Examines several current clinical approaches to trauma focused treatment, integrating these interventions into a broader clinical context. Emphasizes basic therapeutic skills such as empathic listening, instilling resilience, and creating meaning, in the service of empirically-supported, highly efficacious trauma interventions.
In this book, Steven Gold explains how contextual trauma therapy--specifically designed for survivors of multiple traumatic events and childhood developmental deprivation--not only promotes trauma resolution, but also provides a foundation for gratifying adult living.
How is an individual to lead a comfortable, productive existence when he or she was never taught the skills necessary for effective living? Adult survivors of child abuse often face this dilemma. Instead of being nurtured as children and taught life-skills by their caregivers, child abuse survivors were subjected to a daily regimen of coercive control, contempt, rejection and emotional unresponsiveness. It is not surprising, therefore, that many survivors encounter difficulty adjusting from this type of damaging childhood atmosphere to one in which they have autonomy. This book addresses the particular problems associated with treating adult survivors of child abuse. Until now, psychotherapy for child abuse survivors often centered on the trauma of their abuse experiences. However, survivors frequently reveal a history suggesting it was not abuse trauma alone that created their difficulties, but growing up essentially alone - without the consistent emotional support and guidance needed for development of effective functioning. This book presents an alternative to trauma-focused treatment that, though effective for treatment of other forms of trauma, can induce deteriorated rather than improved functioning in survivors of prolonged childhood maltreatment. The contextual therapy presented in Not Trauma Alone delineates a psychotherapeutic approach that emphasizes helping survivors develop the capacities for effective functioning that were never transmitted to them during their formative years. Detailed descriptions of the methods and interventions comprising contextual therapy are included in this critical book for all mental health professionals, clinicians, academics, and students in the field.
Focuses on understanding cultural and psychosocial contexts to promote optimal healing for disaster survivors This is the first book for mental health professionals working with survivors of mass trauma to focus on the psychosocial and culture contexts in which these disasters occur. It underscores the importance of understanding these environments in order to provide maximally effective mental health interventions for trauma survivors and their communities. Global in scope, the text addresses the foundations of understanding and responding to the mental health needs of individuals and groups healing from traumas created by a wide range of natural and human-made critical events, including acts of terrorism, armed conflict, genocide, and mass violence by individual perpetrators. Designed for professional training in disaster mental health, and meeting CACREP standards, the text promotes the knowledge and skills needed to work with the psychosocial aspects of individual and group adaptation and adjustment to mass traumatic experience. Reflecting state-of-the-art knowledge, the book offers detailed guidelines in assessment and brief interventions related to survivors’ posttraumatic stress symptoms and complex trauma associated with being at the epicenter of extraordinary stressful and traumatic events. In addition, this book also covers critical issues of self-care for the professional. Illustrated with first-person accounts of disaster survivors and case scenarios, this book emphasizes how counselors and other mental health professionals can foster resilience and wellness in individuals and communities affected by all types of disasters.Key Features: Considers disaster and mass trauma response from a culturally and globally relevant perspective—the first book of its kind Addresses CACREP’s clinical standards and content areas related to disaster mental health response Covers many types of disasters and categories of survivors Includes updated information on PTSD, complex trauma, and self-care Addresses cultivating resiliency in individual and group survivors along with social justice issues
"Few of the excellent models that have been developed for working with trauma survivors take into account the complexity of an individual's unique background and experience. Even treatment for members of "special groups" often ignores the individual's multilayered identities--which may include age, social class, ethnicity, religious faith, sexual orientation, and immigrant status--in favor of a "one-size-fits-all" approach. Drawing on her extensive clinical experience and the latest research, Laura Brown shows therapists how to become more sensitive to individual identity when working with clients who have suffered trauma. The author explains how culturally sensitive therapists draw upon multiple strategies for treating patients and are aware of both dominant group privilege and their own identity and culture. Of particular interest is a chapter on the role of systems of faith and meaning making in trauma therapy. The book has a practical focus and contains a variety of case studies illustrating how theoretical constructs can inform assessment and treatment. Given the ubiquity of trauma in its various forms, all therapists, from trainees to seasoned professionals, will find this volume educational and thought provoking"--Jacket. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2008 APA, all rights reserved).
