In an Unspoken Voice

Introduction

In an Unspoken Voice is a book about how to heal from trauma. Trauma happens when something very bad or scary happens to you, like an accident, an illness, or a loss. Your body tries to protect you by making your heart beat faster, your muscles tighten, your breath become shallow, and your stress hormones increase. These are your body’s natural ways of dealing with danger. But sometimes, your body gets stuck in this mode even when the danger is gone. You feel nervous, scared, and alone. You have trouble feeling and expressing your emotions. You may try to escape your pain by using drugs, alcohol, or other things that are not good for you. You lose your joy of living.

But you can heal from trauma. You have a natural ability to heal yourself, if you pay attention to your body. Peter Levine, a therapist and writer, found out that by noticing your body’s sensations, you can let go of the trauma that is trapped inside you. You can also make small movements that help your body release the trauma that it could not handle before. You can learn to calm yourself down and feel better. You can find your inner peace and happiness again. There are ways to do this that work for many people. This book will tell you more about them.

Chapter 1: Trauma and the body

The author Peter Levine was always curious about how trauma could affect people’s lives. He wanted to help them as a therapist in the 1970s, but he found that talking about bad memories was not enough. Sometimes, it even made his clients feel worse. Their bodies were tense, scared, and not paying attention to what he was saying. Levine had a big discovery when he watched animals that were hunted by predators. He saw how gazelles shook their bodies after they escaped from a lion or a cheetah. This seemed to help them relax and go back to eating grass. Levine wondered – could humans also heal trauma by moving their bodies? This made Levine pay more attention to the body’s hidden power. He learned from a scientist named Stephen Porges, who studied how our nervous system reacts to stress. He found that when we are too stressed, we act like animals that are in danger. We either freeze, fight, or run away. We lose touch with our body and feelings, and just try to survive. When the nervous system stays in this state for a long time after a trauma, it can cause many problems. Being stressed all the time is bad for our mind and body. We may have anxiety, depression, sleep problems, tiredness, pain, stomach issues, and numbness. Trauma also makes us feel unsafe and lonely. We may try to control everything to avoid feeling scared or hurt. But this makes us less flexible, more isolated, and less alive. The trauma is still inside us, and it stops us from healing. But we can free ourselves from this trap by listening to our body and moving it gently. Levine created a method called Somatic Experiencing to help people do this. He taught them how to feel their body and move it in small ways. He also taught them how to switch between feeling bad and feeling good. This helped them calm down their nervous system and get rid of anxiety and panic. One of his clients was Maria, who had headaches after a hard birth. He helped her breathe and blink in a mindful way. This released the fear that was stuck in her eyes and jaw. Every week, her nervous system became more balanced. She felt more connected to herself and smiled more. Our bodies have amazing abilities to recover from trauma. If we are brave, we can feel more alive.

Chapter 2: Tuning in

To heal from trauma, you need to pay attention to your body’s feelings. This helps you free the energy that is stuck in your body and makes you feel scared or angry. You can do this by using three easy ways to deal with trauma. The first way is pendulation. This means moving between feeling bad and feeling good in your body. Instead of running away from hard feelings, you face them with kindness, then you go back to parts that feel safe and relaxed. This slow movement helps you handle the stress and let go of the trauma that was too much before. The second way is titration. This means changing how much you feel the trauma, like turning a light switch up and down. When you feel the trauma coming up, you calm your nervous system down. You can breathe deeply, or hum, and shake your arms and legs to feel better without hurting yourself more. The third and last way is interoception. This means listening to your body’s signals, like your heartbeat, stomach, muscles, and skin. Feeling these small things with care helps you stay in the present moment and feel safe. As you notice even weak body feelings, you start to feel more after being numb from trauma. Small feelings help you connect to yourself. You may feel little shakes on your back as the energy comes out. Or your eyes may move fast. Your toes may feel warm as the energy goes to the ends of your body. These small feelings are your nervous system relaxing in its own way. You can also move your body gently to help the energy come out. You can sway to make yourself shake, or blink slowly to relax your eyes. You can move your fingers and toes to feel those parts again. As you feel these small body feelings and movements, you feel more powerful. You realize your body has been waiting for you, keeping these unfinished actions, hoping you would hear it. It has a lot to teach you, if you turn to it with love. Make some time every day to try these body ways. How does your body want to move today – sway, stretch, shake? What sounds help you feel calm – humming, singing, crying softly? Let your body’s wisdom guide you as it lets go of what you don’t need. Keep caring for the sparks of life inside you. You will have good and bad days on the way to healing. Be patient and happy for small changes. Remember there is no deadline – your body knows how to heal trauma in its own time. With love and bravery, keep feeling your body. You will keep growing.

