In an Unspoken Voice: How the Body Releases Trauma and Restores Goodness Paperback – September 28, 2010

Excellent writing which brings clarity on conceptualising trauma, and the approach to help with resolving it. I read the older Waking the Tiger book which has similar content.

Good read!

Before I get into this amazing Peter Levine book, "In An Unspoken Voice," let me state a little disclaimer:My personal interest in trauma therapies is puzzling because first off, I'm not a psychotherapist--just an Energy Therapist and hypnotist who knows how powerful the sub-conscious mind programming is in active and reactive human behaviors; but again, I can't treat clients the way a psychotherapist can for those trauma disorders mentioned in Levine's book.Secondly, I've had some trauma in my life, but not to the extent of being paralyzed by it or extremely affected with remnants of the past the way many of Levine's client's had been; so my interest in this subject is evidently for better understanding the experience-processing mechanism of our mind, and for passing along a "good book" recommendation to those who ARE practicing therapists and CAN treat someone with PTSD, or something equally debilitating.I think I personally understand Levine's book better from having read the bi-lateral stimulation books prior (check out my review list for EMDR, Tapping, Hypnosis, etc), so it made perfect sense to me that Levine's approach would be successful--especially in unlocking the frozen energies trapped in the body and stuck in the limbic processing mind, because when you are talking about trapped and stagnant energies, you are talking MY language--THAT I do understand. I understand how energy works, which is why Levine's book is so important--HE ALSO UNDERSTANDS how energy works--and that's what makes his techniques so powerful. He finds a way to allow the client to release the trapped energies and physically "work them out" of their solidified state.In the title I mentioned what I think is the most important point of the entire book: When the body experiences a severe trauma situation, the adrenals shoot the go-juice into the bloodstream to fight or flee. But if NEITHER choice is available--as it often is for vets caught under fire, or for children trapped in inescapable family/abuse situations, the body reacts to protect them with the other two choices: freeze in place from shock paralyzing the muscles, or fold unconscious like a wet rag to the floor--by fainting or anxiety-induced debilitation or oxygen deprivation.Those last two choices have the most lingering after-effects on PTSD clients and childhood abuse situations; and for those, what Levine suggests is extremely effective in helping to free that trapped energy that has been preventing the client from moving forward with his or her life. Just “talking it out” in therapy doesn’t do the trick because this trapped energy is stuck at a deeper mind level.Hypnosis and NLP might help clients in some instances, but what Levine suggests is to allow the client to take back their own power, literally, and to do it PHYSICALLY, as the body had originally intended that the situation be handled—by either "fighting or fleeing"—to allow the body to unwind naturally by making the physical motions of doing so (modified of course in the therapist’s office), so those stuck "freeze or fold" energies can be successfully released.Long story short: It’s a very good book (and therapy) that I believe should be considered by “talk” therapists if they really want to help a client move forward with life.

