Trauma and the Supernatural in Psychotherapy explores how traumatic experience interacts with unconscious phantasy based in folklore, the supernatural, and the occult. Drawing upon psychoanalysis, anthropology, the arts, and esoteric philosophy, Alex Monk presents examples from folklore and literature to enrich his case illustrations which offer therapists important clinical perspectives on ways of working with clients who feel cursed and repeatedly manifest self-sabotaging states. The book examines the challenges that can arise when working with this client population and illustrates how to work through them while navigating potent transferences and projective identifications. Monk illustrates the way in which clients with developmental trauma may experience the supernatural and its psychic representatives as persecutory and/or a source of empowerment and healing. Trauma and the Supernatural in Psychotherapy also considers the historically conflicted relationship between psychoanalysis and the supernatural and proposes treatment perspectives which are not implicitly dependent upon a materialist paradigm. This book will be of great interest to psychotherapists and counsellors who have an interest in clinical work concerning the connection of relational trauma to unconscious forms of communication and uncanny phenomena arising between therapist and client.
Does my life have any deeper meaning? Does God really care about me? How can I find and follow my moral compass? What do I do when my faith is shaken to the core? Spiritual trials, doubts, or conflicts are often intertwined with mental health concerns, yet many psychotherapists feel ill equipped to discuss questions of faith. From pioneers in the psychology of religion and spirituality, this book combines state-of-the-art research, clinical insights, and vivid case illustrations. It guides clinicians to understand spiritual struggles as critical crossroads in life that can lead to brokenness and decline--or to greater wholeness and growth. Clinicians learn sensitive, culturally responsive ways to assess different types of spiritual struggles and help clients use them as springboards to change.
Trauma and the Soul, continues the work Kalsched began in The Inner World of Trauma - exploring the mystical or spiritual moments that can occur during psychoanalytic work.
This book investigates the psychological toll of conflict in the Middle East during the twentieth century, including discussion of how spiritual and religious frameworks influence practice and theory. The concept of mental health treatment in war-torn Middle Eastern nations is painfully understudied. In Disturbing Spirits, Beverly A. Tsacoyianis blends social, cultural, and medical history research methods with approaches in disability and trauma studies to demonstrate that the history of mental illness in Syria and Lebanon since the 1890s is embedded in disparate—but not necessarily mutually exclusive—ideas about legitimate healing. Tsacoyianis examines the encounters between “Western” psychiatry and local practices and argues that the attempt to implement “modern” cosmopolitan biomedicine for the last 120 years has largely failed—in part because of political instability and political traumas and in part because of narrow definitions of modern medicine that excluded spirituality and locally meaningful cultural practices. Analyzing hospital records, ethnographic data, oral history research, historical fiction, and journalistic nonfiction, Tsacoyianis claims that psychiatrists presented mental health treatment to Syrians and Lebanese not only as a way to control or cure mental illness but also as a modernizing worldview to combat popular ideas about jinn-based origins of mental illness and to encourage acceptance of psychiatry. Treatment devoid of spiritual therapies ultimately delegitimized psychiatry among lower classes. Tsacoyianis maintains that tensions between psychiatrists and vernacular healers developed as political transformations devastated collective and individual psyches and disrupted social order. Scholars working on healing in the modern Middle East have largely studied either psychiatric or non-biomedical healing, but rarely their connections to each other or to politics. In this groundbreaking work, Tsacoyianis connects the discussion of global responsibility to scholarly debates about human suffering and the moral call to caregiving. Disturbing Spirits will interest students and scholars of the history of medicine and public health, Middle Eastern studies, and postcolonial literature.
This book brings the wisdom of the ancient healing practice of shamanism together with the insights of contemporary psychology to provide an integrated approach to the treatment of traumatic symptoms.'Soulfulness' has two historic shamanic roots: Mayan and Native American psychology - a psychology of Self - as expressed in the many aspects of the Medicine Wheel, the wheel of health and wholeness; and the Shamanic Journey and Soul Retrieval, as practiced in traditional societies throughout the world, notably the Tungus tribes of Siberia. This book presents the ancient wisdom of shamanic theory and practice in a form which is fit for use within the mainstream of twenty-first century psychotherapeutic endeavour, including an extensive explanation of Shamanic Psychology and a practical description of the ceremonies of the Shamanic Journey and Soul Retrieval.
Psychodynamic therapy has a growing evidence base, is cost-effective, and may have unique mechanisms of clinical change. However, gaining competence in this approach generally requires extensive training and mastery of a large and complex literature. Integrating clinical theory and research findings, Psychodynamic Therapy Techniques provides comprehensive but practical guidance on the main interventions of contemporary psychodynamic practice. Early chapters describe the psychodynamic "stance" and illustrate effective means of identifying and understanding clinical problems. Later, the book describes how to question, clarify, confront, and interpret patient material as well as assess the clinical impacts of interventions. With these foundational tools in place, the book supplements the "classic" psychodynamic therapy techniques with six sets of supportive interventions helpful for lower-functioning patients or those in acute crisis. Complete with step-by-step instructions on how to prepare techniques as well as numerous clinical vignettes to illustrate their use in clinical settings, Psychodynamic Therapy Techniques effectively demystifies this important approach to therapy and helps practitioners more effectively apply them to a wide range of patients and problems.
