This book presents trauma-informed principles for ethical, safe, and effective group work, psychodrama, and leadership. Content will include practical guidelines, detailed instructions, and diverse examples for facilitating both trauma-informed and trauma-focused groups in treatment, community, and organizational leadership. Chapters focus on various topics including safety, empowerment, social justice, vicarious trauma, and leadership. Organizational leadership is approached through the lens of SAMHSA’s guidance and the framework of group work leadership. The book includes significant focus on sociometry and psychodrama as strengths-based and experiential group approaches. Psychodrama’s philosophies, theories, and interventions will be articulated through a trauma-informed lens offering psychodramatists, group workers, and organizational leaders new conceptual frameworks and action-based processes. Chapters contain a blend of theory, research, practical guidance, and examples from the author’s experience. This book will appeal to group workers, therapists, psychodramatists, creative arts therapists, organizational leaders, trainers, facilitators, supervisors, community organizers, and graduate students. This book offers group facilitators the insight and tools to lead engaging and meaningful groups. The potential for retraumatizing participants is addressed while promoting trauma-informed practice as an ethical imperative.

"This book introduces something substantially new...original, clinically valid and well-thought out ideas which have been extensively ëtestedí in workshops conducted internationally over the last decade...a great book!" Adam Blatner, MD The author presents the Therapeutic Spiral Model (TSM), a systematic modification of Psychodrama, for therapists working with people who are suffering from severe trauma and posttraumatic stress disorder. A step-by-step guide for using experiential methods safely, the author first explains the theoretical foundations of TSM, research and theories on trauma, and experiential psychotherapy as a basis for understanding its development. Throughout, clinical action structures and advanced intervention modules for using experiential methods are presented. Each chapter contains active vignettes and case examples to demonstrate the process and progress of the spiral technique.

"Psychodrama and Socio-drama are new concepts of therapy to resolve mental health issues in Bangladesh. Mental health professionals in Bangladesh who had been able to absorb the technique created by integrating socio-psychodrama have been greatly benefited from this intervention in the healing process... " --Mehtab Khanam, PhD Professor of Psychology Dhaka University Bangladesh When large groups of people become victims of political upheavals, social crises, and natural disasters, it is often challenging to allocate appropriate resources to deal with the stress that ensues. Of the methods employed to address post-traumatic stress syndrome and collective trauma, sociodrama and drama therapy have had a long-standing history of success. Group therapists and counselors will find this book to be an indispensable resource when counseling patients from trauma-stricken groups. This book travels across geographic and cultural boundaries, examining group crises and collective trauma in Asia, Africa, Europe, and the U.S. The contributing authors, many of whom are pioneers in the field, offer cost-effective, small- and large-group approaches for people suffering from PTSD, socio-political oppression, and other social problems. The book extends the principles and practices of psychodrama and sociodrama to include music, painting, dance, collage, and ritual. In essence, this innovative book illustrates the proven effectiveness of sociodrama and drama therapy. Key topics: The difficulties of developing trust in victimized or opposing groups Initiating warm-ups and therapeutic strategies with both groups and individuals "Narradrama" with marginalized groups Using anti-oppression models to inform psychodrama Re-reconciling culture-based conflicts using "culture-drama"

Therapists interested in conducting rigorous and effective trauma-centered conversations with their patients will find Principles and Techniques of Trauma-Centered Psychotherapy of enormous instructional and clinical value. Never before has a text examined the process of trauma inquiry in the detail presented here—specifically, in dozens of extremely thorough case examples that demonstrate successful and unsuccessful therapeutic interventions. Exercising great care and skill, the authors describe the step-by-step mechanics of conducting an effective trauma-centered psychotherapy based on imaginal exposure from an in-depth narrative of the client’s traumatic experiences. Clinicians in practice and in training will benefit from the authors’ focus on increasing competence in this important aspect of treatment. From establishing the trauma treatment framework to navigating the inevitable disruptions to dealing with the negative effects on the therapist of hearing detailed accounts of traumatic events, Principles and Techniques of Trauma-Centered Psychotherapy is both pragmatic and empathic, providing effective strategies in the context of true life treatment.

"Group work remains a vital intervention for a wide range of clients facing an array of personal, social, and environmental challenges. From groups for individuals with substance abuse problems or for children who have been abused to advocacy groups for parents of children with developmental disabilities and neighborhood associations that seek to improve the quality of life in the local community, groups are empowering to members at the individual and societal level"--

Core Principles of Group Psychotherapy is designed as the primary curriculum for the Principles of Group Psychotherapy course in partial fulfilment of the Certified Group Psychotherapist credential awarded by the International Board for Certification of Group Psychotherapists. The text is divided into five modules: foundations, structure and dynamics, formation and development, leadership tasks and skills, and ethics, neuroscience, and personal style. The book is part of the AGPA Group Therapy Training and Practice series. This series aims to produce the highest quality publications to aid the practitioner and student in updating and improving their knowledge, professional competence, and skills with current and new developments in methods, practice, theory, and research, in the group psychotherapy field. In addition to helping group psychotherapists bolster their skills so as to ensure the availability of quality mental health services, this guide is an essential resource for students and clinicians interested in learning more about group psychotherapy, as a text in academic courses, or as part of a practicum or internship training curriculum.

The Healing Power of Community offers a diverse cross section of interdisciplinary and depth-psychological perspectives in support of using mutual aid approaches in all levels of group and community practice as a remedy for individualism and social and political divisions, centering social justice. Written by three distinct voices who collaborated at the height of the AIDS crisis, the book begins with an autoethnographic study of Project Quest, an HIV/AIDS clinic established in 1989, before looking at how the lessons learnt from this clinic can be applied to our current global mental health climate. Filled with clinical and theoretical applications, chapters include content on what mutual aid communities are, rethinking professionalism and boundaries in a crisis, healing collective trauma, group psychotherapy, psychodrama, depth psychology, and how mental health professionals can support radical change of key structures in nonprofit clinics, public administration, private practice, and research. Arguing for their approach of radicalizing mental health and community-based practice today, the book examines how this can be achieved by moving beyond individual-level approaches, creating new frameworks to meet the mental health needs of our era in creative ways. This book is designed to engage clinical social workers and mental health care clinicians working in community-based mental health, as well as those involved in community psychology, collective trauma and grief, HIV/AIDS advocacy, policy making, and political advocacy.