Waking the Tiger: Healing Trauma

Gather initial thoughts and broad opinions about the book.

1. How does Levine’s somatic approach to trauma compare to other therapeutic frameworks you’ve encountered, whether through reading, personal experience, or popular culture—for instance, Bessel van der Kolk’s The Body Keeps the Score? What makes his body-centered perspective distinctive or challenging?

2. The author uses animal behavior extensively to explain human trauma responses. Did you find these comparisons illuminating or reductive?

3. Levine maintains that trauma can become “one of the most significant forces for psychological, social, and spiritual awakening” (2). How does this framing sit with you compared to trauma literature that emphasizes pathology and disorder?

Encourage readers to reflect on how the book relates to their own life or work and how its lessons could help them.

1. After reading about the felt sense and bodily awareness, have you noticed yourself more attuned to physical sensations during stress? What has this heightened awareness revealed about your own response patterns?

2. Levine argues that modern culture has disconnected humans from their “animal” instincts, making us more vulnerable to trauma. In what areas of your life do you recognize this disconnection? Where do you override bodily signals in favor of social expectations, productivity demands, or rational analysis?