Developmental Couple Therapy for Complex Trauma provides therapists with comprehensive and practical guidance for integrating DCTCT into their work with traumatized couples. The book includes an evidence-based framework which emphasizes the importance of containing conflict and helps clients to build emotional regulation and mentalizing skills. The framework is an invaluable asset to all clinicians working with couples dealing with the ravaging impacts of complex trauma, who may not be able to benefit from traditional forms of couple therapy due to challenges in regulating emotions, mentalizing and other aspects of the complex trauma response that limit capacity to engage in relationships and couple therapy. The chapters guide you through the four key stages of DCTCT: Psychoeducation, Building Capacity, Dyadic Processing, and Consolidation. Each stage has accompanying activities and narratives in which to engage traumatized couples and includes a variety of case transcripts to illustrate the approach. Throughout the manual the author provides the reader with: insights from real-world scenarios based on her extensive clinical experience; worksheets that can be used as part of the therapeutic process; systematic analyses of the therapeutic process from the therapist’s point of view; comprehensive recommendations for further reading so that you can develop your expertise in any area of DCTCT. Never losing sight of the fact that the therapist plays an essential role as a coach and mentor for those undertaking couple therapy, this manual is a valuable tool for any clinician working to engage traumatized couples and equip them with the skills they need to develop and maintain a strong and vibrant couple relationship.
This insightful guide provides a pragmatic roadmap for treating adult survivors of complex psychological trauma. Christine Courtois and Julian Ford present their effective, research-based approach for helping clients move through three clearly defined phases of posttraumatic recovery. Two detailed case examples run throughout the book, illustrating how to plan and implement strengths-based interventions that use a secure therapeutic alliance as a catalyst for change. Essential topics include managing crises, treating severe affect dysregulation and dissociation, and dealing with the emotional impact of this type of work. The companion Web page offers downloadable reflection questions for clinicians and extensive listings of professional and self-help resources. See also Drs. Courtois and Ford's edited volumes, Treating Complex Traumatic Stress Disorders (Adults) and Treating Complex Traumatic Stress Disorders in Children and Adolescents, which present research on the nature of complex trauma and review evidence-based treatment models.
With contributions from prominent experts, this pragmatic book takes a close look at the nature of complex psychological trauma in children and adolescents and the clinical challenges it presents. Each chapter shows how a complex trauma perspective can provide an invaluable unifying framework for case conceptualization, assessment, and intervention amidst the chaos and turmoil of these young patients' lives. A range of evidence-based and promising therapies are reviewed and illustrated with vivid case vignettes. The volume is grounded in clinical innovations and cutting-edge research on child and adolescent brain development, attachment, and emotion regulation, and discusses diagnostic criteria, including those from DSM-IV and DSM-5. See also Drs. Ford and Courtois's edited volume Treating Complex Traumatic Stress Disorders in Adults, Second Edition, and their authored volume, Treatment of Complex Trauma: A Sequenced, Relationship-Based Approach.
This “well-organized, valuable” guide draws from somatic-based psychotherapy and neuroscience to offer “clear guidance” for coping with childhood trauma (Peter Levine, author of Waking the Tiger and In an Unspoken Voice). Although it may seem that people suffer from an endless number of emotional problems and challenges, Laurence Heller and Aline LaPierre maintain that most of these can be traced to five biologically based organizing principles: the need for connection, attunement, trust, autonomy, and love-sexuality. They describe how early trauma impairs the capacity for connection to self and others and how the ensuing diminished aliveness is the hidden dimension that underlies most psychological and many physiological problems. Heller and LaPierre introduce the NeuroAffective Relational Model® (NARM), a method that integrates bottom-up and top-down approaches to regulate the nervous system and resolve distortions of identity such as low self-esteem, shame, and chronic self-judgment that are the outcome of developmental and relational trauma. While not ignoring a person’s past, NARM emphasizes working in the present moment to focus on clients’ strengths, resources, and resiliency in order to integrate the experience of connection that sustains our physiology, psychology, and capacity for relationship.
Presenting an evidence-based treatment for couples in which one or both partners suffer from posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), this step-by-step manual is packed with practical clinical guidance and tools. The therapy is carefully structured to address both PTSD symptoms and associated relationship difficulties in a time-limited framework. It is grounded in cutting-edge knowledge about interpersonal aspects of trauma and its treatment. Detailed session outlines and therapist scripts facilitate the entire process of assessment, case conceptualization, and intervention. In a large-size format for easy photocopying, the book includes 50 reproducible handouts and forms.
In Quest of the Mythical Mate presents a valuable and fertile developmental model for diagnosing and treating couples that is flexible enough to incorporate a wide variety of intervention strategies, yet purposeful enough to give a clear sense of direction to couples in distress. As such, this volume provides a powerful therapeutic approach for all professionals who treat couples.
