Through the attentive examination of a single case study, this book weaves together the lived experiences of a clinician in training with those of their teenage patient, as they collectively navigate and overcome the profound effects of early relational trauma on the development of the self. By the care taken in their analysis, the book's authors deepen readers' understanding of attachment disorders and their clinical presentation whilst allowing for a uniquely human view of the interactions between patient and clinician. Elegantly combining poetic prose with a clinical account, this book invites readers to travel with the clinician, to think and feel in tandem with his subjective experiences, and to explore psychoanalytic and systems theory as a means to understand clinical relationships that are seldom written about with such vulnerability. It is a story of determination and growth both moving and enlightening. By giving form to the resilience of both patient and clinician, their mutual strength through "tears of change", this book expounds the behavioral consequences and treatment of psychopathologies associated with early relational trauma. In this way, the book will prove essential for all psychoanalysts and psychotherapists working with traumatized children and adolescents.

This “well-organized, valuable” guide draws from somatic-based psychotherapy and neuroscience to offer “clear guidance” for coping with childhood trauma (Peter Levine, author of Waking the Tiger and In an Unspoken Voice). Although it may seem that people suffer from an endless number of emotional problems and challenges, Laurence Heller and Aline LaPierre maintain that most of these can be traced to five biologically based organizing principles: the need for connection, attunement, trust, autonomy, and love-sexuality. They describe how early trauma impairs the capacity for connection to self and others and how the ensuing diminished aliveness is the hidden dimension that underlies most psychological and many physiological problems. Heller and LaPierre introduce the NeuroAffective Relational Model® (NARM), a method that integrates bottom-up and top-down approaches to regulate the nervous system and resolve distortions of identity such as low self-esteem, shame, and chronic self-judgment that are the outcome of developmental and relational trauma. While not ignoring a person’s past, NARM emphasizes working in the present moment to focus on clients’ strengths, resources, and resiliency in order to integrate the experience of connection that sustains our physiology, psychology, and capacity for relationship.

This book explores the roots of borderline states of mind in early relational trauma and shows how it is possible, and necessary, to visit 'the darkest places' in order to work through these traumas. This is despite the fact that re-experiencing such traumas is unbearable for the patient and they naturally want to enlist the analyst in ensuring that they will never be experienced again. This is the backdrop for the extreme pressures and roles that are constellated in the analysis that can lead to impasse or breakdown of the analytic relationship. The author explores how these areas can be negotiated safely and that, whilst drawing heavily on recent developments in attachment, relational, trauma and infant development theory, an analytic attitude needs to be maintained in order to integrate these experiences and allow the individual to feel, finally, accepted and whole. The book builds on Freud's views of repetition compulsion and re-enactment and develops Jung's concept of the traumatic complex.

A practical step-by-step guide and follow-up companion to Healing Developmental Trauma--presenting one of the first comprehensive models for addressing complex post-traumatic stress disorder (C-PTSD) The NeuroAffective Relational Model (NARM) is an integrated mind-body framework that focuses on relational, attachment, developmental, cultural, and intergenerational trauma. NARM helps clients resolve C-PTSD, recover from adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), and facilitate post-traumatic growth. Inspired by cutting-edge trauma-informed research on attachment, developmental psychology, and interpersonal neurobiology, The Practical Guide for Healing Developmental Trauma provides counselors, psychotherapists, psychologists, social workers, and trauma-sensitive helping professionals with the theoretical background and practical skills they need to help clients transform complex trauma. It explains: The four pillars of the NARM therapeutic model Cultural and transgenerational trauma Shock vs. developmental trauma How to effectively address ACEs and support relational health How to differentiate NARM from other approaches to trauma treatment NARM's organizing principles and how to integrate the program into your clinical practice

This remarkable collection of original essays, written by prominent scholars recognized for their achievements in a wide range of disciplines, defines trauma as a disruption in the fragile process of symbolization, or the human capacity to imbue life with meaning by representing the self's immortality. The contributors analyze the multiple meanings and deeper significance of trauma, whether of shell-shocked war veterans or victims of sexual abuse, and they discuss its manifestations, both subtle and obvious, in human behavior and memory. Organized as an honorary volume to Robert Jay Lifton, who identified trauma as the core psychological issue of the postmodern world, this book demonstrates how trauma and other fundamental breaks in human continuity inform psychiatric, historical, religious, literary, political, cultural, and scientific interpretations of the self.

