After a traumatic experience, we are told time and time again to take care of ourselves and reach out to the people we love. But what happens when you reach out and your partner can't reach back? This book is for people in relationships where either partner has faced trauma in any of its forms: violence, natural disasters, war, life-threatening accidents, crime, health problems, or loss of a loved one. One or both partners can use Healing Together to recover from trauma or help their partner recover by understanding the impact of trauma, learning to communicate their needs, managing anger, dealing with traumatic memories, recapturing lost intimacy, and recognizing their resiliency as a couple. The practical, step-by-step program presented in this guide is inspired and informed by the authors' clinical experiences with patients suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder and their work with firefighters and their partners in the aftermath of 9/11. In the wake of tragedy, this book can help you build a resilient relationship and move forward with compassion, hope, and love. Healing Together is a beautiful book... an invaluable resource that will help couples face their traumas together. -Sue Johnson, Ph.D., professor of psychology at University of Ottawa and author of Hold Me Tight

Combining years of research, teaching, and experience treating trauma survivors, Dr. Jon G. Allen offers compassionate and practical guidance to understanding trauma and its effects on the self and relationships. Coping With Trauma is based on more than a decade of Dr. Allen's experience conducting educational groups for persons struggling with psychiatric disorders stemming from trauma. Written for a general audience, this book does not require a background in psychology. Readers will gain essential knowledge to embark on the process of healing from the complex wounds of trauma, along with a guide to current treatment approaches. In this supportive and informative work, readers will be introduced to and encouraged in the process of healing by an author who is both witness and guide. This clearly written, insightful book not only teaches clinicians about trauma but also, equally important, teaches clinicians how to educate their patients about trauma. Reshaped by recent developments in attachment theory, including the importance of cumulative stress over a lifetime, this compelling work retains the author's initial focus on attachment as he looks at trauma from two perspectives. From the psychological perspective, the author discusses the impact of trauma on emotion, memory, the self, and relationships, incorporating research from neuroscience to argue that trauma is a physical illness. From the psychiatric perspective, the author discusses various trauma-related disorders and symptoms: depression, posttraumatic stress disorder, and dissociative disorders, along with a range of self-destructive behaviors to which trauma can make a contribution. Important updates include substantive and practical information on Emotion and emotion regulation, prompted by extensive contemporary research on emotion -- which is becoming a science unto itself. Illness, based on current developments in the neurobiological understanding of trauma. Depression, a pervasive trauma-related problem that poses a number of catch-22s for recovery. Various forms of self-destructiveness -- substance abuse, eating disorders, and deliberate self-harm -- all construed as coping strategies that backfire. Suicidal states and self-defeating aspects of personality disorders. The author addresses the challenges of healing by reviewing strategies of emotion regulation as well as a wide range of sound treatment approaches. He concludes with a new chapter on the foundation of all healing: maintaining hope. This exceptionally comprehensive overview of a wide range of traumatic experiences, written in nontechnical language with extensive references to both classic and contemporary theoretical, clinical, and research literature, offers a uniquely useful guide for victims of trauma, their family members, and mental health care professionals alike.

Helping Children Cope with Trauma bridges theory and practice in examining emerging approaches to enhancing resilience and treating traumatised children. Adopting a child-centred perspective, it highlights the importance of the synergy between individual, family, community and social interventions for recovery from post-traumatic stress. Consisting of chapters by an international range of contributors, the book is presented in three sections, reflecting the ecological circles of support that facilitate healthy development in the face of traumatic circumstances. Section 1, Individual, addresses the impact of exposure to trauma and loss on post-traumatic adaptation, focusing on biological aspects, attachment patterns, emotion regulation and aggressive behaviour in children. Section 2, Family, looks at the concept of family resilience, the impact of trauma on playfulness in toddlers and parents, innovative models for working with children traumatised by war, domestic violence and poverty and describes the challenges faced by refugee families in the light of intergenerational transmission of trauma. Section 3, Community, broadly explores the concept of community resilience and preparedness, the centrality of the school in the community during times of war and conflict, post-traumatic distress and resilience in diverse cultural contexts and the impact of trauma work on mental health professionals who live and work in shared traumatic realities. The book concludes with a theoretical discussion of the concept of Survival Mode as an organisng principle for understanding post-traumatic phenomena. Helping Children Cope with Trauma will provide mental health professionals, child welfare workers, educators, child development experts and researchers with a thorough understanding of the needs of children after trauma and how those needs may best be met.

This volume presents an innovative psychobiological framework for understanding and treating PTSD. A major emphasis is the need to reformulate diagnostic criteria and treatment goals to reflect emerging knowledge about the complex pathways by which trauma disrupts people's lives. Within a holistic, organismic framework, the editors identify 65 PTSD symptoms contained within five (rather than the traditional three) symptom clusters, and spell out 80 target objectives for treatment. Expert contributors then provide detailed presentations of core therapeutic approaches, including acute posttraumatic interventions, cognitive-behavioral approaches, pharmacotherapy, group psychotherapy, and psychodynamic techniques, as well as approaches to working with specific populations, including children, refugees, and the dually diagnosed. The concluding section reviews and synthesizes all case material presented, examining which symptoms are addressed by each of the core approaches, which treatment goals are met, and which clients can most effectively be helped. Combining cutting-edge theoretical exposition with clear-cut recommendations for practice, this is an ideal resource for clinicians, students, and researchers.

