A straightforward and drug-free approach to dealing with trauma and behavioral disorders, this book presents simple first aid tools to help prevent traumatic reactions from developing in the aftermath of overwhelm and injury. Thoroughly investigated, this work is based upon the author's years of work with numerous stress and trauma victims. Illustrations Now in 24 languages. Nature's Lessons in Healing Trauma... Waking the Tiger offers a new and hopeful vision of trauma. It views the human animal as a unique being, endowed with an instinctual capacity. It asks and answers an intriguing question: why are animals in the wild, though threatened routinely, rarely traumatized? By understanding the dynamics that make wild animals virtually immune to traumatic symptoms, the mystery of human trauma is revealed. Waking the Tiger normalizes the symptoms of trauma and the steps needed to heal them. People are often traumatized by seemingly ordinary experiences. The reader is taken on a guided tour of the subtle, yet powerful impulses that govern our responses to overwhelming life events. To do this, it employs a series of exercises that help us focus on bodily sensations. Through heightened awareness of these sensations trauma can be healed. Introduction 1(4) Prologue Giving the Body Its Due 5(8) Finding a Method Body and Mind The Body As Healer How To Use This Book Section I: The Body As Healer 13(114) 1. Shadows from a Forgotten Past 13(10) Nature's Plan Why Look to the Wild? Trauma is Physiological It's About Energy 2. The Mystery of Trauma 23(10) What is Trauma? Chowchilla, California Waking the Tiger: A First Glimmering 3. Wounds That Can Heal Trauma Is Not a Disease But a Dis-Ease 33(8) 4. A Strange New Land 41(16) Trauma 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 Trauma 5. Healing and Community 57(8) Shamanic Approaches to Healing Somatic Experiencing(R) Acknowledging the Need to Heal Let Us Begin--Calling the Spirit Back to the Body 6. In Trauma's Reflection 65(20) Medusa 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 It 7. The Animal Experience 85(14) The 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 Animal as Teachaers 8. How Biology Becomes Pathology: Freezing 99(10) The Stage is Set Blame It on the Neocortex 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: Thawing 109(18) Nancy Re-examined: A First Step It's All Energy Marius: A Next Step Renegotiation Somatic Experiencing--Gradated Renegotiation Elements of Renegotiation Section II: Symptoms of Trauma 127(46) 10. The Core of the Traumatic Reaction 127(18) Arousal--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 Trauma 11. Symptoms of Trauma 145(10) Symptoms of Trauma And Around and Around We Go Out of the Loop 12. A Traumatized Person's Reality 155(18) The 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 Turn Section III: Transformation and Renegotiation 173(62) 13. Blueprint for Repetition 173(20) Re-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. Transformation 193(28) Two 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! It Seems So But I'm Proud to Be a Survivor The Courage to Feel Desire and Healing With a Little Help from Our Friends 15. The Eleventh Hour: Transforming Societal Trauma 221(14) 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 Fool Section IV: First Aid for Trauma 235(30) 16. Administering (Emotional) First Aid After an Accident 235(12) Following an Automobile Accident Scenario of Healing 17. First Aid for Children 247(18) Delayed 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 Children Epilogue: Three Brains, One Mind 265(2) Index 267