Waking The Tiger

The bestselling guide to healing trauma through the body, and the book that introduced Somatic Experiencing®

For nearly three decades, this book has reshaped how we think about—and heal from—trauma.

If you live with panic, chronic tension, numbness, or the sense of being stuck in a past you can’t think your way out of, SE™ creator Peter A. Levine offers a different approach to healing. Trauma isn’t only in the mind. It’s held in the nervous system. It's not a flaw, but a natural process that, when properly supported, can help us self-regulate and lead to profound healing.

Dr. Levine’s insight began with a simple observation: Wild animals face life-threatening danger constantly, yet they rarely develop lasting traumatic symptoms. After a close call, they shake and tremble, releasing the survival energy they mobilized for fight or flight. Humans often override that instinct, and the energy stays frozen in the body.

Translated into 24 languages and with more than a million copies sold, Waking the Tiger has become a foundational text for trauma survivors, therapists, bodyworkers, and anyone looking to learn more about the mind-body connection. Inside, you’ll find:

• Exercises for developing the felt sense, the awareness of bodily sensation beneath thought and emotion
• The four core components of every traumatic reaction: hyperarousal, constriction, dissociation, and freezing
• Case stories showing how ordinary events, such as falls, surgeries, anesthesia, and car accidents, can cause trauma, not only violence or disaster
• Emotional first-aid guidance for adults after accidents and for children after falls and medical procedures
• A fresh look at re-enactment and memory, including why reliving traumatic details isn’t necessary to heal

Hopeful and grounded in biology, this embodied healing classic reframes trauma symptoms as incomplete responses and invites you to work with your body’s innate capacity for self-regulation.

Inhalt:

Contents
Introduction
Prologue
Giving the Body Its Due
Finding a Method • Body and Mind • The Body As Healer • How To Use This
Book
Section I: The Body As Healer
1. Shadows from a Forgotten Past
Nature’s Plan • Why Look to the Wild? • Trauma is Physiological • It’s About Energy
2. The Mystery of Trauma
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
4. A Strange New Land
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
Shamanic Approaches to Healing • Somatic Experiencing® • Acknowledging the Need to Heal • Let Us Begin—Calling the Spirit Back to the Body
6. In Trauma’s Reflection
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
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 • Animals as Teachers
8. How Biology Becomes Pathology: Freezing
The 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: Thawing
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
10. The Core of the Traumatic Reaction
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
Symptoms of Trauma • And Around and Around We Go • Out of the Loop
12. A Traumatized Person’s Reality
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
13. Blueprint for Repetition
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
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! • 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
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
16. Administering (Emotional) First Aid After an Accident
Following an Automobile Accident • Scenario of Healing
17. First Aid for Children
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
Index