Stephanie Mines - We Are All in Shock

Praise for We Are All in Shock

This is a book that is engaging intellectually and well worth the read from cover to cover for the many useful and practical exercises and tools, so that we may be strengthened in our minds, bodies and spirits. It is a book for our times.

Peter A. Levine PhD, author of Waking the Tiger

In a world of constant debilitating shock, Stephanie Mines offers skillful means to resolve personal and collective wounding in ways that illuminate as well as heal.

Jean Houston, PhD, author of The Wizard of Us and A Passion for the Possible

Uncover the deepest treasure of who you are and why you are here by connecting to your own body. Weaving applied neurophysiology and traditional medicine, We Are All in Shock will show you the formula and tools for sustainable health.

Anita Sanchez, PhD, author of The Four Sacred Gifts

We Are All in Shock is a landmark book. Reading like a novel but informing like a text, it edifies that psychological shock is a universal malady of modern and technocratic cultures and teaches us practical ways that shock can be self-managed and treated. It's a must read for anyone who wishes to self-heal or to heal others.

William R. Emerson, PhD, president emeritus of the Association of Pre and Perinatal Psychology and Health

Stephanie Mines moves through the complex territory of healing with refreshing grace, candor, and immense wisdom.

Pat Ogden, PhD, director of the Sensorimotor Institute
and author of Sensorimotor Psychotherapy

Stephanie powerfully embodies the teaching she is offering. As a healed healer she is a catalyst and a nurturing guide. Her work navigates the delicate terrain caused by shock and trauma. It is grounded in the body, sophisticated in its thinking, and delivered in love. My development as a creative woman has been inspired by Stephanie's caring presence in my life.

Melissa Michaels, EdD, author of Youth on Fire

Stephanie Mines infuses warmth, compassion, and wisdom into her approach to healing. Her design not only regenerates the human body and spirit. It also regenerates the planet's well-being.

Spring Cheng, PhD, author of The Resonance Code

Dr. Mines has gifted us with simple, yet profound and empowering techniques for the resolution of shock and trauma.

Carmen Freeman, MS, CHT, health activist and recipient of the National MS Society Achievement Award

This book is a treasure! It is of special importance to every prospective parent as well as to all those who have survived trauma.

Suzanne Arms, author of Immaculate Deception

STEPHANIE MINES, PHD

Foreword by Donna Eden and David Feinstein

This edition first published in 2020 by New Page Books, an imprint of
Red Wheel/Weiser, LLC
With offices at:
65 Parker Street, Suite 7
Newburyport, MA 01950
www.redwheelweiser.com

Copyright 2003, 2020 by Stephanie Mines, PhD

Foreword copyright 2020 by Donna Eden and David Feinstein, PhD

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from Red Wheel/Weiser, LLC. Reviewers may quote brief passages. Previously published in 2003 by New Page Books, ISBN: 978-1-56414-657-1.

ISBN: 978-1-63265-195-2

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data available upon request.

Cover design by Kathryn Sky-Peck

Cover photograph Jacky Parker Photography/Getty Images

Interior by Eileen Dow Munson

Printed in the United States of America
IBI
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

www.redwheelweiser.com/newsletter

The information and practices described in this book are designed to support a holistic approach to healing from the effects of shock and trauma. Nothing in this book is presented as a cure for disease or intended to be applied as a substitute for appropriate advice and care from trained practitioners. The healing process should be undertaken with the advice and guidance of trained professionals who are best suited to address the needs of each individual.

The case histories described in this book are based on the experiences of people who have provided consent to the author for inclusion in this work.

For the children of the future

Without the insightful editorial comments of Marsha Kerley and Bob Yuhnke, this book would be much more discursive. They not only kept me on target, they also shared my commitment to service and to how readers would benefit from a focused document.

My gratitude to Drs. Peter Levine and William Emerson are in the text of this book, but I want to reiterate here that their mentorship was, and continues to be, inspiring. Similarly, I am touched and invigorated by the tireless warriorship of Suzanne Arms, who never stops crusading for the children of the future.

Others who found time for my manuscript in their overburdened schedules, such as Lawrence Germann, Selma George, and Nashalla Gwyn, will always be dearly remembered for their commentary and their energy. I would also like to commend Michele Stein not only for her exquisite artwork, but also for her loving nature. I am honored to have her as my friend and colleague. This is equally true for Monica Edlauer, who models the treatments in .

The names of the people who trusted me to serve them are also inscribed in my heart. Their persistence in thorough healing and their belief in the intended joy of life continue to motivate me.

I am deeply indebted to the Dom Project for supporting and sustaining the TARA Approach and to Naropa University for its research grant.

Stephanie Mines

Eldorado Springs, Colorado

January 2003

Contents

Foreword

Most people do not think of themselves as being in shock. We Are All in Shock suggests that if you live in a human body within an advanced technological society, your body probably reverberates from shock. The level of stress in modern cultures has direct and profound impact on the human energy system. Studies that have evaluated shock levels in infants, children, and adults found that 65 percent of Americans carry traces of psychological shock of which they are largely unaware. Though you may not be aware of them, echoes of past and present stress and shock are nestled in your biochemistry, and they limit you. They limit your adaptability, flexibility, creativity, judgment, and capacity for joy. You can do a great deal to change your biochemistry in ways that will heal you and free you.

At one time, shock was the body's response to severe physical trauma, threat, or lossa tiger enters the cave, a limb is lost, a child dies with fever, a neighboring tribe threatens the clan, a hunter's spear does not stop a charging rhino. But shock isn't only what it used to be.

As we have moved further from our natural roots, other kinds of shock have become part of our lives. Thisas has been persuasively demonstrated by William Emerson, Ph.D.begins before birth. The medical management of pregnancy and birth have, without question, decreased the infant mortality rate. However, even a relatively routine diagnostic test such as amniocentesis (100,000 women in the United States will go through this procedure this year) carries a risk of infection, physical trauma to the fetus, and, in one case of 200, loss of the baby. We can only speculate about the shock to the 99,500 each year who will survive the procedure. The fetus and its developing brain are particularly responsive to the pollutants the mother breathes and to toxins in the fluids that provide nourishment. Some 10,000 human-made chemicals that we did not evolve to process have been identified in our food, and their harmful effects on the unborn baby are beginning to be catalogued. Meanwhile, efforts to keep labor brief and on schedule, the use of drugs during the birth process, unnecessary cesarean deliveries, forceps, harsh lights, and cold surfaces all compound the trauma of leaving the womb.