Waking the Tiger: Healing Trauma is a self-help book by American therapist Peter A. Levine and Ann Frederick published in 1997. It presents a somatic experiencing approach which it says helps people who are struggling with psychological trauma. The book discusses inhibition and releasing a form of "energy".
Synopsis
Waking the Tiger contains four sections: Section I: The Body as Healer; Section II: Symptoms of Trauma; Section III: Transformation and Renegotiation; and Section IV: First Aid for Trauma. Peter Levine argues in the book that it is through action instead of talking that people can assist others who are struggling with psychological trauma. He presents the somatic experiencing approach. In 1969 Levine encountered a graduate student, Nancy, who experienced brutalizing panic attacks, unexplainable in her view. Levine started their discussion with a typical relaxation technique. While Nancy was silently paying attention in her seat, she failed to react. When he continued attempting to get her to relax, she unexpectedly had a massive panic attack. Levine says he became immersed in her panic attack. In his mind, he suddenly saw a tiger stopped low and preparing to jump at them. Immersed in the nightmare, he ordered, "Nancy! You are being attacked by a large tiger! See the tiger as it comes toward you! Run toward that tree! Run, Nancy, run! Climb up! Escape!"
Levine said Nancy's legs began moving as if she was sprinting. Nancy said that, for her first time, she had remembered a scary childhood experience. When she was three years old she experienced a tonsillectomy during which she was secured to an operating table to prevent movement. The anesthesia could have been only partially working which caused her to feel like she was being strangled. Her experience was drilled into her and could not just be remembered while she was alert. While counseling Nancy, Levine at the time also was researching predation, which Sandra Blakeslee and Matthew Blakeslee noted could be the reason Levine pictured a tiger.