In an Unspoken Voice: How the Body Releases Trauma and Restores Goodness

What does it mean to listen to the body's unspoken voice—to discover that trauma can be healed when we learn to access the innate wisdom held in our nervous systems? Peter Levine's In an Unspoken Voice: How the Body Releases Trauma and Restores Goodness is one of the most profound works on somatic trauma healing ever written, a book that reveals how the body holds the key to recovering from experiences that overwhelm our nervous systems. This is not a clinical manual but a deeply human exploration by the creator of Somatic Experiencing® who understands that healing happens through the body's natural capacity for self-regulation. Levine illuminates how shaking, trembling, and instinctive movements help us release trauma safely, how the nervous system responds to threat through fight, flight, freeze, and collapse, and how we can restore resilience and wholeness through embodied awareness and gentle discharge of survival energy.

Levine writes from his own near-fatal accident and decades of clinical practice, having discovered that animals in the wild naturally discharge trauma through trembling and shaking. The book asks: How does trauma leave us stuck in fear, numbness, and disconnection? What are the biological responses to threat, and how do we complete interrupted survival cycles? How can we use sensation, image, behavior, affect, and meaning (SIBAM) to integrate fragmented experiences? What does it mean to reawaken our natural capacity for self-regulation and restore goodness? Through vivid personal stories and case studies, Levine shows us that we already have the embodied tools and wisdom to heal, offering practical exercises and a compassionate framework for releasing trauma and reclaiming our lives.

For readers seeking contemplative wisdom and somatic approaches to healing, In an Unspoken Voice serves as both a penetrating exploration of trauma's impact on body, brain, and spirit and a practical guide to embodied recovery. This beloved global bestseller includes trauma science, personal accounts, case studies, and evidence-based exercises. This is a book for trauma survivors seeking body-based healing, for therapists working with somatic approaches, for anyone interested in the neurobiology of trauma and resilience. It's a reminder that the body knows how to heal, that trauma is not a life sentence, and that we can restore our innate capacity for wholeness, connection, and goodness.

What You'll Discover

• Peter Levine's revolutionary Somatic Experiencing® approach to trauma healing
• How the body's instinctive movements release trauma safely and effectively
• The biological map of fight, flight, freeze, and collapse responses
• SIBAM model for integrating sensation, image, behavior, affect, and meaning
• Practical exercises to discharge survival energy and restore self-regulation

Peter A. Levine, PhD, is a pioneering somatic therapist, trauma researcher, and creator of Somatic Experiencing®. With over 45 years of clinical experience and training in medical biophysics, psychology, and stress physiology, Levine has transformed how we understand and treat trauma. His work bridges neuroscience, ethology, and body-based psychotherapy, offering a naturalistic approach to healing that honors the body's innate wisdom. In an Unspoken Voice, published in 2010, has become a beloved classic in trauma recovery and somatic psychology, helping countless people discover their body's capacity to heal and restore goodness.

Perfect for: Trauma survivors seeking somatic and body-based healing approaches, therapists and counselors working with Somatic Experiencing®, students of somatic psychology and trauma neurobiology, anyone interested in the body's role in trauma and recovery, readers drawn to embodied healing and nervous system regulation, practitioners of yoga, meditation, and contemplative practice, those exploring PTSD recovery and post-traumatic growth, students of humanistic and transpersonal psychology, anyone interested in the intersection of neuroscience and healing, readers who loved Waking the Tiger and want deeper exploration, those seeking to understand fight, flight, freeze, and collapse responses, anyone ready to listen to their body's unspoken voice and reclaim their innate capacity for wholeness.

North Atlantic Books paperback edition. Peter Levine's beloved classic on somatic trauma healing—offering groundbreaking insights into how the body releases trauma, practical exercises for discharging survival energy, and a compassionate framework for restoring resilience, self-regulation, and the innate goodness that trauma obscures.