A neuroscientist explores how trauma impacts the brain, especially for women—and how we can learn to heal ourselves Everyone experiences trauma. Whether a specific harrowing event or a series of stressful moments that culminate over time, trauma can echo and etch itself into our brain as we remember it again and again throughout our lives. In Everyday Trauma, neuroscientist Dr. Tracey Shors examines trauma with a focus on its pervasive nature—how it can happen at any time, through big or small events, and how it often reappears in the form of encoded memory. Her research reveals that when we are reminded of our trauma, reliving that tragic moment copies yet another memory of it in our brain, making it that much more difficult to forget. Dr. Shors also explores the neuroscience behind why women in particular are more vulnerable to stress and traumatic events, setting them up to be three times more likely than men to suffer PTSD. With potential long-term consequences such as addiction, anxiety, depression, and PTSD, trauma can have a lasting impact on both the brain and body. Dr. Shors illuminates the effective tools that can reduce the repetitive thoughts that reinforce our traumas, including cognitive-based therapies and trauma-informed care such as her own groundbreaking program, a combination of mental and physical training called MAP Training. By understanding how our brain responds to trauma and practicing proven techniques that can train our brains and help us let go of our tragic memories—whatever they may be—we are better equipped to leave our traumatic pasts behind and live in a brighter present.

Can a long-forgotten memory of a horrible event suddenly resurface years later? How can we know whether a memory is true or false? Seven spellbinding cases shed light on why it is rare for a reclaimed memory to be wholly false. Here are unforgettable true stories of what happens when people remember what they've tried to forget -- plus one case of genuine false memory. In the best detective-story fashion, using her insights as a psychiatrist and the latest research on the mind and the brain, Lenore Terr helps us separate truth from fiction.

What potential does psychotherapy have for mediating the impact of childhood developmental trauma on adult life? Combining knowledge from trauma-focused work, understandings of the developmental brain and the neurodynamics of psychotherapy, the authors explain how good care and poor care in childhood influence adulthood. They provide scientific background to deepen understanding of childhood developmental trauma. They introduce principles of therapeutic change and how and why mind-body and brain-based approaches are so effective in the treatment of developmental trauma. The book focuses in particular on Pesso Boyden System Psychotherapy (PBSP) which uniquely combines and integrates key processes of mind-body work that can facilitate positive change in adult survivors of childhood maltreatment. Through client stories Petra Winnette and Jonathan Baylin describe the clinical application of PBSP and the underlying neuropsychological concepts upon which it is based. Working with Traumatic Memories to Heal Adults with Unresolved Childhood Trauma has applications relevant to psychotherapists, psychologists and psychiatrists working with clients who have experienced trauma.

Decipher the complex interplay of neurology, psychology, trauma, and memory!In the midst of the controversies over how repressed, false, and recovered memories should be interpreted, Trauma and Cognitive Science presents reliable original research instead of rhetoric. This landmark volume examines the way different traumas influence memory, information processing, and suggestibility. The research provides testable theories on why people forget some kinds of childhood abuse and other traumas. It bridges the cognitive science and clinical approaches to traumatic stress studies.Written by the foremost researchers in the field, including Bessel van der Kolk and Jennifer Freyd, these scientific evaluations of the way traumatic memories are processed offer powerful new perspectives on the interplay of biology and psychology. Trauma and Cognitive Science discusses a range of traumas, including combat, child abuse, and sexual assault across the lifespan. Fascinating perceptual experiments shed light on the cognitive uses of dissociation, the encoding and recall of memory, and the effects of early trauma on subsequent information processing. Trauma and Cognitive Science offers solid information on the most challenging questions in this field: How is memory encoded, stored, and retrieved? How is it forgotten? How does trauma influence these processes? What kinds of memories can be created by suggestion? What physical changes take place in the brain under traumatic stress? How is consciousness disturbed during and after trauma? What are the ethical, clinical, and societal implications of traumatic stress studies? How can people suffering from traumatic memories be healed? Trauma and Cognitive Science also offers an astonishing array of true case studies, including the story of an adult woman who was raped, went to court, and saw her rapist convicted--and then forgot the whole traumatic episode. The independently corroborated accounts of recovered memories and the carefully designed research studies on multiple modes and levels of memory may offer the key to understanding how we remember and why we forget. The results of these controlled scientific studies have wide-ranging implications for abuse survivors, combat veterans, rape victims, and people who have survived traumatic events from earthquakes to car accidents. Written in clear, accessible prose, Trauma and Cognitive Science belongs on the bookshelf of all mental health professionals, researchers in the areas of traumatic stress and child abuse, attorneys, judges, and survivors of abuse and trauma.

Originally published by Viking Penguin, 2014.

Love is one of the most exhilarating emotions we experience--unfortunately, it is also one of the most painful and sometimes traumatic. The unresolved emotional scars from a broken heart can manifest as a "love trauma syndrome." Until now, a love trauma was thought to precipitate other common psychiatric conditions, such as depression or adjustment disorders, but these generic psychiatric ailments are not adequate for articulating the full and unique character of the condition following love trauma. The Love Trauma Syndrome: Free Yourself from the Pain of a Broken Heart fills the need of patients feeling isolated, ashamed, or alone in their anguish. Dr. Richard Rosse, a psychiatrist with expertise in the area of emotional breakdown, provides a concrete path to help people understand this condition. At times, the syndrome can seriously diminish the sufferer's quality of life, and dramatically impair social, academic, and occupational activities. Dr. Rosse warns that there can also be bouts of severe manifestations, things go horribly wrong. Patients may end up committing suicide. A few become so obsessed by their lost loves that they are driven to stalk, attack, or murder these persons and then ultimately commit suicide. However, most patients suffer alone and in silence without ever resorting to an act of physical violence.Dr. Rosse clearly explains that Love Trauma Syndrome is a clinical disorder of "too much memory" in which the past intrudes upon the present to influence thoughts, feelings, and behaviors to a much greater extent than is expected. It can also be associated with a variety of other behavioral problems: the avoidance of future loving relationships, nervousness, feeling "unreal" or out of place, anger, and sleep disturbances. The book will educate mental health clinicians on how to recognize and treat people with the syndrome, and Dr. Rosse discusses a variety of psychotherapeutic and pharmacological treatment options and their rationale.The Love Trauma Syndrome is the first book to describe the condition and to present a full array of self-help strategies and specific techniques tailored to help those suffering from a love trauma. Designed for both lay and professional audiences, it is the ideal resource for anyone--male or female, young or old, gay or straight--hurt by love to understand what to do to escape the bleak prison of misery.