The Innate Capacity to Transform Overwhelming Experiences: Waking the Tiger: Healing Trauma

ContentsIntroductionPrologueGiving the Body Its Due Finding a Method • Body and Mind • The Body As Healer • How To Use This BookSection I: The Body As Healer1. Shadows from a Forgotten PastNature’s Plan • Why Look to the Wild? • Trauma is Physiological • It’s About Energy2. The Mystery of TraumaWhat is Trauma? • Chowchilla, California • Waking the Tiger: A First Glimmering3. Wounds That Can HealTrauma Is Not a Disease But a Dis-Ease4. A Strange New LandTrauma is Not a Life Sentence • The Strange New Land • Trauma! • What We Don’t Know Can Hurt Us • A Traumatized Person’s Reality • Get On with Your Life • Who Is Traumatized? • Causes of Trauma5. Healing and CommunityShamanic Approaches to Healing • Somatic Experiencing® • Acknowledging the Need to Heal • Let Us Begin—Calling the Spirit Back to the Body6. In Trauma’s ReflectionMedusa • The Felt Sense • Let the Body Speak Its Mind • Using The Felt Sense to Listen to the Organism • How the Organism Communicates • Sensation and the Felt Sense • Rhythm: All God’s Children Got It7. The Animal ExperienceThe Animals Do It Too • When the Reptilian Brain Speaks, Listen! • One with Nature • Attunement • The Orienting Response • Flee, Fight…or Freeze • The Return to Normal Activity • Animals as Teachers8. How Biology Becomes Pathology: FreezingThe Stage is Set • Blame It on the Neo-cortex • Fear and Immobility • “As They Go In, So They Come Out” • Like Death Itself • It’s a Cumulative Effect • How Biology Becomes Pathology 9. How Pathology Becomes Biology: ThawingNancy Re-examined: A First Step • It’s All Energy • Marius: A Next Step • Renegotiation • Somatic Experiencing—Gradated Renegotiation • Elements of RenegotiationSection II: Symptoms of Trauma10. The Core of the Traumatic ReactionArousal—What Goes Up Must Come Down • Trauma is Trauma, No Matter What Caused It/ Exercises • The Core of the Traumatic Reaction • Hyperarousal • Constriction • Dissociation/ Exercises • Helplessness • And Then There Was Trauma11. Symptoms of TraumaSymptoms of Trauma • And Around and Around We Go • Out of the Loop12. A Traumatized Person’s RealityThe Threat That Can’t Be Found • Mrs. Thayer • Can’t Synthesize New Information/Can’t Learn • Chronic Helplessness • Traumatic Coupling • Traumatic Anxiety • Psychosomatic Symptoms • Denial • Gladys • What Trauma Survivors Expect • The Last TurnSection III: Transformation and Renegotiation13. Blueprint for RepetitionRe-enactment • July 5th, 6:30 in the Morning • The Vital Role of Awareness • Jack • Patterns of Shock • Without Awareness We Have No Choice • Re-enactment Versus Renegotiation • In the Theater of the body • Post Script: How Far in Time and Space?14. TransformationTwo Faces of Trauma • Heaven, Hell and Healing: A Middle Ground • Let it Flow—Renegotiation • Margaret • What Really Happened? • Renegotiation and Re-enactment • What is Memory? • Brain and Memory • But It Seems So Real! • But I’m Proud to Be a Survivor • The Courage to Feel • Desire and Healing • With a Little Help from Our Friends15. The Eleventh Hour: Transforming Societal Trauma The Animal Approach to Aggression • Human Aggression • Why Do Humans Kill, Maim and Torture One Another? • Circle of Trauma, Circle of Grace, Transforming Cultural Trauma • Epilogue or Epitaph? • Nature Is No FoolSection IV: First Aid for Trauma16. Administering (Emotional) First Aid After an AccidentFollowing an Automobile Accident • Scenario of Healing17. First Aid for ChildrenDelayed Traumatic Reactions • First Aid for Accidents and Falls • Resolving a Traumatic Reaction • How Can I Tell If My Child Has Been Traumatized? • Sammy—A Case History • Traumatic Play, Re-enactment, and Renegotiation • Key Principles for Renegotiating Trauma with ChildrenEpilogue: Three Brains, One MindIndex