When Life Stops

This book explores trauma in two forms: the wounds an individual carries and the wounds a community or group shares. Liebermeister sets out to explain what trauma is and what helps people heal from it. His approach combines a somatic perspective, which attends to the body, with a systemic one, which considers the relationships and surroundings that shape a person's experience.

To make the theory concrete, the book offers numerous case studies, guided meditations, and hands-on exercises that readers can practise themselves. The healing process is examined through both psychological and spiritual lenses. Trauma is presented not only as a destructive force but also as something that can become a catalyst for awakening.

The author weaves his own recovery into the text, drawing on the period after the accident that took his wife's life. His personal account is meant to reach the reader's emotions as well as the intellect, since the book holds that real healing happens at the level of feeling.