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.

Some of Australia's leading trauma specialists provide a unique and systematic analysis of trauma reactions in both victims and their helpers.

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.

When one or both partners in a relationship experience a major traumatic event, the strain can really put the relationship in jeopardy; Healing Together offers couples simple techniques for communicating, regaining trust, and supporting one another through the process of trauma recovery.

This training manual for pateints who have suffered severe trauma includes a short educational piece, homework sheets, and exercises that promote essential emotional and life skills.

In 1996, representatives from 27 different countries met in Jerusalem to share ideas about traumatic stress and its impact. For many, this represented the first dialogue that they had ever had with a mental health professional from another country. Many of the attendees had themselves been exposed to either personal trauma or traumatizing stories involving their patients, and represented countries that were embroiled in conflicts with each other. Listening to one another became possible because of the humbling humanity of each participant, and the accuracy and objectivity of the data presented. Understanding human traumatization had thus become a common denomi nator, binding together all attendees. This book tries to capture the spirit of the Jerusalem World Conference on Traumatic Stress, bringing forward the diversities and commonalties of its constructive discourse. In trying to structure the various themes that arose, it was all too obvious that paradigms of different ways of conceiving of traumatic stress should be addressed first. In fact, the very idea that psychological trauma can result in mental health symptoms that should be treated has not yet gained universal acceptability. Even within medicine and mental health, competing approaches about the impact of trauma and the origins of symptoms abound. Part I discusses how the current paradigm of traumatic stress disorder developed within the historical, social, and process contexts. It also grapples with some of the difficulties that are presented by this paradigm from anthropologic, ethical, and scientific perspectives.

This accessible guide explores how our brains react to stress and offers a fresh perspective on how we define "trauma." Probing how the words we use can influence our understanding of distress, this text focuses on expanding awareness of excess stress and reducing judgment of its potential impact on relationships and day-to-day life. Helpfully split into three parts, the book introduces the terms "cortisprinkled," "cortisaturated," and "cortisoaked" and provides a rationale for why these states of brain occur. The role of culture and society are highlighted, and an in-depth focus on coping and offering support to others is presented. Whether caused by sexual assault, social rejection, abuse, the taboo of sexuality, disadvantaged status, or other difficulties, chapters detail specific coping skills and step-by-step strategies to deal with a variety of stress responses. Advice is offered on reconnecting with sexuality, phrasing difficult questions, and ways to offer validation, with concrete recommendations on incorporating healthier practices into everyday life. Both metaphor and real-world vignettes are interwoven throughout, making Redefining Trauma an essential and understandable resource for therapists and their clients, parents and support givers, and anyone looking to develop practical, informed methods for dealing with stress and trauma and reclaim life with intention.