Quotes from Peter A. Levine

glazed eyes, pale skin, rapid or shallow pulse and breathing, disorientation, appears overly emotional or overly tranquil, i.e., acting like nothing has happened),

Providing a minute or two of silence between questions allows deeply restorative physiological cycles to engage.

Examples of signs include a deep, relaxed, spontaneous breath, the cessation of crying or trembling, a stretch, a yawn, a smile or the making of eye contact.

Children are comforted and empowered by knowing that it won't hurt forever and that you will stay with them until they begin to feel more like themselves again.

Just like the splint sets a broken arm properly, your undivided attention and soothing, non-judgmental language set the conditions for your child, in his or her own time, to rebound to a healthy sense of well-being.

Sometimes their "brave face" is an attempt to reduce the anxiety of a bewildered parent.

By tending to yourself first, paradoxically, you are in a better position to tend to your child. When you can feel your center, can notice that your breath slows down and you experience the fluidity of changing sensations, you have moved out of a momentary "freeze." Your energy is now available to pay close attention to your child's needs and expression. In this way you will naturally circumvent complicating your child's reactions with your own.

Who we are being is more important than what we are doing.

wild animal would following a frightful encounter with a predator. What ethologists call tonic immobility—the paralysis and physical/emotional shutdown that characterize the universal experience of helplessness in the face of mortal danger—comes to dominate the person's life and functioning.

The critical idea here is that when we are vulnerable, we benefit most from feeling a connection with a calm person who is confident of what to do and is able to convey a sense of safety and compassion. Your child will feel safe if he knows that you are strong enough to withstand (contain) his shock without becoming overwhelmed yourself.

This is in direct relationship to nature's pendulum. We also resolve overwhelm through the natural cycles of expansion and contraction. This tells us that no matter how badly we are feeling right now, this contraction will be followed by an expansion toward freedom.

One of my clients, while working through his childhood abuse at the hands of "barrio" gang members, said it this way: "I don't have to justify my experience with memories any more.

The "talking cure" for trauma survivors should give way to the unspoken voice of the silent, but strikingly powerful, bodily expressions as they surface to "sound off" on behalf of the wisdom of the deeper self.