Trauma

It’s a tragedy when the truth is discovered but, because of the desire to protect egos and keep secrets, that truth is then buried.  That’s The Assault on Truth that J. Moussaieff Masson is writing about.  His claim is that Freud discovered that child...

Everyone has experienced trauma.  Some situation has exceeded our capacity to cope.  As professionals, friends, and community members, we’ve encountered others who are overwhelmed by life.  Becoming Trauma Informed focuses on helping us respond to t...

The relationship between our mind and our body is an ever-evolving story. We continue to learn how our mind and our bodies are inextricably linked. In The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma , Bessel van der Kolk walks ...

It started with a wobble and pause.  Practicing a variant of EMDR, David Grand crossed the visual field of a patient, when her eyes wobbled, then locked – and Grand felt as if his hand was locked in the place where the patient was looking.  Thus were the...

For many first responders, firefighters included, the idea of mental health is for the other guy.  It’s a tough job and you’ve got to “man up” and be tough.  However, at the same time, the things that first responders see, hear, do, and not do, are u...

What does it mean to have our development interrupted by trauma – and what do we do about it now?  These are the questions that Healing Developmental Trauma: How Early Trauma Affects Self-Regulation, Self-Image, and the Capacity for Relationship an...

What you see and do changes what you see and do.  It’s a simple statement with profound effects.  It’s a recognition that you can’t see others’ trauma without being changed by it.  You can’t be in the presence of others’ suffering without suffering your...

Edited volumes are quite literally a collection of semi-random chapters written by different authors.  The results can be good, bad, or both.  Healing Trauma: Attachment, Mind, Body, and Brain has both good and bad.  It’s an attempt from 2003 to pull...

Trauma is – in more ways than one – that unspoken voice.  In an Unspoken Voice: How the Body Releases Trauma and Restores Goodness is what Gabor Mate describes (in the intro) as Peter Levine’s magnum opus .  Gabor Mate is no stranger to trauma work, h...

Trauma survivors aren’t heroes in the same sense that a first responder is.  We see the first responder at the scene of an accident, like a house fire, and see how their actions are protecting all of us.  We don’t get to see the hard work that trauma survi...

Over 40 years ago, post-traumatic stress disorder was recognized in DSM-III.  Still, we’re finding that people who have encountered trauma are stigmatized and treated with suspicion about whether their symptoms are real.  It’s Not You, It’s What Happene...

I was speaking with a friend when Gabor Maté’s work came up.  The friend had seen a session and suggested that Maté had some good insight into trauma.  That’s what led me to the oddly-titled The Myth of Normal: Trauma, Illness, and Healing in a Toxic...

I was born with a genetic defect.  It’s never been officially diagnosed, but I know it’s a limitation.  I’ve been born without the “fan” gene.  That is, fan in its real meaning of “fanatic.”  I knew Jewel’s music and appreciated it.  Music is for me like...

It didn’t start with the name “posttraumatic growth” (PTG).  It started at the dawn of man, when countless of our ancestors faced challenges, setbacks, and tragedies and then grew from them.  Posttraumatic Growth: Theory, Research, and Applications may b...

When you think about it, there are dozens of professions that are focused on improving society.  We think of first responders in terms of firefighters, law enforcement, emergency medical personnel, and 911 dispatchers.  However, we forget about our m...

Sanctuary is a place of safety.  It’s a place where the weak and wounded can grow and heal.  It’s the way that we should describe every system designed to help people, but all too frequently, those places we turn to for help are the very ones that harm ...

Just because you’re in a prison doesn’t mean you’re a prisoner.  It’s the first highlight of a book that seeks to teach the difference between the conditions that you were – or are – in and the way that you process it, label it, and let it change you. ...

Most people know about post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).  They’ve read an article or blog post or heard a podcast about how people are struggling to cope after a traumatic event.  However, there’s another story to be told.  Transformed by Trauma...

It’s a mixed bag.  Transforming the Living Legacy of Trauma: A Workbook for Survivors and Therapists has some profound insights – and also some frustrating perspectives that aren’t consistent with other works and without research cited.  It makes i...

There’s a complex relationship between Trauma and Memory: Brain and Body in Search for the Living Past .  This is in no small part because traumatic memory isn’t in the past – it’s a part of the current reality of those who have been traumatized.  It’s also...

It would be easy to dismiss Trauma and Recovery: The Aftermath of Violence – From Domestic Abuse to Political Terror for a wide variety of traumas, because it is very focused on domestic abuse.  There’s a clear focus on this tragic type of trauma – bu...

ACT is the acronym for “acceptance and commitment therapy.”  It’s a therapy that’s evidence supported.  That’s a big deal.  Trauma Focused ACT: A Practitioner’s Guide to Working with Mind, Body, and Emotion Using Acceptance and Commitment Therapy is d...

Everyone has trauma.  Everyone has experienced something that has hurt them and from which they need to recover – and they may never recover completely.  There may always be that soft spot in their soul where they were hurt so deeply that no healing can...

Trauma is everywhere. It spares no one. The constant march of time propels it forward without end. It’s The Trauma of Everyday Life  that Buddha spoke of when he used the word dukkha . It’s the suffering that we all face. Mark Epstein in The Trauma ...

It’s an honor and gift to be trusted by people in their most challenging moments.  The moments when they’re in the greatest distress and vulnerability are a sacred space.  They’re a space where we have the opportunity to be the best of what it is to b...

When Paul Conti’s brother, Jonathan, killed himself with the handgun that his father had been issued in the Korean War, his life changed.  It wasn’t simply that he experienced the loss of his brother, but it also caused his desire to focus on understanding trau...

A common experience in trauma is dissociation.  One of the clinical therapies most focused on grounding and being present – the opposite of dissociation – is Gestalt.  The intersection of these two opposites is an interesting space for healing.  Trauma...

I picked up Trauma Treatment: Healing the Whole Person: Meaning-Centered Therapy & Trauma Treatment Foundational Phase-Work Manual after seeing it as a reference at an anxiety workshop.  I was looking for more perspectives on trauma treatment.  W...

Traumatic experiences have the capacity to change us at a genetic level.  We can be so burdened by our traumas that we’re unable to appreciate the gift of the present.  Traumatic Stress: The Effects of Overwhelming Experience on Mind, Body, and Society i...