Thriving After Trauma addresses readers who have experience trauma or loss due to a variety of experience – whether accident, abuse, or injury. Shari Botwin shows readers, through personal stories, how many who have experienced the worst kinds of trauma have managed to move on and thrive beyond their experiences. Often, those who live through trauma come away with feelings of shame, guilt, anger, and despair. These are common, even normal, responses in the immediate aftermath. Left unaddressed, though, those feelings may develop into substance abuse problems, eating disorders, depression, or anxiety. Learning how to move on, to pick up and live life again, takes effort and guidance. Botwin guides readers through the stories of others who have gone on to live fulfilling, happy lives, and provides tips and tools for healing and moving on. Letting go of the shame, guilt, anger and fear associated with tragic events is crucial to reclaiming a full life. Strategies such as, journaling, mindfulness, cognitive-behavioral restructuring, and healthy relationships to aid in recovery are explored and explained, so readers can adopt those strategies that work best for them. It is not the trauma itself that results in so many people developing self-destructive tendencies and life threatening illnesses. It is the lack of having a way to digest and make sense of the trauma-related feelings that can lead one to mental illness, disconnection, and in some cases, even death. Readers will learn how to live with the trauma versus how to get over the trauma, so they can move forward healthfully and mindfully.

'A week after my 50th birthday and just as our family was about to move home, something happened that changed the way I looked at life. I spoke to others about how they rebuilt their shattered worlds after very different personal traumas, emerging stronger than before. I hope our experiences, together with the latest science on resilience, will help guide all those going through tough times. This book says that it's possible not just to survive them, but to thrive. To rise.' Renowned as a much-loved and highly respected journalist and broadcaster with thirty years' experience, Sian Williams has studied the impact of acute stress for many years and is also a trained trauma assessor. In RISE, she explores the science of resilience and growth after trauma, offers advice from the experts, and learns from those who have emerged from horrific experiences, feeling changed yet stronger, with a new perspective on their life, their relationships and their work. She also documents her own path through breast cancer, with candid and unflinching honesty. Her story provides a narrative thread through a book designed to help others deal with all manner of adversity, including physical or mental ill health; loss of a loved one; abuse and post-traumatic stress. RISE is a deeply researched exploration of trauma, grief and illness, and most importantly resilience in the darkest of days. It is an inspiring and powerful piece of work, full of honesty, warmth and wisdom.

Examines the feelings of loneliness and mistrust suffered by trauma survivors, explores how these feelings affect personal relationships, and suggests ways of negotiating and coping with the trauma for improved relationships.

Thema Bryant-Davis examines the cultural issues that health-care professionals need to consider in caring for trauma survivors.

Victim To Survivor and Thriver: Carole's StoryHope for survivors of childhood trauma, abuse or neglect.By Barbara Harris WhitfieldCarole was a victim of repeated child abuse. Her story demonstrates the deep healing that is possible with knowledge, the courage to face buried pain, and the love of safe others.Her riveting true story is intertwined with my life and that of my husband Charles Whitfield, MD (author of the bestselling Healing the Child Within). This is our story, too, of walking together with Carole along her path of recovery. As you read, you will learn how Carole transformed her suffering and loss, a "less-than" life-- into joy for living and even serenity.This is not a fictional account, nor has it been scrubbed clean of the horrors of living with childhood abuse and neglect. In fact, Carole's story contains a depth of sadness that only the adults that were repeatedly abused as children may understand. Carole broke through --awoke-- to find joy and laughter mixed with the tears of her realizations and she turned them into strength, hope, confidence and finally peace. This story of triumph over abuse is for all victims and those who care for them; clinicians as well as loved ones.This story demonstrates that: 1) When we think of ourselves as "victims" we believe we are "depressed."2) When we enter into our own healing process, we become "survivors" and experience the bittersweet movement of our emotional pain.3) Finally, with the support of safe others --we become "Thrivers" and live without fear. We become fully awake and alive. We discover who we really are and we find serenity. In this story I share my experiences and research into Near-Death Experiences. Charles Whitfield brings to bear his knowledge and experience with healing childhood trauma. And then the reader can witness Carole sopping up our knowledge and love like a sponge. So may you. Quotes from Carole's Story: "The thunderstorms are just as beautiful as a sunny day. And so is life!""Carole's story is beautiful and contains thunderstorms and sunny days --and they are all framed with the courage and love we shared!" This book includes the latest research from the Centers for Disease Control on the Adverse Childhood Experience (ACE) Study.It was reviewed by former victims who have experienced the movement of survivorship and then the transcendence to Thrivership.If you or someone you know has gone through repeated abuse or trauma of any kind, then this powerful story may bring what you have longed for -- a way to heal, a way out of suffering, and the knowledge that you are not alone.www.barbarawhitfield.com

Introducing a proven, pioneering program that empowers trauma survivors to take control of their recovery through imaginative exercises Over the last thirty-five years, our understanding of trauma has dramatically changed. We now know that most people live through at least one traumatic event—which can cause disorders that range from depression, addiction, and anxiety, to cardiovascular disease and diabetes. But when leading German psychotherapist Luise Reddemann became head of a psychosomatic clinic in 1985, many doctors were routinely dismissive of patients’ trauma. Dr. Reddemann has devoted her career to this question: How can survivors of complex trauma and PTSD heal—and even help themselves to heal? In Who You Were Before Trauma, she presents her groundbreaking method, along with positive therapeutic strategies, to therapists and patients alike. Psychodynamic Imaginative Trauma Therapy (PITT) incorporates imagination work at every stage of the three-phase trauma therapy model: Establish safety and stabilization Come to terms with traumatic memories Integrate and reconnect with others. By guiding patients to unearth their buried strengths, envision an inner refuge, evoke helpful guiding figures, and ultimately build an “internal counterweight” to their trauma, Reddemann’s approach avoids the counterproductive dynamic where the therapist becomes the patient’s only source of comfort. This definitive trauma resource shows the way to empower survivors—by making them true partners in their recovery.

Through this collection of case histories, the physiology of trauma is explained in a clear way that is easy to understand. On the pages of this book, you will see how the confounding effects of trauma can prevent the connection that fuels all human development. Learn how people of all ages have found freedom through Neuro-Reformatting and Integration (NRI), a revolutionary, biologically-based model of treatment. This is not about coping, but finding the key to maximizing your potential after traumatic events. There is more to life than surviving! Foreword by Thomas Lee Reynolds, M.D.