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Recovering the Present Moment: Healing Trauma Through the Body
Dr. Robert Scaer, MD

When trauma was first acknowledged, it was defined by dissociation in the form of conversion hysteria, a predominantly physical syndrome.  More recently, trauma has been defined by the symptoms of PTSD, which are primarily emotional.  We now recognize that perceptual, emotional and physical symptoms of dissociation form a large part of the clinical syndrome in chronic PTSD, or Complex Trauma. I will make the case that dissociation, not PTSD, is the defining brain state in trauma, and is based on unconscious body-based memory for specific traumatic events.  These memories reflect past events that actually are perceived as being imminent or present.  This unconscious, body-based feature of the posttraumatic syndrome presents a compelling case for the universal application of body-based therapies in the healing of trauma.  You can't heal trauma by words alone.