Principles and Techniques of Trauma-Centered Psychotherapy integrates cognitive-behavioral, psychodynamic, and humanistic methods of trauma treatment into a psychotherapeutic context. Rather than presenting a unique form of intervention or technique, the authors present methods that have been used successfully, some of which are supported by evidence-based research and some by broad clinical experience. This is not a general text, then, but one focused on building competence and confidence in trauma-centered interventions, providing methods that should be readily and widely applicable to clinical practice. The authors recognize that asking a client about the details of a traumatic event is an intimate act that calls upon the therapist to be both compassionate and dispassionate in the service of the client's well-being. Accordingly, the book functions as a guide, instructing and supporting the clinician through this demanding and necessary work. The book has many useful features: The book stresses technique, not theory, and is appropriate for clinicians of any theoretical orientation, including cognitive-behavioral, psychodynamic, humanistic, and sociocultural. Similarly, the book will be useful to a range of clinicians, from psychiatrists and psychologists to social workers, marriage and family therapists, and professional counselors. Dozens of detailed clinical case examples are included that illustrate what to say and what not to say in the wide variety of situations that clinicians are likely to encounter. Down-to-earth strategies are included for setting up the proper trauma-centered frame for the therapeutic work, conducting a detailed trauma history, exploring the effects of the trauma on present-day behavior, and handling the inevitable disruptions in the therapeutic relationship. Valuable features include study questions, which conclude each chapter, and appendices, which provide a template for a consent-to-treatment form, a traumatic life events questionnaire, and a clinical assessment interview. In many long-term therapies, regardless of therapeutic orientation, a moment comes when the clinician or client realizes it is time to engage in a detailed exploration of traumatic events. Principles and Techniques of Trauma-Centered Psychotherapy is for that moment, and its rich clinical transcripts and vast detailed techniques will equip the therapist to embark on that process confidently, humanely, and effectively.
“Trauma-Focused ACT is going to go down as one of the great contributions to the field of trauma-informed care.” —Kirk Strosahl PhD, cofounder of ACT Trauma-Focused ACT (TFACT) provides a flexible, comprehensive model for treating the entire spectrum of trauma-related issues, including post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), addiction, depression, anxiety disorders, moral injury, chronic pain, shame, suicidality, insomnia, complicated grief, attachment issues, sexual problems, and more. Written by internationally acclaimed ACT trainer, Russ Harris, this textbook is for practitioners at all levels of experience, and offers exclusive access to free downloadable resources—including scripts, videos, MP3s, handouts, and worksheets. Discover cutting-edge strategies for healing the past, living in the present, and building a new future. With this compassion-based, exposure-centered approach, you’ll learn how to help your clients: Find safety and security in their bodies Overcome hyperarousal and hypoarousal Break free from dissociation Shift from self-hatred to self-compassion Rapidly ground themselves and reengage in life Unhook from difficult cognitions and emotions Develop an integrated sense of self Resolve traumatic memories through flexible exposure Connect with and live by their values Experience post-traumatic growth
Survivors of trauma are disproportionately represented in agencies providing a broad range of behavioral, social, and mental health services. Practitioners in these settings must understand and be able to respond to survivors of trauma in ways that are empowering, normalize and validate their experiences and reactions, and minimize the risk of retraumatization. Practitioners also will be indirectly traumatized as a result of their work with trauma survivors. Practitioners’ ability to help clients with histories of trauma depends upon clinical supervision that is trauma-informed. The trauma-informed supervisor has the dual responsibility of enhancing supervisees’ skills as trauma-informed practitioners and helping them manage the impact their work has on them. Nevertheless, many clinical supervisors only have limited knowledge and training in trauma and may not recognize either the needs of those whom they supervise or the clients their supervisees serve. This book compiles important recommendations from trauma-informed practitioners, supervisors, and researchers who share their professional reflections and personal stories based on their hands-on experiences across mental health and medical contexts. This book was originally published as a special issue of The Clinical Supervisor.
Thoroughly updated with DSM-5 content throughout, Principles of Trauma Therapy, Second Edition: DSM-5 Update is both comprehensive in scope and highly practical in application. This popular text provides a creative synthesis of cognitive-behavioral, relational, affect regulation, mindfulness, and psychopharmacologic approaches to the "real world" treatment of acute and chronic posttraumatic states. Grounded in empirically-supported trauma treatment techniques and adapted to the complexities of actual clinical practice, this book is a hands-on resource for front-line clinicians, those in private practice, and graduate students of public mental health