The only comprehensive text to focus on trauma, stress, crisis, and disaster counseling from a clinical practice perspective This overarching text, intended both for mental health practitioners-in-training and for practicing clinicians, focuses on the impact of stress, crisis, trauma, and disaster on diverse populations across the lifespan as well as on effective treatment strategies. The second edition is newly grounded in a "trauma scaffold," providing foundational information that therapists can build upon, step-by-step, to treat individuals affected by more complex trauma events. This resource newly addresses the mental health implications of COVID-19, which has had an enormous impact on multitudes of people since the beginning of the pandemic, its repercussions likely to continue for some time into the future. The text also is updated to provide the most recent diagnostic information regarding trauma in the DSM-5. Two new chapters address the confluence of crises related to anthropogenic climate change and the effects of mass violence. This unrivalled resource emphasizes stress management and crisis intervention skills as important building blocks for working with more complex issues of trauma and disaster. It underscores the idea that trauma must be approached from multiple perspectives and in multiple dimensions encompassing individual, community, societal, and systemic implications along with multicultural and diversity frames of reference. The text integrates the latest findings from neuropsychology and psychopharmacology with an emphasis on Polyvagal Theory. Additionally, the text highlights the importance of clinical supervision in trauma care and examines ethical dimensions and the need for self-care among trauma counselors. Purchase includes digital access for use on most mobile devices or computers. New to the Second Edition: Reconceptualizes the text with the concept of a "Trauma Scaffold" as a foundation upon which to understand and develop treatment for increasingly complex trauma events Addresses the COVID-19 pandemic and its profound effect on the mental health of vast numbers of people Includes two new chapters on the confluence of crises related to anthropogenic climate change and the effects of mass violence Includes PowerPoint slides to accompany an updated Instructor's Manual Key Features: Delivers both introductory and advanced clinical information addressing complex trauma Addresses trauma from a bioecological framework with emphasis on trauma-informed practices, multicultural pluralism, diversity, and social justice Considers neurobiological responses to trauma with new research and the contributions of Polyvagal Theory Examines individual, familial, community, society, and systemic understandings of stress, crisis, trauma, and disaster Includes a wealth of resources for further study, text boxes, and case studies to reinforce learning
This book argues that Freud’s mapping of trauma as a scene is central to both his clinical interpretation of his patients’ symptoms and his construction of successive theoretical models and concepts to explain the power of such scenes in his patients’ lives. This attention to the scenic form of trauma and its power in determining symptoms leads to Freud’s break from the neurological model of trauma he inherited from Charcot. It also helps to explain the affinity that Freud and many since him have felt between psychoanalysis and literature (and artistic production more generally), and the privileged role of literature at certain turning points in the development of his thought. It is Freud’s scenography of trauma and fantasy that speaks to the student of literature and painting. Overall, the book develops the thesis of Jean Laplanche that in Freud’s shift from a traumatic to a developmental model, along with the undoubted gains embodied in the theory of infantile sexuality, there were crucial losses: specifically, the recognition of the role of the adult other and the traumatic encounter with adult sexuality that is entailed in the ordinary nurture and formation of the infantile subject.
Distinguished clinicians demonstrate how play and creativity have everything to do with the deepest healing, growth, and personal transformation. Through play, as children, we learn the rules and relationships of culture and expand our tolerance of emotions—areas of life "training" that overlap with psychotherapy. Here leading writers illuminate what play and creativity mean for the healing process at any stage of life. Contributors include: Mihály Csíkszentmihályi, Daniel J. Siegel, Marion Solomon, Aldrich Chan, Allan Schore, Terry Marks-Tarlow, Pat Ogden, Louis Cozolino, Theresa Kestly, Jaak Panksepp, Stuart Brown, Madelyn Eberly, Zoe Galvez, Betsy Crouch, Bonnie Goldstein, and Steve Gross.
With astonishing honesty, this memoir reveals what mental illness looks and feels like from the inside, and how healing from borderline personality disorder is possible through intensive therapy and the support of loved ones. With astonishing honesty, this memoir, Get Me Out of Here, reveals what mental illness looks and feels like from the inside, and how healing from borderline personality disorder is possible through intensive therapy and the support of loved ones. A mother, wife, and working professional, Reiland was diagnosed with borderline personality disorder at the age of 29--a diagnosis that finally explained her explosive anger, manipulative behaviors, and self-destructive episodes including bouts of anorexia, substance abuse, and promiscuity. A truly riveting read with a hopeful message. Excerpt: "My hidden secrets were not well-concealed. The psychological profile had been right as had the books on BPD. I was manipulative, desperately clinging and prone to tantrums, explosiveness, and frantic acts of desperation when I did not feel the intimacy connection was strong enough. The tough chick loner act of self-reliance was a complete facade."
