Quotes from Peter A. Levine

The key to completing this uncompleted immobility response lies in uncoupling our fear from the response itself. This allows the stuck energy to be freed up for use wherever it is needed within the body.

They may avoid any activity, person or other reminder that resembles what originally frightened them.

Another activity to keep your child from being stuck in the past is the drawing exercise below, designed to give your child a sense of the movement of time.

We have a lot going for us; we can conquer our fears. With the full use of our highly developed ability to think and perceive, we can, through the felt sense, consciously move out of the trauma response.

Or they might struggle with agitation, hyperactivity, nightmares or sleeplessness. Such symptoms can try one's patience, especially when caregivers don't have a clue what is causing their child to behave in such unpredictable and disturbing ways.

steam-rolling over a younger, weaker child or pet.

For someone who's been traumatized, that feeling of balance and wholeness is such a surprise, it can cause an "identity crisis." We don't recognize ourselves because we're no longer filled with shame and fear and collapse.

Another signal may be shunning people and things they used to enjoy. Or your child may try to control his environment and the people around him in order to manage unbearable anxiety.

Here we see the transition between traumatic re-enactment and healing play. The next time he held on to mommy, there was less clinging and more excited jumping.

Getraumatiseerde individuen zitten tussen de wal en het schip, gevangen in het slechtste van twee werelden. Op het ene moment worden ze overspoeld door dwingende emoties als verschrikking, woede en schaamte, het andere moment zijn ze afgesloten van alles, vervreemd van een op het gevoel gebaseerde instinctieve gronding. Het gevolg is dat ze niet ervaren dat het leven zin heeft en geen koers kunnen uitzetten.

The power of goodness—in this case, the organism's innate capacity to restore itself to health and balance—is encouraged by a bystander, an empathetic witness who helps to prevent trauma by embodying kindness and acceptance.

help to create an environment of relative safety, an atmosphere that conveys refuge, hope and possibility.

The highly regarded neurologist Antonio Damasio, author of Descartes' Error and The Feeling of What Happens, discovered that emotions literally have an anatomical mapping in the brain necessary for survival.4 That is to say the emotion of fear has a very specific neural circuitry etched in the brain corresponding to specific physical sensations from various parts of the body.

When we reclaim our enthusiasm for life, we are drawing closer to God, becoming more spiritual.

This feeling comes from inside you and is projected out to your child.

Traumatized adults often re-enact an event that in some way represents, at least to their unconscious, the original trauma.

An open-ended question invites curiosity.

The third noble truth holds that suffering can be transformed and healed.

you have practiced the exercises, you realize that with time, intention, safety and awareness, unpleasant sensations do and will change.

However, when that same child experiences the triumph of moving out of the fear and frozenness back into life, a very special kind of self-confidence blossoms—the newfound feelings of resiliency and capability.

who have been traumatized, this can be a monumental leap of faith, but we can recover from trauma; indeed, my experience assisting others to heal from trauma has shown me this recovery is innate.

The time it takes to establish a sense of calm is time well spent.

Your composure will greatly reduce the likelihood of frightening or confusing your child further. Remember, children are very sensitive to the emotional states of adults, particularly their parents.

Children who are encouraged to attend to their instinctual responses are rewarded with a lifelong legacy of health and vigor.