The body does bear the burden

When a thoughtful individual takes the time to summarize 30 years of experience, I view this as a great gift. When his insights allow us to help in treatment, it is a blessing. His major thesis is that trauma, when it produces a chronic stress disorder, can manifest in peculair physical ways. This is the key insight and Dr. Scaer backs his observations with lots of clinical and research data. No doubt some will find this a rigorous read, but it is well worth the effort. I had the opportunity to try this theory. A teacher in a rough part of town ( I live in NYC) witnessed in his class a fight where a student viciously punched a girl in the head, when the teacher interevened, the next blow was to the back of his head sending him into the chalk board and breaking his glasses. He presented 5 days later with classic post concussion syndrome of impaired memory, inablility to read and other congnitve deficits. Before I read Dr. Scaer's book, I would have have not been able to treat him, for, from a medical point of view, it was all the brain banging aroung in his skull that caused this. However, Dr. Scaer made me think that this was instead a PTSD from having witnessed a vicious attack. I treated him with EFT and remarkably two days later he was normal! (This would have usually taken many weeks). We are all searching for ways to treat PTSD, but at least we can now view some mystifying symptoms in a model for which hopefully soon we will be able to fix. Kudos, Dr. Scaer.

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Remember That College Textbook You Just Hated?

I started out as a lit major, then switched to linguistics. I worked three years as a medical transcriptionist. I've never had trouble reading anything. But this book is so full of fourteen-letter words, acronyms, and other jargon, it's just plain unpleasant to read.

The information is sound, and definitely interesting. But if you just want to understand the physiology of trauma, read the first section of Levine's "Waking The Tiger" instead (the rest of the book is rhetoric); it's a quick and easy read and presents the same basic information.

And if you're a PTSD sufferer, this is definitely not the book for you! It's written by an M.D. for those interested in the physical aspects of trauma, but offers absolutely no help (or even resources) for trauma patients. Try one of the breathing books or tapes by Gay Hendricks. Hendricks addresses releasing trauma directly and clearly.

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No stress here

This book, along with WAKING THE TIGER are two of the most useful books I've come across that deal with post traumatic stress disorder. Highly recommended. Would also recommend two works of fiction that deal with this: GOOD GRIEF and THE BARK OF THE DOGWOOD.

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