What potential does psychotherapy have for mediating the impact of childhood developmental trauma on adult life? Combining knowledge from trauma-focused work, understandings of the developmental brain and the neurodynamics of psychotherapy, the authors explain how good care and poor care in childhood influence adulthood. They provide scientific background to deepen understanding of childhood developmental trauma. They introduce principles of therapeutic change and how and why mind-body and brain-based approaches are so effective in the treatment of developmental trauma. The book focuses in particular on Pesso Boyden System Psychotherapy (PBSP) which uniquely combines and integrates key processes of mind-body work that can facilitate positive change in adult survivors of childhood maltreatment. Through client stories Petra Winnette and Jonathan Baylin describe the clinical application of PBSP and the underlying neuropsychological concepts upon which it is based. Working with Traumatic Memories to Heal Adults with Unresolved Childhood Trauma has applications relevant to psychotherapists, psychologists and psychiatrists working with clients who have experienced trauma.

Grounded in 40 years of clinical practice and research, this book provides a systematic yet flexible evidence-informed framework for treating adult survivors of complex trauma, particularly those exposed to chronic emotional abuse or neglect. Component-based psychotherapy (CBP) addresses four primary treatment components that can be tailored to each client's unique needs--relationship, regulation, dissociative parts, and narrative. Vivid extended case examples illustrate CBP intervention strategies and bring to life both the client's and therapist's internal experiences. The appendix features a reproducible multipage clinician self-assessment tool that can be downloaded and printed in a convenient 8 1/2" x 11" size. See also Treating Traumatic Stress in Children and Adolescents, Second Edition, by Margaret E. Blaustein and Kristine M. Kinniburgh, which presents a complementary approach also developed at The Trauma Center at Justice Resource Institute.

Designed for psychotherapists and their clients, Peter Levine's latest best-seller continues his groundbreaking exploration of the central role of the body in processing—and healing—trauma. With foreword by Bessel van der Kolk, author of The Body Keeps the Score In Trauma and Memory, bestselling author Dr. Peter Levine (creator of the Somatic Experiencing approach) tackles one of the most difficult and controversial questions of PTSD/trauma therapy: Can we trust our memories? While some argue that traumatic memories are unreliable and not useful, others insist that we absolutely must rely on memory to make sense of past experience. Building on his 45 years of successful treatment of trauma and utilizing case studies from his own practice, Dr. Levine suggests that there are elements of truth in both camps. While acknowledging that memory can be trusted, he argues that the only truly useful memories are those that might initially seem to be the least reliable: memories stored in the body and not necessarily accessible by our conscious mind. While much work has been done in the field of trauma studies to address "explicit" traumatic memories in the brain (such as intrusive thoughts or flashbacks), much less attention has been paid to how the body itself stores "implicit" memory, and how much of what we think of as "memory" actually comes to us through our (often unconsciously accessed) felt sense. By learning how to better understand this complex interplay of past and present, brain and body, we can adjust our relationship to past trauma and move into a more balanced, relaxed state of being. Written for trauma sufferers as well as mental health care practitioners, Trauma and Memory is a groundbreaking look at how memory is constructed and how influential memories are on our present state of being.

Originally published by Viking Penguin, 2014.

Now in a fully updated and expanded edition, Levy and Orlans' classic text provides a comprehensive overview of attachment theory, how attachment issues manifest, and how they can be treated. The book covers attachment-focused assessment and diagnosis, specialised training and education for caregivers, treatment for children and caregivers and early intervention and prevention programmes for high-risk families. The authors explain their unique models of 'corrective attachment therapy' and 'corrective attachment parenting', and provide practical guidance on goals and techniques for clinicians who work with maltreated and attachment disordered children and families. This second edition incorporates advances in the fields of child and family psychology that have occurred since the book first published in 1998, with substantial new sections on interpersonal neurobiology, adult and couple treatment, the application of positive psychology. Clear, authoritative and skills-oriented, this is the essential guide to attachment for psychologists, social workers, clinicians, as well as foster and adoptive parents.

The mystery of life is not a problem to be solved, but a reality to be experienced. - Zen saying While the pain and suffering of trauma can seem unbearable, every day we see examples of people who have found a way not only to survive their experiences but also to really live their life to the fullest. This book is about finding your way back to your valued life. In Finding Life Beyond Trauma we hope to help you to move toward living a vital, rich, and awake life.

How to release anger and reconnect to yourself using mindfulness techniques. Anger is one the most common human emotions, so if you’re not feeling it, then you’re probably unconsciously burying it. But anger that is buried isn’t actually gone. In fact, hidden or covert anger may be just as damaging as the overt, outwardly destructive kind, only it wreaks havoc from the inside-out. All sorts of physical and emotional problems can stem from suppressed anger: headaches, digestive problems, insomnia, just to name a few. Buried anger is expressed in a continuum, with rage and aggression at the top, and frustration, annoyance, irritation at the bottom, and everything in between. Unless this anger is addressed, it is impossible to overcome. This book urges readers to practice mindfulness-deliberately allowing physical sensations and emotions to surface so they can be examined and released. This sort of processing of anger-fully felt in the body as it happens, moved out through appropriate expression, and let go-will allow readers to process anger before it becomes unhealthy. Whether for you or your clients, this book offers simple tools of mindfulness to strengthen your connection with your inner world and learn to explore your anger, paying heed to the important messages it is sending.