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Trauma and Memory

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

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Trauma and Memory

By: Peter A. Levine Ph.D., Bessel A. van der Kolk - introduction M.D.
Narrated by: Rick Adamson
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About this listen

 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. Mental Health Personal Development Post-Traumatic Stress Disorders Psychology Psychology & Mental Health Health Thought-Provoking Human Brain Feel Better Trauma Memory

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All stars
Most relevant
I really enjoyed this book having previously read other books Levine has authored. It is well written with excellently detailed descriptions of: different types of memory; how these memory sources inter-relate; practical applications of his methods from case study material; and has helpful metaphors and stories. I highly recommend this book to counsellors and therapists who are interested in trauma. I wouldn't recommend it for people/clients who have experienced trauma as it uses technical terms which could make it a difficult read. One thing I didn't like was in reading the book advertising and cover it's easy to assume Bessel van der Kolk is a co-author - which he isn't; although his foreword to the book is very good. Bmcm oct 2017

The trauma whisperer

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Great book, shame about the narrator, had to have it on 1.25 speed to make it listenable.

Good book

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great listen, even better with the actual book to refrance it with, if your a therapist or a trainee I highly recommend it. he gives a clear breakdown of the 4 types of memory we store

very technical but very useful

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excellent content. well-read. I will return again and again and will recommend to both patients and colleagues in the field of trauma and psychotherapy

a must-read for trauma therapists

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Well written and captures the subject precisely on many occasions. This is one of many books I have purchased on this subject, and yet this delivers new transparent concepts that have added to my knowledge.

relevant and succinct

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