Description
Review
― PsychCentral“This book is a much-welcomed tool for working with individuals with complex trauma. Although there are other training manuals that address the treatment of trauma, there is none that deal specifically with the subset of dissociative pathology. This manual is the first of its kind, a hands-on and practical training and skill-building tool for individuals and therapists. . . . The book has a user-friendly approach that is integrative and eclectic and can easily be introduced and incorporated in ongoing treatment. . . . For therapist and clients, navigating complex trauma can feel daunting and confusing with many stops and falls that may leave both feeling discouraged. This book is an anchor for the work, a place to return when uncertainty invades treatment.”
― Social Work with Groups
“Coping with Trauma-Related Dissociation contains the lucid explanations, practical skills, and collective wisdom of three therapists with decades of experience treating dissociative patients. This book serves as a manual for therapists, a guide for trainers, and a workbook for dissociative disorder patients, delivering an up-to-date blend of the best clinical practices with recent advances in mindfulness therapy and cognitive behavioral approaches to pathological dissociation.”
― Frank W. Putnam, MD, Professor of Pediatrics and Psychiatry, University of Cincinnati College of Medicine
“This book is a welcome and much-needed resource for complex dissociative clients and their therapists. It offers a myriad of exercises and strategies to help clients challenge dissociative adaptations and replace them with other means of coping, so that they can develop a more integrated self and life, and ultimately regain control of their bodies and minds.”
― Christine A. Courtois, PhD, ABPP, author of Healing the Incest Wound: Adult Survivors in Therapy and Recollections of Sexual Abuse
About the Author
Suzette Boon, PhD, is a clinical psychologist and psychotherapist working in private practice in Maarssen, the Netherlands. She was the co-founder and first President of the European Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation.
Kathy Steele, MN, CS, is in private practice with Metropolitan Psychotherapy Associates in Atlanta, Georgia. She is a former President of the International Society for the Study of Dissociation.
Onno van der Hart, Ph.D., is Professor Emeritus of Psychopathology of Chronic Traumatization, Department of Clinical and Health Psychology, Utrecht University, Utrecht, the Netherlands, and a psychologist / psychotherapist in private practice in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. He is a Past President of the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies (ISTSS).
It’s amazing that trauma therapy only started getting published in the 1970s. This is new information for us humans. Took me over 50 years of living before I realized that of “fight, flight or freeze,” I’d freeze. My “freeze” was so thorough I didn’t realize that I froze.
I’m a physically tough guy, very outdoorsy and brave externally. It wasn’t until I was in my 40s to realize that I’m the opposite and quite sensitive and not that resilient to my own unpleasant inner experiences. In fact, I chickened out and avoid my unpleasant inner experiences, which has slowly disconnected me from life.
I did myself a favor and also bought the audio file so I could listen to it as I read. I do better with immersive reading but also, in a system, some read better than others? So glad I could do that. Sometimes however, there is no play button for the audio when I open it on my phone or tablet. I don't know what that is about. From Audible, I wouldn't expect the attached audio file to be sketchy? Odd.
But really, a very good book. It is suggested that you do this when you have a therapist to do each chapter with you. I agree. Make sure you have a therapist who knows how to treat people who dissociate.