Chapters cover: Effects of trauma: attachment, emotion, consciousness, memory, self and relationships; Trauma-related psychiatric disorders and treatment: posttraumatic stress disorderk dissociative disorders, and anxiety, depressing susbtance abuse, somatization disorder, sexual dysfunction, eating disorder and borderline personality disorder.

Why Cope When You Can Heal? is an essential resource for doctors, nurses, paramedics, and other healthcare professionals—and the leaders who support them—as they navigate the traumatic stress they have experienced and continue to face. COVID-19 has traumatized the world—and no group has been more impacted than frontline healthcare workers. They’ve worked without adequate personal protective equipment (PPE), witnessed mass death, and been forced to make choices that haunt them. Many have fallen ill, while others have worried endlessly about their own health and that of their loved ones. Additionally, all of this is happening in the context of a divided nation, a struggling industry, and a “just get over it” culture that exacerbates the problems healthcare workers face, while minimizing their suffering. These factors have created the perfect storm for widespread stress, depression, anxiety, and hopelessness—and, increasingly, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Medical doctor and psychiatrist Mark Goulston shares practical, evidence-based techniques and treatments for managing traumatic stress that will fill you with hope and inspiration. In Why Cope When You Can Heal?, you will discover: real-world accounts and experiences from frontline workers; an overview of treatment options; and exercises, tools, and tips that you can use today. This guide will help you—and those you love and support in the COVID-19 battle—begin the process of healing from the inside out and reconnect with the joys and rewards of career and life.

Treating Complex Trauma and Dissociation is the ideal guide for the front-line clinician whose clients come in with histories of trauma, abuse, self-injury, flashbacks, suicidal behavior, and more. The book helps clinicians develop their own responses and practical solutions to common questions, including "How do I handle this?" "What do I say?" and "What can I do?" Treating Complex Trauma and Dissociation is the book clinicians will want to pick up when they're stuck and is a handy reference that provides the tools needed to deal with difficult issues in therapy. It is supportive and respectful of both therapist and client, and, most of all, useful in the office.

This book provides a state-of-the-art guide to the rapidly growing field of traumatic stress. It reviews and integrates the many scientific findings from psychology, psychiatry and sociology into an encompassing model. This general model is applicable to the reactions to war stress, disaster, violence, accidents and bereavement. Topics such as normal and disturbed coping patterns, social support and various risk factors are also discussed. In addition to the theoretical model, a number of treatment methods for posttraumatic stress disorders is described. Theoretical and practical issues of these treatments are presented. The efficiency of the methods is elucidated by the description of a psychotherapy outcome study on these methods. Information of prevention programs for victims of serious life events is also provided. This integrative approach is of interest to researchers, clinicians, public health workers, physicians, personnel workers, and all other professionals who are involved in research and/or health care with regard to traumatic events.

New edition of this effective toolbox for treating trauma survivors is even more comprehensive This popular, practical resource for clinicians caring for trauma survivors has been fully updated and expanded. It remains a key toolkit of cognitive behavioral somatic therapy (CBST) techniques for clinicians who want to enhance their skills in treating trauma. Baranowsky and Gentry help practitioners find the right tools to guide trauma survivors toward growth and healing. Reinforcing this powerful intervention is the addition of a deeper emphasis on the preparatory phase for therapists, including the therapists' own ability to self-regulate their autonomic system during client encounters. Throughout the acclaimed book, an effective tri-phasic model for trauma treatment is constructed (safety and stabilization; working through trauma; reconnection with a meaningful life) as guiding principle, enabling a phased delivery that is fitted to the survivor's relational and processing style. The authors present, clearly and in detail, an array of techniques, protocols, and interventions for treating trauma survivors (cognitive, behavioral, somatic, and emotional/relational). These include popular and effective CBST techniques, approaches inspired by research on neuroplasticity, and interventions informed by polyvagal theory. Many techniques include links to video or audio material demonstrating how to carry-out the intervention. Further sections are devoted to forward-facing trauma therapy, a safe, effective, and accelerated method of treating trauma, and to clinician self-care. Over 40 video and audio demonstrations of many of the techniques are available for download. There are also 36 handouts for clients that can be downloaded and printed for clinical use.

An accessible guide to understand what trauma is, how PTSD is diagnosed, being aware that it can have a late onset, what can happen if it goes untreated--and how social media can be triggering our trauma Recovery from trauma and PTSD is an especially vital topic these days. Trauma is emotional stress that can stem from a wide variety of upsetting experiences, leaving us feeling anxious, weighed down by negative emotions or memories, or feeling like we lack security. No one's experience and recovery from it is the same. In Traumatized, as both a licensed clinical therapist and YouTube creator, Morton shares a unique perspective on trauma in the modern age, weaving the link between trauma and social media throughout the book--both the positive (how social media promotes mental health awareness) and the dark side of how social media can spread trauma. What social media platforms or accounts are detrimental to our mental health? How can we start paying attention to how we interact with them? What are the best ways to limit the amount of time we spend on certain sites or even unfollow accounts that seem to trigger that trauma response? Traumatized shares tools to manage what we (and our children) can see online.