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Body-first healing : get unstuck and recover from trauma with somatic healing
2025
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Summary
A revolutionary guide to trauma recovery through healing your nervous system from a renowned Somatic Experiencing Practitioner

Brittany Piper spent most of her life sitting across from conventional therapists recalling the painful stories of her trauma. But rehashing each harrowing event--being put into foster care as a baby, losing her brother in a car accident, enduring a brutal rape and a very public trial, and more--made her even more stuck. At a crossroads, she took her recovery into her own hands.
On this journey, Brittany discovered emerging science that explains how and why trauma lives in our bodies, not in the story of what happened to us. Trauma overwhelms our nervous system, which operates through feelings, sensations, and emotions, not through words and thoughts. Now a Somatic Experiencing Practitioner herself, in Body-First Healing Brittany provides a roadmap to recovery, resilience, and nervous system regulation.
With encouragement, relatability, and compassion, Brittany gently guides you through somatic practices which aim to help you remove the protective armor of the past and rediscover who you were before trauma. With Brittany, you will learn how to:



Name your core wounds, trauma responses, and stuck nervous system state Create feelings of safety and regulation with anchoring resources like exploratory orienting, movement, self-contact, etc. Fully experience an uncomfortable feeling with the Sensation, Image, Behavior, Affect, Meaning framework Express or respond to a feeling of stress in a way you couldn't before to discharge survival hormones and bring a traumatic experience to completion Engage somatic tools, like air screaming for anger or limb shaking for anxiety, that help express uncomfortable emotion Resource for everyday health issues and triggers beyond trauma, from digestive issues to public speaking and common conditions like OCD.
Whether you're experiencing anxiety, depression, burnout, or the aftermath of trauma, this groundbreaking book will show you how to become your own best healer.
Table of Contents
Introduction: From Concrete Bottom to Resilience and Healingxi
Part IHow and Why Trauma Lives in the Body1
1Healing with a Body-First Approach5
2The Top-Down and Bottom-Up Approaches for Trauma29
3Defining Trauma40
4Traumatic Memory54
5The Nervous System 101: Why You Make Sense72
6How Your Childhood Attachment Informs Your Adult Relationships102
7The Armor of Trauma and the Five Stuck Personalities132
8Healthy Aggression and Life Force: Rising into Your Power167
Part IISomatic Experiencing Roadmaps183
9Somatic Experiencing Basics185
10Self-Guided Experiencing: Before You Begin213
11Anger and the Armor of Fight221
12Fear, Anxiety, and the Armor of Flight228
13Depression, Burnout, and the Armor of Shutdown236
14Dissociation and the Armor of Functional Freeze244
15Appeasement and the Armor of Fawn251
16Resourcing for Common Health Issues and Everyday Triggers254
Conclusion: Let the Wild Rumpus Start263
Appendix ANervous System Mapping and Tracking269
Appendix BHow to Find a Somatic Experiencing® Practitioner281
Appendix CReferences283
Acknowledgments291
Notes295
Index299
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