How mindfulness can help trauma survivors move to places of healing. Trauma touches every life, but the way that we hold our pain makes a difference. Mindfulness Skills for Trauma and PTSD provides user-friendly descriptions of the many facets of traumatic stress alongside evidence-based strategies to manage trauma symptoms and build new strengths. This book is a valuable resource for trauma survivors, health professionals, researchers, mindfulness practitioners, and others seeking new pathways to recovery and resilience. It is normal to feel anxious or depressed after trauma, and to have upsetting thoughts and memories. Instead of fighting our feelings and blaming ourselves for what are actually common responses to trauma, mindfulness practices can help us tolerate and decrease distress, cultivate kindness towards ourselves and others, make wise choices, navigate attention, improve relationships, and relax—capacities that reduce trauma symptoms and advance our overall well-being. Practicing the small stuff can help us with the big stuff. As we learn to notice our breathing, walking, minor frustrations or daily activities with curiosity and care, we build inner resources to skillfully handle past trauma, as well as current and future challenges. Mindfulness practices can transform self-blame into self-respect and self-compassion. We can also match specific mindfulness skills to particular trauma symptoms. For example, “grounding” with the five senses can help us when we feel overwhelmed or spaced out, and loving-kindness meditation can alleviate self-criticism. With this book, you will explore scientifically supported mindfulness practices, plus “In their own words” sections that illustrate the skills with personal stories demonstrating how mindfulness practices have helped others recover from trauma. “Research highlight” sections showcase fascinating scientific studies that form the basis for the book's approaches. As we practice effective strategies to handle a full range of experiences, we can each find new sources of hope, connection, and peace.

Post-traumatic stress isn’t your fault. Many people suffer traumatic events, which can lead to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and debilitating symptoms. This evidence-based book delivers easy-to-use mindfulness skills that can be used as needed to alleviate symptoms and promote healing. Some people heal naturally after they experience a traumatic event, but some trauma lasts and can develop into PTSD, with symptoms like depression, anxiety, panic, flashbacks, difficulty sleeping, or losing interest in life. You may find yourself on the sidelines, disengaged from your own life, with little sense of who you are and how to relate to others. The body, heart, and mind are all profoundly affected by trauma; in this way it can live on, causing a serious disconnect and a state of imbalance in which you’re always in survival mode. How do you move on? This book is designed to target the most common symptoms of post-traumatic stress and PTSD, providing mindfulness-based practices to help relieve your symptoms and increase self-compassion. Offering meditations for reconnection with your body, heart, mind, and life, this guide presents a unique, evidence-based way to heal the disconnects and help you re-engage. Instead of getting stuck reliving your trauma or worrying about it happening again, these mindful meditations will ground you in the present moment and enable you to better cope with unpleasant thoughts and feelings as they arise—and then let them go. With Meditations for Healing Trauma, you’ll explore your experience of post-traumatic stress and learn how the healing power of mindfulness can free you from suffering and bring back connection and balance to your life every day. This book will help you cultivate a wise mind and heart for regaining peace and well-being in the present moment—anytime, anyplace.

"[A] rare combination of solid scholarship, clinically useful methods, and passionate advocacy for those who have suffered trauma." —Rick Hanson, PhD, author of Buddha's Brain: The Practical Neuroscience of Happiness, Love, and Wisdom From elementary schools to psychotherapy offices, mindfulness meditation is an increasingly mainstream practice. At the same time, trauma remains a fact of life: the majority of us will experience a traumatic event in our lifetime, and up to 20% of us will develop posttraumatic stress. This means that anywhere mindfulness is being practiced, someone in the room is likely to be struggling with trauma. At first glance, this appears to be a good thing: trauma creates stress, and mindfulness is a proven tool for reducing it. But the reality is not so simple. Drawing on a decade of research and clinical experience, psychotherapist and educator David Treleaven shows that mindfulness meditation—practiced without an awareness of trauma—can exacerbate symptoms of traumatic stress. Instructed to pay close, sustained attention to their inner world, survivors can experience flashbacks, dissociation, and even retraumatization. This raises a crucial question for mindfulness teachers, trauma professionals, and survivors everywhere: How can we minimize the potential dangers of mindfulness for survivors while leveraging its powerful benefits? Trauma-Sensitive Mindfulness offers answers to this question. Part I provides an insightful and concise review of the histories of mindfulness and trauma, including the way modern neuroscience is shaping our understanding of both. Through grounded scholarship and wide-ranging case examples, Treleaven illustrates the ways mindfulness can help—or hinder—trauma recovery. Part II distills these insights into five key principles for trauma-sensitive mindfulness. Covering the role of attention, arousal, relationship, dissociation, and social context within trauma-informed practice, Treleaven offers 36 specific modifications designed to support survivors’ safety and stability. The result is a groundbreaking and practical approach that empowers those looking to practice mindfulness in a safe, transformative way.

An indispensable resource for mental health professionals, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy for the Treatment of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and Trauma-Related Problems offers a practical and accessible yet theoretically complete approach to using the principles of acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) to treat post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and acute trauma-related symptoms.

If you’ve experienced a traumatic event, you may feel a wide range of emotions, such as anxiety, anger, fear, and depression. The truth is that there is no right or wrong way to react to trauma; but there are ways that you can heal from your experience, and uncover your own capacity for resilience, growth, and recovery. Overcoming Trauma and PTSD offers proven-effective treatments based in acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), dialectical behavior therapy (DBT), and cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) to help you overcome both the physical and emotional symptoms of trauma and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). This book will help you find relief from painful flashbacks, insomnia, or other symptoms you might be experiencing. Also included are worksheets, checklists, and exercises to help you start feeling better and begin your journey on the road to recovery. This book will help you manage your anxiety and stop avoiding certain situations, cope with painful memories and nightmares, and determine if you need to see a therapist. Perhaps most importantly, it will help you to develop a support system so that you can you heal and move forward.

Trauma-Informed Mindfulness (TIM) was developed by British Psychologist Dr Nikki Kiyimba to introduce mindfulness practices safely on a one-to-one or small group basis to individuals who have experienced psychological trauma. TIM is an innovative modular system of components that draws upon established models of trauma-informed care, and a wealth of clinical experience in working with people who have experienced trauma.

This pragmatic workbook offers evidence-based skills grounded in dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) to help you find lasting relief from trauma and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). If you’ve experienced trauma, you should know that there is nothing wrong with you. Trauma is a normal reaction to an abnormal event. Sometimes, the symptoms of trauma persist long after the traumatic situation has ceased. This is what we call PTSD—in other words, the “trauma after the trauma.” This happens when the aftereffects of trauma—such anxiety, depression, anger, fear, insomnia, and even addiction—end up causing more ongoing harm than the trauma itself. So, how can you start healing? With this powerful and proven-effective workbook, you’ll find practical exercises for overcoming trauma using mindfulness, interpersonal effectiveness, emotion regulation, and distress tolerance. You’ll learn how to be present in the moment and identity the things that trigger your trauma. You’ll also find activities and exercises to help you cope with stress, manage intense emotions, navigate conflict with others, and change unhealthy thought patterns that keep you stuck. Finally, you’ll find practical materials for review and closure, so you can take what you’ve learned out into the world with you. If you’re ready to move past your trauma and start living your life again, this workbook will help guide you, one step at a time. The practical interventions in this guide can be used on their own or in conjunction with therapy.