Waking the Tiger

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7 days and 7 nights + all retreat services, meals and follow-up care  = $6,500

Waking the Tiger is an intensive seven-day Somatic Experiencing® (SE™) trauma healing retreat protocol presented by Dr. Peter A. Levine's Ergos Community Health SE™ & Eightfold Path. 

In the Somatic Experiencing method the tiger personifies our aliveness and instinctual capacity to heal. In Eastern spiritual traditions the tiger exemplifies the transmutation of anger into wisdom and insight and offers protection from harm. Therefore, Waking the Tiger, represents the re-negotiation of our trauma history into a new narrative of transformation, wisdom, and aliveness. 

Waking the Tiger is based on a social model of treatment with demonstrated results in facilitating Somatic Experiencing (SE) and integrating the core components of the SE model with therapeutic disciplines that enhance recovery from PTSD and other traumatic stress related conditions that include chronic physical and emotional pain, professional burnout, depression, anxiety, fatigue, migraines, IBS, insomnia, and self-destructive behaviors. 

In a Social Therapy model, the emphasis of recovery is based upon the relationship between the participant and her/his/their environment (including other participants and staff as a whole). Healing is created by everyone’s accumulated knowledge,  collective experiences, wisdom, and cohesiveness that make the social model process work.

In light of the global pandemic and widespread social disconnection and isolation the social model can help re-engage the ventral vagal system, known as the social nervous system, reinforcing inner resources and co-regulation through human connection that are necessary for trauma healing, stress reduction and emotional balance. 

In order for Waking the Tiger participants to experience consistent stress reduction strategies and resiliency building techniques from a Somatic Experiencing perspective, we’ve developed a ‘toolkit’ of simple and repeatable SE interventions. These interventions address basic SE concepts of titration, pendulation, grounding, embodiment, presence, resourcing, and sensing that will be integrated with all aspects of the retreat program including individual and group SE sessions, therapeutic movement practice, Social Presencing Theater, Somatic Art Therapy, Acupuncture, Cranial Sacral Therapy, hiking, meditation, boating, and during meals.

This retreat protocol was proven to be effective in 2019 when Dr. Peter Levine launched Returning Home, our first SE intensive retreat with military veterans suffering from combat PTSD. The preliminary results of our research study indicated that as an initial intervention this treatment program had a meaningful impact, both clinically and statistically, on clinical symptoms of PTSD, depression anxiety, dissociation, and increased quality of life. This study added to the literature of SE evidence-based trials and served as a “proof of concept” for a multi-day SE integrated trauma treatment program for returning veterans. It is our belief that Waking the Tiger will be of similar benefit to our civilian participants.  

Clark’s Cove Farm in Midcoast Maine is an ideal setting to re-connect with self and nature. Surrounded by 80 acres of apple orchards, perennial gardens, walking trails, ponds, and cove this quintessential rustic Maine farm offers the comforts of home and more. Sleeping accommodations are apartment style with semi private rooms, a kitchen, shared bath and porch overlooking the apple orchard and cove. 

Daily silent walks in the Maine woods will be offered with guided instruction to awaken and track sensory experience as a self-care practice to decrease stress and tension. Group discussion after the walking practice will help participants learn from each other through sharing personal experiences.

“Shinrin-Yoku", translated into English as ‘forest bathing', means taking in the forest atmosphere during a leisurely walk. It is a therapy that was developed in Japan during the 1980s, becoming a cornerstone of preventive health care and healing in Japanese medicine. 

Researchers, primarily in Japan and South Korea, have conducted studies on the health benefits of spending time amongst the trees, demonstrating that forest bathing positively creates calming neuro-psychological effects through changes in the nervous system, reducing the stress hormone cortisol and boosting the immune system.