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.

There is now ample evidence from the preclinical and clinical fields that early life trauma has both dramatic and long-lasting effects on neurobiological systems and functions that are involved in different forms of psychopathology as well as on health in general. To date, a comprehensive review of the recent research on the effects of early and later life trauma is lacking. This book fills an obvious gap in academic and clinical literature by providing reviews which summarize and synthesize these findings. Topics considered and discussed include the possible biological and neuropsychological effects of trauma at different epochs and their effect on health. This book will be essential reading for psychiatrists, clinical psychologists, mental health professionals, social workers, pediatricians and specialists in child development.

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 go-to guide for educators helping children who have experienced trauma and Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) provides accessible information paired with practical, adaptable strategies.

Trauma-Responsive Strategies for Early Childhood offers an overview of trauma and its impact on young children, as well as specific strategies and techniques educators and administrators can use to create classroom and school communities that improve the quality of care for this vulnerable population. The authors have synthesized research-based information in an accessible way. Focusing on the four different domains of cognitive, language, physical, and social-emotional, the authors use vignettes to explore how trauma can be expressed in the classroom and what teachers can do about it.

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.

"In Scared Sick, childhood expert and therapist Robin Karr-Morse and lawyer and strategist Meredith Wiley propose that chronic fear experienced in infancy and early childhood lies at the root of numerous diseases as well as emotional and behavioral pathologies in adults."--Jacket.

Specifically designed for administrators and leaders working in early childhood education, this practical guide offers comprehensive resources for creating trauma-responsive organizations and systems. Throughout this book, you'll find: Exercises and tools for identifying the strengths and areas in need of change within your program, school or agency. Reflection questions and sample conversations. Rich vignettes from programs already striving to create healthier, trauma-responsive environments. The guidance in this book is explained with simple, easy-to-implement strategies you can apply immediately to your own practice and is accompanied by brainstorming questions to help educational leaders both new to and experienced with trauma-informed practices succeed.

Trauma-Informed Practices for Early Childhood Educators guides child care providers and early educators working with infants, toddlers, preschoolers, and early elementary aged children to understand trauma as well as its impact on young children’s brains, behavior, learning, and development. The book introduces a range of trauma-informed teaching and family engagement strategies that readers can use in their early childhood programs to create strength-based environments that support children’s health, healing, and resiliency. Supervisors and coaches will learn a range of powerful trauma-informed practices that they can use to support workforce development and enhance their quality improvement initiatives.

Infused with clinical wisdom, this book describes a supportive group treatment approach for survivors just beginning to come to terms with the impact of interpersonal trauma. Focusing on establishing safety, stability, and self-care, the Trauma Information Group (TIG) is a Stage 1 approach within Judith Herman's influential stage model of treatment. Vivid sample transcripts illustrate ways to help group participants deepen their understanding of trauma, build new coping skills, and develop increased compassion for themselves and for one another. In a large-size format for easy photocopying, the volume provides everything needed to implement the TIG, including session-by-session guidelines and extensive reproducible handouts and worksheets. Purchasers get access to a companion website where they can download and print the reproducible materials from the book, as well as an online-only set of handouts and worksheets in Spanish. See also The Trauma Recovery Group, by Michaela Mendelsohn, Judith Lewis Herman, et al., which presents a Stage 2 treatment approach for clients who are ready to work on processing and integrating traumatic memories.