Available:*
Material Type | Library | Call Number | Suggested Age | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Book | Searching... Cabell County Public Library | 155.93 JOH | Adult | Searching... Unknown |
Bound With These Titles
On Order
Summary
Summary
From trauma educator and somatic guide Kimberly Ann Johnson comes a cutting-edge guide for tapping into the wisdom and resilience of the body to rewire the nervous system, heal from trauma, and live fully.
In an increasingly polarized world where trauma is often publicly renegotiated, our nervous systems are on high alert. From skyrocketing rates of depression and anxiety to physical illnesses such as autoimmune diseases and digestive disorders, many women today find themselves living out of alignment with their bodies.
Kimberly Johnson is a somatic practitioner, birth doula, and postpartum educator who specializes in helping women recover from all forms of trauma. In her work, she's seen the same themes play out time and again. In a culture that prioritizes executive function and "mind over matter," many women are suffering from deeply unresolved pain that causes mental and physical stagnation and illness.
In Call of the Wild, Johnson offers an eye-opening look at this epidemic as well as an informative view of the human nervous system and how it responds to difficult events. From the "small t" traumas of getting ghosted, experiencing a fall-out with a close friend, or swerving to avoid a car accident to the "capital T" traumas of sexual assault, an upending natural disaster, or a life-threatening illness--Johnson explains how the nervous system both protects us from immediate harm and creates reverberations that ripple through a lifetime.
In this practical, empowering guide, Johnson shows readers how to metabolize these nervous system responses, allowing everyone to come home to their deepest, most intuitive and whole selves. Following her supportive advice, readers will learn how to move from wholeness, tapping into the innate wisdom of their senses, soothing frayed nerves and reconnecting with their "animal selves."
While we cannot cure the painful cultural rifts inflicting our society, there is a path forward--through our bodies.
Reviews (2)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Doula Johnson (The Fourth Trimester) draws on her experience working with women recovering from sexual and birth traumas in this quirky exploration of the physiology of traumatic experiences. She argues that psychotherapy, though helpful to some, can't help everyone because it is inherently mental and not physical. Instead, she recommends a more active approach through somatic therapy, which involves noticing the physical reactions one has to a difficult or traumatic experience. First, she shows readers how to "listen to body" by concentrating on TIMES (thought, image, movement, emotion, and sensation) and how to redirect one's emotional responses. Unfortunately, her recurrent suggestion to channel the instincts of a wild animal--because it's through the human body's animal instincts that the traumatized mind can be mastered--comes off as hokey: be "like a dog, who hears a sound far away and stands at attention with ears perked." Despite this, readers working through trauma may want to give this a spin. Agent: Stephanie Tade, Stephanie Tade Agency. (Apr.)
Booklist Review
In the eponymous novel by Jack London, a dog, Buck, returns to his wolflike roots when he's kidnapped from his California home and taken to more primitive Alaska. In this guidebook by doula, yoga teacher, and "sexological bodyworker" Johnson, humans learn how to find their "inner wildness." Like Buck, Johnson relocates, with her daughter, from Rio de Janeiro to San Diego to Brooklyn. She offers enigmatic but intriguing observations, such as, "Developing a deeper relationship with your nervous system means learning to surf the waves it generates." Though she is not a medical doctor or a psychologist, she makes a good case for listening to the body. It speaks, she says, through thought, image, movement, emotion, and sensation (aka TIMES). She urges people to grow their capacity to stay blue (the color of joy, mirth, and peace) rather than red (the color of fear, anger, and sadness) and to embody their "inner predator" and remember their "fangs" and "prowess." Expect other unusual acronyms, including PIV (for penis-in-vagina sex) and such recommended resources as steamychick.com (for "vaginal steaming"). New Agers may find Johnson empowering.
Table of Contents
| Author's Note: How to Read This Book | p. ix |
| Introduction | p. xiii |
| Part I A Field Guide to Your Inner Wilderness | |
| Chapter 1 A Real-World Understanding of the Nervous System | p. 3 |
| Chapter 2 The Wisdom of the Animal Body | p. 35 |
| Chapter 3 Make Sense of Your Brain-Body Connection | p. 53 |
| Part II Healing Trauma Starts in the Body | |
| Chapter 4 Learn How to Feel Good | p. 79 |
| Chapter 5 Understand the Predator-Prey Dynamic | p. 103 |
| Chapter 6 Activate Your Inner Predator | p. 119 |
| Part III Bodies Together: The Social Nervous System Landscape | |
| Chapter 7 Marking Your Territory: Defining Limits and Boundaries | p. 141 |
| Chapter 8 Attachment and Relationships: How We Bond | p. 157 |
| Chapter 9 More Freedom in Sex | p. 177 |
| Conclusion From Personal to Collective Healing | p. 199 |
| Acknowledgments | p. 205 |
| Appendix 1 Feelings Language (from Nonviolent Communication) | p. 213 |
| Appendix 2 Sensation Language | p. 217 |
| Appendix 3 Jaguar GPS: A Guided Practice Map | p. 219 |
| Glossary | p. 227 |
| Recommended Resources | p. 231 |
| Further Reading | p. 233 |
| Bibliography | p. 237 |
| Index | p. 239 |
