Trauma is an internal straitjacket that is overwhelming and so powerful that a person freezes inside, freezes this moment and carries it with them. Trauma suppresses the development of life and stifles the attempt to move forward with life. 

It breaks the connection to ourselves, to other people, to nature and to our spiritual source.
​When people feel so threatened that they are overwhelmed, they freeze in fear.

Traumatic events are exceptional not because they are rare, but because they overwhelm people’s normal mechanisms of adaptation to life. The common denominator of psychological trauma is a feeling of intense fear, helplessness and being at the mercy.

Unresolved trauma can lead to the development of a range of symptoms, such as pain of various types, patterns of stiffening and collapse, loss of boundaries, anxiety and cognitive dysfunction.

Somatic Experiencing offers a new and hopeful view of trauma.

Somatic Experiencing offers a new and hopeful view of trauma.

(Dr. Peter A. Levine)