Through the attentive examination of a single case study, this book weaves together the lived experiences of a clinician in training with those of their teenage patient, as they collectively navigate and overcome the profound effects of early relational trauma on the development of the self. By the care taken in their analysis, the book's authors deepen readers' understanding of attachment disorders and their clinical presentation whilst allowing for a uniquely human view of the interactions between patient and clinician. Elegantly combining poetic prose with a clinical account, this book invites readers to travel with the clinician, to think and feel in tandem with his subjective experiences, and to explore psychoanalytic and systems theory as a means to understand clinical relationships that are seldom written about with such vulnerability. It is a story of determination and growth both moving and enlightening. By giving form to the resilience of both patient and clinician, their mutual strength through "tears of change", this book expounds the behavioral consequences and treatment of psychopathologies associated with early relational trauma. In this way, the book will prove essential for all psychoanalysts and psychotherapists working with traumatized children and adolescents.
This book provides psychotherapists with a multidimensional view of childhood neglect and a practical roadmap for facilitating survivors’ healing. Working from a strong base in attachment theory, esteemed clinician Ruth Cohn explores ways therapists can recognize the signs of childhood neglect, provides recommendations for understanding lasting effects that can persist into adulthood, and lays out strategies for helping clients maximize therapeutic outcomes. Along with extensive clinical material, chapters introduce skills that therapists can develop and hone, such as the ability to recognize and discern non-verbal attempts at communication. They also provide an array of resources and evidence-based treatment modalities that therapists can use in session. Working with the Developmental Trauma of Childhood Neglect is an essential book for any mental health professional working with survivors of childhood trauma.
This read truly does have something for everyone who works with trauma and dissociative processes. --American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis This volume, which takes a multi-perspective approach to the practice of EMDR and Ego State Therapy, presents a wide variety of ways to integrate these two therapies, both with each other and with other complementary methods in the treatment of trauma and dissociation. --European Association for Body Psychotherapy EMDRIA has approved this book for a Distance Learning Book Course for 8 EMDRIA credits. This book pioneers the integration of EMDR with ego state techniques. and opens new and exciting vistas for the practitioners of each. --From the foreword by John G. Watkins, PhD, founder of ego state therapy This read truly does have something for everyone who works with trauma and dissociative processes. --American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis The editors have gathered many experts in the field who explain in clear informative ways how to expand the clinician's abilities to work with this terribly injured population. This book blends concepts from neurobiology, hypnosis, family systems theory and cognitive therapy to enhance treating this population. It is a well written book that the novice as well as the seasoned clinician can benefit from." --Mark Dworkin, author of EMDR and the Relational Imperative [This book] conveys complex concepts that will be of interest to seasoned therapists... with a clarity that will appeal to the novice as well. This is really a wonderful text with many excellent ideas and I highly recommend it to anyone who treats trauma. --Sarah Chana Radcliffe, M.Ed.,C.Psych.Assoc. Author, Raise Your Kids without Raising Your Voice "I believe that this book is a significant contribution to the fields of psychology and EMDR. It is the first of its kind... anyone who reads this will gain greater confidence in using EMDR and ego state therapy witih highly dissociative and complicated clients." --Sara G. Gilman, in Journal of EMDR Practice and Research, Volume 3, 2009 This is a book about polypsychism and trauma. It offers a number of creative syntheses of EMDR with several models of polypsychism. It also surveys and includes many other models of contemporary trauma theory and treatment techniques. The reader will appreciate its enrichment with case examples and very generous bibliographic material. If you are a therapist who works with patients who have been traumatized, you will want this book in your library." --Claire Frederick, MD, Distinguished Consulting Faculty, Saybrook Graduate School and Research Center Training in EMDR seems to have spread rapidly among therapists in recent years. In the process, awareness is growing that basic EMDR training may not be adequate to prepare clinicians to effectively treat the many cases of complex trauma and dissociation that are likely to be encountered in general practice. By integrating it with ego state therapy, this book may just serve as a crucial turning point in the development of EMDR by providing a model for productively applying it to the treatment of this important and sizeable clinical population. --Steven N. Gold, PhD, President Elect, APA Division of Trauma The powerful benefits of EMDR in treating PTSD have been solidly validated. In this groundbreaking new work nine master clinicians show how complex PTSD involving dissociation and other challenging diagnoses can be treated safely and effectively. They stress the careful preparation of clients for EMDR and the inclusion of ego state therapy to target the dissociated ego states that arise in response to severe and prolonged trauma.
This book provides a theoretical framework and a practical model of intervention for distressed couples whose relationships are affected by the echoes of trauma. Combining attachment theory, trauma research, and emotionally focused therapeutic techniques, Susan M. Johnson guides the clinician in modifying the interactional patterns that maintain traumatic stress and fostering positive, healing relationships among survivors and their partners. In-depth case material brings to life the process of assessment and treatment with couples coping with the impact of different kinds of trauma, including childhood abuse, serious illness, and combat experiences. The concluding chapter features valuable advice on therapist self-care.
