Creating safety, hope, and secure attachment to transform traumatic memories. What makes trauma therapy effective? The answers might surprise you. While therapists have been bombarded with brain science, hundreds of new models, and pressure to use evidence-based techniques, research has demonstrated that the therapeutic relationship ultimately predicts therapy outcomes. This is especially true for traumatized clients. But, what kind of therapeutic relationship? Forming a secure therapeutic alliance with traumatized clients is tricky. How do you help clients trust you after they’ve been abused, betrayed, or exploited? How do you instill hope and convince clients who’ve been devastated by loss to believe that a better life is possible? In this accessible guide, Courtney Armstrong distills discoveries from attachment theory, brain science, and post-traumatic growth into practical strategies you can use to: 1) build trust and a secure therapeutic relationship; 2) transform traumatic memories into stories of triumph and courage; and 3) help clients cultivate resilience and a positive post-trauma identity. Packed with dozens of scripts, step-by-step worksheets, and inspiring client stories, this book gives you tools for each phase of the trauma therapy process and shows you how to: Engage and motivate clients based on their attachment style Manage trauma-related dissociation, anxiety, and anger Transform traumatic memories so they no longer haunt your client Work with different types of trauma, from sexual abuse to traumatic grief Evoke inner resources for healing and positive emotional states Counter compassion fatigue and burnout so youcan thrive as a therapist Merely talking about a traumatic event is not enough because the parts of the brain where traumatic, implicit memories are stored don’t understand words. Heartfelt, relational experiences catalyze brain change and buffer the impact of trauma. In this book, Armstrong demonstrates that neuroscience is validating what therapists have suspected all along: the brain changes through the heart.

Many people--including some mental health professionals and service members themselves--have the misconception that military deployment is highly likely to cause posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). This book gives practitioners a more nuanced understanding of military stress reactions and related mental health concerns, from transient adjustment problems to clinical disorders. Drawing on expert knowledge of military environments and culture, Carrie H. Kennedy provides vital guidance for evidence-based assessment, intervention, and prevention. Kennedy emphasizes that overdependence on the diagnosis of PTSD can lead to suboptimal care, and shows how to tailor treatment to each service member's or veteran's needs. A crucial addition to any practitioner's library, the book is illustrated with numerous case vignettes.

Although losing someone you love to a sudden or violent death is a shocking experience, there are steps you can take to heal. This book provides compassionate support and creative ways to soothe and transform your emotions with powerful, but simple strategies that: - Promote healing and calm feelings of anxiety, anger, or despair - Alleviate nightmares, intrusive images, and ruminating thoughts - Relieve guilt and regrets so you can open up to new experiences in your life - Help you get the kind of support you want from other people - Retain "the living story" of your loved one and sense them as a positive presence in your life Recent reviews: "Courtney Armstrong's Transforming Traumatic Grief provides practical tools to comfort grievers, promotes resilience and hope for those who have been devastated by tragedy and loss, and shows ways to create renewed meaning in life beyond grief and trauma." - Bill O'Hanlon, author of Thriving Through Crisis and Quick Steps to Resolving Trauma "Unlike other books detailing therapies that work at the cognitive level of the mind, "Transforming Traumatic Grief" is a how-to book of practical (and even more importantly) attainable activities and proven strategies for those dealing with grief and loss. As a therapist specializing in trauma counseling and her own personal experience with loss, Armstrong builds a strong case for why we need to speak to the emotional brain in a language it understands. Unless we do, she argues, the traumatized and grief-stricken simply can't experience a shift in how they're feeling. Written in a voice that emanates from a very personal place, Armstrong's book is both comforting and empowering. It's for anyone having difficulty moving through grief or growing from their traumatic experience. It's also for therapists who want to help their patients help themselves in between appointments or post-therapy." Nancy Gerhsman, www.artforyoursake.com "A must-read! An indispensable guide for transforming traumatic grief into healing reconnection." - Jon Connelly, Ph.D, LCSW, Founder, Institute for Rapid Resolution Therapy

Psychotherapist and trauma survivor Jasmin Lee Cori offers new insight into trauma-related difficulties (including PTSD, depression, substance abuse), provides self-care tools, candor about therapy and medications, and addresses spiritual issues. While there are many different approaches to healing trauma, few offer a wide range of perspectives and options. With innovative insight into trauma-related difficulties, Jasmin Lee Cori helps you: Understand trauma and its devastating impacts; Identify symptoms of trauma (dissociation, numbing, etc.) and common mental health problems that stem from trauma; Manage traumatic reactions and memories; Create a more balanced life that supports your recovery; Choose appropriate interventions (therapies, self-help groups, medications and alternatives); Recognize how far you've come in your healing and what you need to keep growing. Complete with exercises, healing stories, points to remember, and resources, this is a perfect companion for anyone seeking to reclaim their life from the devastating impacts of trauma.

A concise guide to shaking things up in therapy. Courtney Armstrong’s The Therapeutic “Aha!” explores the thrilling and rare moment when a client reaches an elusive realization, allowing them to make meaningful change. In 10 straightforward strategies, this practical book demonstrates how to shake things up in therapy when a client is stuck or stalled to jumpstart progress. Readers will learn how to spark the “emotional brain”—the part of the brain that houses automatic, unconscious patterns—and create new neural pathways that engage and advance the healing process. Divided into three parts—(1) Awakening a Session, (2) Healing Emotional Wounds, and (3) Activating Experiential Change—the book walks readers through specific techniques for harnessing the emotional brain and re-patterning its routine. Elegant therapeutic insights and coping strategies only go so far; until we intervene with something our emotional brain can understand—a compelling felt experience—old, established neural patterns will persist. The brain-based strategies Armstrong presents include how to enliven the therapeutic alliance; elicit exciting goals; identify the root of an emotional conflict; reverse trauma with memory reconsolidation; invoke inspirational imagery; and use stories, humor, music, poetry, and even mindfulness to induce change. Concise, reader-friendly, and filled with helpful case stories and client–therapist dialogue, this wonderfully accessible book puts a new spin on neuroscience knowledge, showing clinicians exactly how it can be used to make those once-elusive therapeutic breakthroughs more frequent, leading to greater healing for your patients.

"When I joined the Air Force in 2005, hostilities in Iraq were escalating, resulting in more frequent and longer deployments for just about everyone serving in the military, including psychologists. Soon thereafter, the suicide rate among military personnel also started to rise, especially in the Army and Marine Corps. During the first few years of that upward trend, the general sense was that the military was just having a few "bad years." In 2008, however, the age- and gender-adjusted Army and Marine suicide rates surpassed the U.S. general population rate. By the time I deployed to Iraq in February 2009, the military suicide rate had been rising steadily for three consecutive years; the initial assumption that we were simply experiencing a few bad years had dissolved, and an uncomfortable recognition that we had a clear problem on our hands had taken hold"--

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Sample Book Insights: #1 Rethinking Trauma Treatment is a book that provides you with the answers to the questions of how to best help your clients with their trauma, from the brain’s perspective. It provides you with practical strategies and focuses on what the best trauma therapy methods have in common. #2 There are many techniques you can use to help clients regulate their emotions, and I have included them in the book. You will also learn why you are your most valuable tool when treating trauma. #3 I was called to help a family member with road rage, and when I met with the couple, Dixon explained that he was always angry driving, and would often insult and threaten other drivers. #4 Post-traumatic stress disorder is a disorder of memory integration between the three levels of our triune brain. It typically affects people who have been through a traumatic event, and it can cause them to be frozen in time, unable to move on.