Chapter 3: Moving through

Moving your body helps you let go of the trauma that is stuck inside you. It helps you feel the energy that is trapped in your body and let it out safely. By doing this with attention, you can calm your nervous system down. First, try moving your body with care. You can sway, stretch, or shake for a few minutes to loosen the tightness in your body. Let your body show you how it wants to move — see how it wants to bend, twist, and straighten as you move. Start with very small and slow movements. Feel the shaking or tingling that may come up as the energy comes out. Keep breathing softly as you try moving your body with care. If you are sitting or driving, try breathing on purpose. When you are scared, your breath becomes fast and shallow, making you ready to fight or run away. Taking slower, deeper breaths makes the calming part of your nervous system work. This makes the fear and worry of trauma go away. If you can, try putting your hands softly on your belly. Slowly breathe in so that your belly goes up. Wait a little, then breathe out through your mouth. Do this belly breathing for a few minutes, thinking of your breath as waves going up and down on a beach. Another thing you can do is gentle massage. Ask a safe, trusted friend or helper to softly massage the tense parts of your body like the shoulders, hands, jaw, or belly. Ask them to press lightly at first. Breathe deeply as they make small circles to relax your muscles. Or try massaging yourself slowly. Being touched kindly when you can’t help or protect yourself can make you feel calm. Lastly, making long sounds with your voice — or vocal toning — helps you let go of the energy and stuckness in your throat. As you tone, you may make sounds like moaning, sighing, or humming. Let the sounds vibrate in your chest and belly. Breathe out all the air, letting the vibration go through your body. Toning helps the energy move and flow. These are some of the ways you can try to let go of old trauma. Be creative and see what feels good in the moment. Keep trying different things with movement, sound, breath, and touch. See which ways make you feel safe and which ones feel too much. Make your own body healing tools. Your body knows best what it needs to heal. Remember to be very patient and kind with yourself as you do this. Healing takes time. If some things feel too hard too fast, go back to easier ways like breathing on purpose or taking a warm bath. Your system will heal at its own speed with small, regular steps.

Chapter 4: Healing is a journey

Healing from trauma and becoming whole again is a brave process that takes time and has ups and downs. The body practices we learned can help a lot, but they are not enough by themselves. You need professional help too. If you want to heal with your body, it is smart to do it with therapists and bodyworkers who know about trauma and the nervous system. They can help you adjust the intensity so you don’t feel too much. When emotions come up, a good guide can be there for you and help you deal with them. You are not alone in this. Go slowly and pay attention to your body’s signs along the way. Feeling things in numb areas or shaking a little can be normal ways of letting go of stuck energy. But feeling too much can be harmful if you don’t go at the right pace. Remember you are the boss of your process. Also remember that healing is not straight. There will be good and bad days as your system changes, so be patient. Be happy for small wins, like breathing easily, feeling joy, or relaxing, even for a short time. Your body will go as fast as it can to balance itself, so don’t judge your progress. And make time for self-care practices that help your nervous system. Rest well, and eat healthy food. Be in nature and move your body in ways that feel good. Make art, listen to music, or be with people – whatever makes you feel connected and aware. When we take care of ourselves, healing happens naturally. If emotions ever feel too hard to handle, get help right away. Therapists and psychiatrists can help you, give you medicine if you need it, and support you in hard times. You have many options. There is no shame in asking for help — healing from trauma takes more than one person. Most of all, remember your body has a lot of wisdom inside – so listen to it carefully as you look inside. Believe that you have everything you need to get free from trauma and feel alive again. Keep feeling what is happening in your body, with time, courage and kindness. You will become whole as you keep going.

Summary

Trauma makes the nervous system too active and it’s hard to calm down — but the body knows how to heal. By feeling sensations and moving your body, you can relax your nervous system when it is still in the past. By swinging, adjusting, feeling inside, and moving mindfully, you can find your inner strength to balance yourself. With kindness, you let go of trauma, bringing back energy and life, and making your experiences a source of change.

About the author

Peter Levine, PhD, is very good at helping people with trauma. He made Somatic Experiencing and started a place to teach it. Levine has two PhDs in how the body and the mind work. He also wrote books like Waking the Tiger: Healing Trauma and Sexual Healing: Transforming the Sacred Wound.