The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma

After reading the book, I found a Psychologist that was trained in Neurofeedback and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy....I am off all pain medication, all antidepressants, all anti-anxiety meds and am weaning off sleeping meds. I feel like a new person, and have cut ties with those who have abused me, or cause anxiety in my life.

Haha 2 minutes into his talk and he's already cursing. I love it. It's badass and shows that he's pissed. That's how the truth makes you feel, especially if you have a deep hatred for injustice and lies.

I did 4x combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan from 2004-2013. I just retired after 21 years. This guy is right.

"We rarely think about love being antecedents of trauma" This really spoke to me.

I came here because even after successful EMDR and years of counseling, support groups, and therapy, i noticed via FB memories i get physically sick and hospitalized on the same days each year, anniversaries of trauma events in my life. I did not even know they were trauma anniversaries until i went through old diaries, journals, and FB posts. My body literally remembers and knows...

"stupid and simple diagnostics to firm up our relationships with the drug companies" thats spot on

His contribution to society is immense. Thank you to this man. I only wish his book was mandatory reading for therapists, teachers, doctors, child protective services, and anyone else that deals with traumatized individuals. The mountain of knowledge in that book is incredible.

"When you get traumatised, more trauma .seems to be attracted to you." So true. So true.

Minute 49 regarding how you hold your body... I learned, as an adult in my 30s, that I could change my mood by skipping. I am not able to be depressed if I am skipping! It's rare that I can get other people to skip with me unless they're under 10 years old. Yet there are groups all over the country that skip in groups of as many as 200 people. Of course, the trick is to actually be able to make yourself get up and do it, in addition to remembering it helps when feeling so down.

Finally a doctor who understands the importance of love and understanding in healing trauma.

This man is amazing. I actually prefer that he swore about war, because I can see how passionate he is to this. He gets the bigger picture. I can never understand why these are not the people who should be running the world instead of politicians.

I was asked once by an actively naive coworker, seemingly proud of herself "Do you have any adventures planned?" I responded, withholding 99% of the intensity of my response for her psychological safety and my professional security, "I've had enough adventure for one lifetime." She responded by saying something like "you can never have enough adventure". And I could not think of a way to effectively communicate with her that spending a year in a combat zone, going on 250+ missions to search for unfriendly contact, losing two friends to that contact, realizing you're a monster for having the willingness to hurt others and that others are monsters for not realizing your life is precious and that everyone is capable of unspeakable deeds, and realizing your brain has forgotten how and why to be a civilized person and is now only useful in a narrow and violent span of human experience and thus now useless in the world, was all an adventure, or 365 adventures, all of which I was unprepared and ill-equipped for and was, to me, tantamount to an extreme overdose of adventure and that if she knew what an adventure is she wouldn't ask for a single more minute of it ever again (nor for that matter flaunt the privilege of her naivete in my face). So I didn't say anything more. Recently after hearing about Peter Levigne's work, I requested Somatic Experiencing trauma therapy treatment from the VA. They responded with: We only offer evidence based treatments. I wonder how the fuck they figure they should accept a dollar of pay under the guise of helping service members while not searching every corner of every modality for potential therapeutic outcomes. Apparently they're ok with waiting until someone else in the business of caring for PTS leads the way. How must it feel to fail at the one thing that justifies your existence as an institution. I voluntarily put 100% of my life (and my psyche) on the line 365 times and this is the response I get. Once again I find myself struggling to communicate how infinitely, astonishingly, embarrassingly, colossally ethically, spiritually, conceptually lacking this is.

I worked in mental health for 20 years with people diagnosed with serious mental illness. I worked at a very progressive centre where I taught Yoga/meditation but the people were all drugged up by their doctors. For the last 16 years, I’ve done bodywork with people based in Buddhist meditation practice and Ayurveda. Food is crucial for a good base to heal and bodywork releases trauma from the body. This is so right on. One must develop a spiritual perspective to manage and heal from the kinds of trauma inflicted on people in our current world. It’s time the psychotic elite that are running things be held accountable for the fear and horror they have unleashed on the wold because they want power and control.

Only 19 minutes in and this guy has spoken more than volumes than years could.

I grew up in a tumultuous home, fighting, violence, grudges, unkindness… etc My mum used me as a buffer against my dad. I became the adult and rescuer. I’ve never been free of my mum and I never will. I’m 49 and she still controls my life. I could list endless ways she’s hurt me and let me down. My brother got out when he could at 17yrs old. He visits annually and is the blue eyed boy. It hurts. I’m depressed and I have chronic pain and crippling anxiety. My life is trauma, daily. All the counselling the world doesn’t help me. I’m pretty sure I’ll never feel good until mum is no longer in my life. That thought causes me so much guilt. But I know it to be true. I wish I could walk away.

I hope everyone there knows what a GIFT this video is.

The jokes about CBT crack me up! He is SO right! You can’t “think” trauma away.

Self isolatation makes (allows) getting in touch with one's past to deal with one's emotions. The space must feel safe, and be safe. Getting a pet can be helpful.

Helping yourself and your children to leave traumatic cirumstances is one of the most important things we can do to protect the next generation. Leave the violence and the conflict when you can. In addition.. once we haveescaped the trauma lets help each other to rewire our unconscious reactions to move through and beyond them. This work is so important to helping our societies to move through and beyond the trauma.

I often worry , who supported the wives of these veterans, we never hear about their story and how they coped with their own trauma