In this volume leading academics explore the relationship between the experiences of terror and helplessness, the way in which survivors remember and the representation of these memories in the language and form of their life stories.

Traumatic experiences and their consequences are often the core of life stories told by survivors of violence. In Trauma: Life Stories of Survivors leading academics explore the relationship between the experiences of terror and helplessness that have caused trauma, the ways in which survivors remember, and the representation of these memories in the language and form of their life stories.International case studies include the migration of Ethiopian Jews to Israel, the life stories of Guatemalan war widows, violence in South Africa, persecution of political prisoners in South Africa and the former Czechoslovakia, lynching in the Mississippi Delta, resistance in Zimbabwe's liberation war, sexual abuse, and the ongoing Irish troubles. The volume reveals the complexity of remembering and forgetting traumatic experiences, and shows that survivors are likely to express themselves in stories containing elements that are imaginary, fragmented, and loaded with symbolism. Trauma: Life Stories of Survivors is a groundbreaking work of relevance across the social sciences. This new perspective on trauma will be of particular importance to researchers in psychology, history, women's studies, anthropology, sociology and cultural studies.

The Trauma Story is at the heart of the medical and mental health care of persons who have survived violence. Over the past 30 years the Harvard Program in Refugee Trauma (HPRT) has cared for over 10,000 sufferers of extreme violence. HPRT through its scientific research has discovered the four major dimensions of the Trauma Story: 1) The "brutal" facts. 2) Cultural meaning of trauma. 3) Revelation. 4) Listener-Storyteller relationship that exist in all trauma narratives. The importance of the Trauma Story as an element of "self-healing" has also been revealed. The TSAT is a new journal approach for eliciting the trauma story and building on the survivor's resiliency. The TSAT allows the listener to enter into an empathic dialog and discover their implications of their story for healing. This approach emerged from the new book Healing Invisible Wounds: Path to Hope and Recovery in a Violent World. The TSAT can be used by all health care and mental health practitioners.

Demonstrating the range of linguistic and semiotic practices which are deployed in the construction of war memory, The Burden of Traumascapes investigates the discourses of remembering that are enculturated in the everyday lives of the people of Bosnia-Herzegovina. Maida Kosatica explores how the memory and narratives of the Bosnian War (1992-5) convey and renegotiate historical acts of violence in quite ordinary, banal ways and extend the war into the present day. Reintroducing the concept of 'traumascapes', this book demonstrates that semiotic landscapes are marked by traumatic legacies of violence in which the sense of trauma establishes its meaning through the discourses of remembering. In this context, this book argues that discourses of remembering, whether constructed in physical or virtual spaces, stem simultaneously from personal and collective needs to follow moral orders and responsibility, as well as from political, pedagogical and economic demands.

Reluctant Witnesses tells the story of the rise of Holocaust consciousness in the United States from the perspective of survivors and their descendants. If survivors tended to see Holocaust storytelling as mainly a private affair, their children -- who reached adulthood during the heyday of identity politics -- reclaimed their hidden family histories and transformed them into public stories.

Life Story Therapy is an approach designed to enable children to explore, question and understand the past events of their lives. It aims to secure their future through strengthening attachment with their carers and providing the opportunity to develop a healthy sense of self and a feeling of wellbeing. This comprehensive overview lays out the theory underlying life story therapy, including an accessible explanation of contemporary research in neurobiology and trauma. Featuring tried and tested ideas, with tools and templates illustrated through instructive case studies, the author identifies how life story therapy can be implemented in practice. Finally, the relationships between life story therapy and traditional 'talking' therapies are explored. Life Story Therapy with Traumatized Children is essential reading for those working with children and adolescents, including social workers, teachers, child psychotherapists, residential care staff, long-term carers, psychologists and other professionals.