“It's about becoming safe to feel what you feel. When you're traumatized you're afraid of what you're feeling, because your feeling is always terror, or fear or helplessness. I think these body-based techniques help you to feel what's happening in your body, and to breathe into it and not run away fr…”— Bessel Van Der Kolk, sideeffectspublicmedia.org
“When people are forced to submit to overwhelming power, as is true for most abused children, women trapped in domestic violence, and incarcerated men and women, they often survive with resigned compliance.”— Bessel Van Der Kolk, amazon.com
“The best way to overcome ingrained patterns of submission is to restore a physical capacity to engage and defend.”— Bessel Van Der Kolk, amazon.com
“Perhaps meeting one predator in one lifetime is traumatizing enough. However, when there are a chain of traumas that shape your early development, this complex trauma is enough to send anyone over the edge.”— Shahida Arabi, thoughtcatalog.com