Trauma following automobile accidents can persist for weeks, months, or longer. Symptoms include nervousness, sleep disorders, loss of appetite, and sexual dysfunction. In Crash Course, Diane Poole Heller and Laurence Heller take readers through a series of case histories and exercises to explain and treat the health problems and trauma brought on by car accidents.

With contributions from prominent experts, this pragmatic book takes a close look at the nature of complex psychological trauma in children and adolescents and the clinical challenges it presents. Each chapter shows how a complex trauma perspective can provide an invaluable unifying framework for case conceptualization, assessment, and intervention amidst the chaos and turmoil of these young patients' lives. A range of evidence-based and promising therapies are reviewed and illustrated with vivid case vignettes. The volume is grounded in clinical innovations and cutting-edge research on child and adolescent brain development, attachment, and emotion regulation, and discusses diagnostic criteria, including those from DSM-IV and DSM-5. See also Drs. Ford and Courtois's edited volume Treating Complex Traumatic Stress Disorders in Adults, Second Edition, and their authored volume, Treatment of Complex Trauma: A Sequenced, Relationship-Based Approach.

An integrative approach for child therapists of all disciplines and at all levels of training and experience. How to Be a Better Child Therapist is an innovative contribution to the theory and practice of child therapy. Drawing on several decades of experience, Kenneth Barish presents a comprehensive, multi-faceted approach to therapeutic work with children and families, based on a contemporary understanding of children’s emotions and emotional needs. This book offers a new theoretical integration, an in-depth discussion of the essential processes of child therapy, and a wealth of practical recommendations to help child therapists solve the varied problems presented to us in daily clinical work. Part 1 provides a theoretical foundation. Barish demonstrates how emotional and behavioral problems of childhood are most often caused by vicious cycles of painful emotions and pathogenic family interactions. Successful therapy arrests this malignant development and sets in motion positive cycles of healthy emotional and interpersonal experiences—increased confidence and engagement in life and more affirming interactions between parents and children. Over time, children and adolescents develop a less critical inner voice and more positive expectations for their future—a new sense of what is possible in their lives. Part 2 describes 10 principles that guide our efforts toward this overarching therapeutic goal. Barish offers advice on how we can improve all aspects of clinical work with children: How can we engage more children in treatment? Why is empathy essential to children’s emotional health and effective therapy? How do children learn to regulate their emotions? What is the role of play in contemporary child therapy? How can we combat a child’s discouragement and self-doubt? How can we overcome children’s resistance to talking about bad feelings? Part 3 presents a framework for therapeutic work with parents. Barish describes general principles for strengthening family relationships as well as practical plans for solving many common problems of their daily family life. He offers strategies for helping children who have difficulty with separations, doing homework, getting ready in the morning, or going to sleep at night; children with tantrums and uncooperativeness, rudeness and disrespect, sibling conflicts, and addiction to video games—problems for which parents, often urgently, ask our help. How to Be a Better Child Therapist is both inspiring and practical, essential reading for therapists of all theoretical orientations who work with children and families.

This book analyzes the individual and collective experience of and response to trauma from a wide range of perspectives including basic neuroscience, clinical science, and cultural anthropology. Each perspective presents critical and creative challenges to the other. The first section reviews the effects of early life stress on the development of neural systems and vulnerability to persistent effects of trauma. The second section of the book reviews a wide range of clinical approaches to the treatment of the effects of trauma. The final section of the book presents cultural analyses of personal, social, and political responses to massive trauma and genocidal events in a variety of societies. This work goes well beyond the neurobiological models of conditioned fear and clinical syndrome of post-traumatic stress disorder to examine how massive traumatic events affect the whole fabric of a society, calling forth collective responses of resilience and moral transformation.

This book attempts to create a dialogue between the infant as revealed by the experimental approach and as clinically reconstructed, in the service of resolving the contradiction between theory and reality. It describes the several ways that organization can form in the infant's mind.