Top Highlights

• While it is true that all traumatic events are stressful, all stressful events are not traumatic.
• In short, trauma is about loss of connection—to ourselves, to our bodies, to our families, to others, and to the world around us.
• When our bodies are feeling uneasy, they give us messages. The purpose of these messages is to inform us that something inside doesn’t feel right, and it needs our attention. If these messages go unanswered, over time, they evolve into the symptoms of trauma.
• I knew that the instinctive parts of both human and animal brains are virtually identical. Only the rational part of our brain is uniquely human. I also knew that prey animals in the wild, though routinely threatened, are rarely traumatized.
• they seem to have a built-in ability to literally shake off the effects of life-threatening encounters, and go on with their lives almost as if nothing unusual had happened.