Trauma and Memory

Brain and Body in a Search for the Living Past: A Practical Guide for Understanding and Working with Traumatic Memory

By: Peter A. Levine Ph.D., Bessel A. van der Kolk - introduction M.D.

Narrated by: Rick Adamson

Designed for psychotherapists and their clients, Peter Levine's latest best-seller continues his groundbreaking exploration of the central role of the body in processing—and healing—trauma.

With foreword by Bessel van der Kolk, author of The Body Keeps the Score

In Trauma and Memory, bestselling author Dr. Peter Levine (creator of the Somatic Experiencing approach) tackles one of the most difficult and controversial questions of PTSD/trauma therapy: Can we trust our memories? While some argue that traumatic memories are unreliable and not useful, others insist that we absolutely must rely on memory to make sense of past experience. Building on his 45 years of successful treatment of trauma and utilizing case studies from his own practice, Dr. Levine suggests that there are elements of truth in both camps. While acknowledging that memory can be trusted, he argues that the only truly useful memories are those that might initially seem to be the least reliable: memories stored in the body and not necessarily accessible by our conscious mind.

While much work has been done in the field of trauma studies to address "explicit" traumatic memories in the brain (such as intrusive thoughts or flashbacks), much less attention has been paid to how the body itself stores "implicit" memory, and how much of what we think of as "memory" actually comes to us through our (often unconsciously accessed) felt sense. By learning how to better understand this complex interplay of past and present, brain and body, we can adjust our relationship to past trauma and move into a more balanced, relaxed state of being. Written for trauma sufferers as well as mental health care practitioners, Trauma and Memory is a groundbreaking look at how memory is constructed and how influential memories are on our present state of being.

Very insightful. Easy to read & understand.

So, this is NOT a self-help book written in extremely easy language. If words like implicit and explicit scare you then this book is not for you!

This book is written very well and it is very easy to listen to. The language in the book is clear. All terms are explained at their first mention, which is why it is so easy to understand for non-clinicians. I for sure will listen to it more than once.

great read for working clinicians

this book was informative and allowed me to piece together information from other reads and knowledge related to the field...

An Effective Summary of Trauma and Memory

Dr. Levine gives a compelling and in-depth summary of trauma and memory. The only downside to this book, as a graduate level mental health professional, is that it can at many times read a bit jargon heavy and can use a lot of scientific terminology that makes understanding the concepts a bit more difficult. Aside from that the book is incredibly informative and engaging, as well as being well read by the narrator. I enjoyed the process of listening to this book and look forward to reading and listening to more of Dr. Levine‘s literature in the future.

Case studies shared to understand birth trauma better

Loved chapter on generational trauma, it was very eye opening, as well as backed by science!

great info about trauma!

I really enjoyed hearing about the clinical perspective and analysis of trauma. mental health is something I have personally struggled with for many years and I have recently started uncovering the traumas that have plagued my life since childhood. this book has helped me understand these traumas a bit more and how traumatic memories can change as the body tries to cope with and process what had happened. I now have an appointment with a therepist who specializes in traumas in the near future.