Edit: the review below was written when I hadn't quite got to the end of this book. I have now finished the book and what I say below still holds true. However, I am also a little underwhelmed by Levine's process. The reason is that I think he has the problem he blames talk therapy of having. He (quite rightly) says that talk therapy will not really get you anywhere. This is true, ON ITS own it won't get you far. But Levine has swung way over to the other side and places the locus of healing within the body and "viscera" only. I find his explanations for me just don't cut it 100%. He skims over the role of conditioning and the amygdala, hippocampus, hypothalamus etc. For him, it seems, it's all the visceral (gut) brain.He is not wrong about the importance of body awareness (i.e. mindfulness) and being able to hold and contain strong feelings. This is vitally important. But his complete dismissal of identifying causes and beliefs that contribute to suffering are detrimental to his overall argument. Exhaustively cataloging every bit of harm from your life is indeed useless, but being mindful of and able to identify and label general beliefs and thinking patterns (like "Oh, I'm thinking I'm worthless again." or "I'm getting sucked into the story of how no one will love me") is, in my opinion, extremely useful for being able to let go of them and live happily in the present (when you remind yourself they're useless relics from the past). The author doesn't place any value on this sort of broad exploration of the past. So in the end, while a lot of what he says is spot on and very useful, I feel that he himself has thrown the baby out with the bathwater (even if unintentionally.)A very good companion book to this one, which balances this purely "visceral" view, is "Bouncing Back" by Linda Graham, which is a book on neuroplasticity which discusses the importance of mindfulness of body AND thoughts.~*~I'm not going to outline the contents of this book because other reviewers have already done a great job of that. I actually think the information and theory of Peter Levine deserves 5 plus stars. I appreciate that he's going against the toxic psychiatric mainstream of labelling trauma as some sort of brain disease/disorder. He sees trauma as an injury that can be healed, no matter how long ago it happened, and that gives anyone with trauma hope.Here's why four starts instead of five:He's got a trade-marked therapy with it's own steps and jargon etc. "So what?" you might say, "there are lots of trade-marked therapies what does that have to do with anything?" Well here's the thing, I can image many people reading this (or any of his other books) and finding relief to have their trauma explained. They feel hope that there is a way out. BUT after this initial joy they are faced with bitter disappointment when they realise they could never have access to this trade-marked therapy because of their location and/or financial situation.So what are those people to do? Will they never have a chance to heal and resolve trauma? Are they to be stuck in their pain forever because there's no Somatic Experience therapist in their town, state, country? This is the problem with trade marked methods. They implicitly suggest that it is THE (only) method to recovery. I know that this is not what Levine intends but isn't this the logical conclusion after reading through his books?I highly recommend this book for anyone with trauma or with unexplained anxiety or depression. You will understand why you feel as you do. However, if you are not fortunate enough to have access to Somatic Experiencing Therapy it's ok. What you need to understand is that Levine's therapy teaches you skills in how to handle and resolve your trauma. These skills can be learned by other methods than his therapy. I say this with the utmost respect for Dr. Levine and his work. If you have a chance to work with his specific programme, then take it!But here's the thing: the core skills (as I understand them) of his therapy are-becoming aware of the physical body-feeling safe in the physical body-knowing (through experience) that all feelings and sensations are temporary-being aware of yourself and knowing how to pace yourself-feeling uncomfortable sensations without being overwhelmed by them-letting go and allowing your body to do what it needs to do (whatever it wanted to do at the time of the traumatic event)Obviously there are some more nuances and details but the above skills are basically the core of it. (I suggest you read the book to get a full explanation.) As anyone who has worked in any education setting knows, there is more than one method to teach any given skill. If you do not have access to a Somatic Experiencing therapist or any therapist at all here are some resources that can teach you the same basic skills:-Mindfulness training. Mindfulness is becoming more and more established and practiced. You may even find a mindfulness centre or mindfulness classes in your city. If this is not an option I recommend the excellent mindfulness programme (book) "Mindfulness: A practical guide to finding peace in a frantic world" by Mark Williams. You can download the meditations for free on the internet. This programme is designed to ground you in your body, become aware of physical and emotional sensations and how they are always changing and how to stay in the present moment. It also teaches you to befriend negative feelings.-Trauma Release Exercises. Only do these after doing mindfulness training. These were developed by David Berceli and are detailed in his book "The Revolutionary Trauma Release Process". These are designed to discharge trapped energy, which is a component of Levine's therapy. (They're also trademarked, but I have no gripes with this because they are designed as self-help. You don't need a specialised therapist to do them.)-Self-compassion. Do this at any time, maybe together with mindfulness. The best book is "Self-Compassion" by Kristin Neff. I think the title is pretty self-explanatory.It is important to note, that if you decide to try any of this you at least have a support person, if not a therapist, with whom you can share things if it gets a little overwhelming or you need to talk about things that come up. I hope these alternatives help people who don't have access to the specific therapy described by Levine. I do not think that the books I suggested are in any way better or superior to Levine's, they are just much more readily accessible and provide the same basic skills if done correctly.