Traumatic experiences leave a "living legacy" of effects that often persist for years and decades after the events are over. Historically, it has always been assumed that re-telling the story of what happened would resolve these effects. However, survivors report a different experience: Telling and re-telling the story of what happened to them often reactivates their trauma responses, overwhelming them rather than resolving the trauma. To transform traumatic experiences, survivors need to understand their symptoms and reactions as normal responses to abnormal events. They need ways to work with the symptoms that intrude on their daily activities, preventing a life beyond trauma. Dr. Janina Fisher, international expert on trauma, has spent over 40 years working with survivors, helping them to navigate the healing journey. In Transforming the Living Legacy of Trauma, she shows how the legacy of symptoms helped them survive and offers: - Step-by-step strategies that can be used on their own or in collaboration with a therapist - Simple diagrams that make sense of the confusing feelings and physical reactions survivors experience - Worksheets to practice the skills that bring relief and ultimately healing

Healing the Fragmented Selves of Trauma Survivors integrates a neurobiologically informed understanding of trauma, dissociation, and attachment with a practical approach to treatment, all communicated in straightforward language accessible to both client and therapist. Readers will be exposed to a model that emphasizes "resolution"—a transformation in the relationship to one’s self, replacing shame, self-loathing, and assumptions of guilt with compassionate acceptance. Its unique interventions have been adapted from a number of cutting-edge therapeutic approaches, including Sensorimotor Psychotherapy, Internal Family Systems, mindfulness-based therapies, and clinical hypnosis. Readers will close the pages of Healing the Fragmented Selves of Trauma Survivors with a solid grasp of therapeutic approaches to traumatic attachment, working with undiagnosed dissociative symptoms and disorders, integrating "right brain-to-right brain" treatment methods, and much more. Most of all, they will come away with tools for helping clients create an internal sense of safety and compassionate connection to even their most dis-owned selves.

Help your clients make sense of their most puzzling and shameful trauma symptoms with the innovative use of simple diagrams and explanations found in The Living Legacy of Trauma Flip Chart. Traumatized individuals often have trouble processing words and information, but visual images draw their attention, allow them to better understand their symptoms or struggles, and help them to engage more easily in treatment. Created by Janina Fisher, PhD, this flip chart makes psychoeducation a relational experience in which the client can feel understood and supported. It presents scientific information in an accessible, easy-to-understand manner that builds trust, even in the early stages of therapy, and allows trauma survivors to feel more empowered rather than victimized by their symptoms. Your clients will thank you for using it! Intended for interactive use in session, this simple, user-friendly format includes: - 21 full-color diagrams on client-facing pages - Explanations and key points on each corresponding therapist-facing page, making the concepts easy to teach - Whiteboard client pages for easy markup and reuse Topics covered include: - Common symptoms of trauma - The triune brain - How trauma memories are remembered or forgotten - Effects of trauma on the brain and body - Nervous system dysregulation - Window of tolerance - Traumatic attachment - Addictions and trauma - Dissociative phenomena - Stages of treatment

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.

The research base on complex psychological trauma has grown significantly in recent years. Yet even with the development of more effective techniques for treating complex trauma survivors, therapists often struggle to build strong relationships with these severely distressed clients. In this guide, the authors present an approach for helping adult clients move through the three phases of posttraumatic recovery -- and for managing the inevitable roadblocks and relationship issues that occur. The introductory chapters explore how complex trauma emerges from chronic victimization and the disruption of attachment bonds in childhood or adulthood and review diagnostic considerations. Two extended case examples highlight clinical issues that arise with this population and, running throughout the chapters, show how to use a secure therapeutic alliance as a foundation for utilizing evidence-based treatment strategies. The authors demonstrate ways to weave together elements of cognitive-behavioral, psychodynamic, relational, and systemic therapies, along with other proven approaches, in the service of working toward clearly defined therapeutic goals. In Phase 1, the emphasis is basic safety and personal stabilization. Phases 2 and 3 address trauma processing and the challenges of creating a new, more satisfying life. Strategies for tailoring interventions to each individual's needs and strengths, aided by ongoing assessment, are detailed. Applications in group, couple, and family therapy are also discussed.

A contemporary, culturally inclusive, and easy-to-digest relationship book for the modern age Today’s generation is changing the rules about committed relationships—and looking to create more meaning within their lives. We are more selective before getting married, with more diverse families and family structures, and we’ve seen a significant drop in divorce rates. In this new environment, what couples need more than ever are effective, flexible tools to communicate, navigate hard times, and create deeper connections with each other. Renowned Gottman therapist Elizabeth Earnshaw has helped to transform countless relationships. With I Want This to Work, she presents her most timely and proven steps for relationship success. “We’re in a cultural moment,” she says, “where people are hungry to absorb the principles for healthy relationships. This book answers that call.” Here, couples will learn how to work with the three challenges they must tackle to repair and strengthen their relationships: conflict, healing, and connection. In a supportive and relatable voice, Elizabeth simplifies complex concepts and provides core insights, exercises, and reflections to take these tested principles from the page and into real life. Culturally tuned in, LGBTQIA+ friendly, and written for both married and unmarried couples, this new paperback edition of I Want This to Work brings us an accessible guide to relationship healing and creating enduring intimacy.