been unable to understand their symptoms or to find relief.
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Summary: Much needed
Review: I purchased this book (along with a few others on the subject) initially because I was interested in the topic.
Not a medical person or psychiatrist of any sort, I just thought it was something that I would enjoy looking into. For those that know how the subconscious works, you'll appreciate the fact that I discovered that I was a victim of PTSD while delving into the subject. It was as if the universe was trying to tell me something. All I can say is that it opened my eyes and changed my life in ways I never knew possible. For those interested in fiction dealing with a topic along these lines (and also Dissociative Identity Disorder) I would recommend reading a book called "Bark of the Dogwood" by Jackson McCrae. It's an intricate study of PTSD, child abuse, dysfunction, and a little of everything else, and packs quite a wallop. And it's actually quite funny in places--probably the ONLY book I know of about child abuse that has a bright side.
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Summary: Extremely Helpful for Trauma Survivors
Review: I'm the webmaster of PTSD Today. I found this book too be very helpful for me in understanding my own PTSD. It has exercises all through the book. The books's focus is on the trauma suvivor and healing and it does just that. I recommend this book to other survivors.
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