What would you do if you had just become the victim and witness to a murder-suicide? How are you going to process standing between two friends, seeing one friend murder the other? Do you scream? Do you run? The journey from sorry to a sunny day can be long and emotional. In this life-changing book, Tonya L. Whiteside, founder of The Whiteside Group and award winning author of her bestselling book, Change the Atmosphere with Encouraging Words, tells the eye-witness account of the murder of her longtime friend, Stacey Bryant. Sadly, Stacey was tragically murdered by her husband and high school sweetheart, Eddie. In this book, Rebuilding Life after Trauma, Tonya shares of her battles with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, depression and other struggles due to the effects of what she witnessed. Tonya shares that even on her emotional road upward to recovery, you can rebuild your life and that you may already have in your possession useful components. You can retrain your brain with the right resources and guidance. How we handle depression, adversity, personal crisis, and stress is crucial. Drawing from the wisdom and knowledge gained, Tonya discusses how you can find: healing for your heart, happiness in your relationships, and hope for better days. If you have lost a loved one tragically due to violence or are trying to move forward in your life due other effects of a traumatic experience, follow Tonya on this journey. Rebuilding Life after Trauma will propel you toward lifelong transformation. By using the positive strategies in the book, you will realize greater possibilities and outcomes for your life. You will discover that everything happens for a reason and nothing is an accident.

Rebuilding Life after Brain Injury: Dreamtalk tells the survival story of Sheena McDonald, who in 1999 was hit by a police van and suffered a very severe brain injury. Sheena’s story is told from her own, personal standpoint and also from two further unique and invaluable perspectives. Allan Little, a BBC journalist and now Sheena’s husband, describes both the physical and mental impact of the injury on himself and on Sheena. Gail Robinson, Sheena’s neuropsychological rehabilitation specialist, provides professional commentaries on Sheena’s condition, assessment and recovery process. The word Dreamtalk, created by Allan to describe Sheena’s once "hallucinogenic state", sets the tone for this book. It humanises and contextualises the impact of brain injury, providing support and encouragement for patients, professionals and families. It presents exclusive insights into each stage of recovery, spanning coma, altered consciousness, post-traumatic amnesia and rehabilitation; all showing how she has defied conventional clinical expectations and made an exceptional recovery. This book is valuable reading to those who have suffered a brain injury and also to professionals such as neurologists, neuropsychologists, physiotherapists, occupational therapists and speech therapists working in the field.

Posttraumatic Growth reworks and overhauls the seminal 2006 Handbook of Posttraumatic Growth. It provides a wide range of answers to questions concerning knowledge of posttraumatic growth (PTG) theory, its synthesis and contrast with other theories and models, and its applications in diverse settings. The book starts with an overview of the history, components, and outcomes of PTG. Next, chapters review quantitative, qualitative, and cross-cultural research on PTG, including in relation to cognitive function, identity formation, cross-national and gender differences, and similarities and differences between adults and children. The final section shows readers how to facilitate optimal outcomes with PTG at the level of the individual, the group, the community, and society.

Toward a Meaningful Life is a spiritual road map for living based on the teachings of one of the foremost religious leaders of our time: Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson. Head of the Lubavitcher movement for forty-four years and recognized throughout the world simply as “the Rebbe,” Menachem Mendel Schneerson, who passed away in June 1994, was a sage and a visionary of the highest order. Toward a Meaningful Life gives people of all backgrounds fresh perspectives on every aspect of their lives—from birth to death, youth to old age; marriage, love, intimacy, and family; the persistent issues of career, health, pain, and suffering; and education, faith, science, and government. We learn to bridge the divisions between accelerated technology and decelerated morality, between unprecedented worldwide unity and unparalleled personal disunity. Although the Rebbe’s teachings are firmly anchored in more than three thousand years of scholarship, the urgent relevance of these old-age truths to contemporary life has never been more manifest. At the threshold of a new world where matter and spirit converge, the Rebbe proposes spiritual principles that unite people as opposed to the materialism that divides them. In doing so, he continues to lead us toward personal and universal redemption, toward a meaningful life, and toward God.

Restoring your sense of self after trauma. “In 1981 as a thirteen-year-old child I was given a routine antibiotic for a routine infection and suffered anything but a routine reaction. An undiscovered allergy to the medication turned me into a full-body burn victim almost overnight. By the time I was released from the hospital I had lost 100% of my epidermis. Even more importantly, I had completely lost myself.” Now a professional coach who specializes in helping trauma victims rebuild their lives, Michele Rosenthal struggled with the effects of medically-induced post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) for over 25 years before reaching a full recovery. Today, she is 100% free of symptoms of PTSD. In this book, she applies her personal experience and professional wisdom to offer readers an invaluable roadmap to overcoming their own trauma, in particular the loss of sense of self that often accompanies it. If you suffer from the effects of trauma or PTSD, whether it was caused by a single-incident like a car accident, or from chronic childhood abuse, domestic violence, illness, or war trauma, you are well aware of how disconnected you feel from the person you most deeply wish to be. Trauma interrupts—even hijacks—your identity. To cope, you may rely on mechanisms to keep your emotions, triggers, and responses in check, but these very habits can often prevent the true restoration of safety, stability, and inner connection. How can you rediscover your sense of self so that you honor who you were before the trauma (even if that trauma began at birth), understand who you are at this very moment, and determine who you want to be going forward? Like a therapist in your back pocket, Your Life After Trauma guides you in finding answers to these tough questions. Expertly written by a helping professional who keenly understands the post-trauma identity crisis that is so common among trauma and PTSD sufferers, it is a simple, practical, hands-on recovery workbook. Filled with self-assessment questionnaires, exercises, tips, and tools—not to mention insightful personal and professional vignettes—it takes readers through a step-by-step process of healing the identity crisis, from understanding some of the basic brain science behind trauma and why you feel the way you do, to recognizing who you were (or had the potential to be) before the trauma, who you are today, after the trauma, and who you want to become. With this book by your side, it is possible to regain a sense of calm, confidence, and control on your road to recovery.

Learn to build the trust you need to help children in crisis! Rebuilding Attachments with Traumatized Children: Healing from Losses, Violence, Abuse, and Neglect is a therapeutic guide to helping troubled children move beyond the traumatic experiences that haunt them. Author Dr. Richard Kagan, Director of Psychological Services for Parsons Child and Family Center in Albany, New York, presents comprehensive information on how to understandand surmountthe impact of loss, neglect, separation, and violence on children’s development, how to discover and foster strengths in children and their families, and how to rebuild connections and hope for children who are at risk of harm to themselves and others. This unique book is designed to be used in tandem with Real Life Heroes: A Life Storybook for Children (Haworth), an innovative workbook that helps children develop the self-esteem they need to overcome the worries and fears of their past through a creative arts approach that fosters positive values and a sense of pride. Rebuilding Attachments with Traumatized Children helps children move from negative or suppressed memories to a more positive perspective, not by denying hardships, but by drawing strength from the supportive people in their lives. Practitioners can use the book as a framework and detailed guide to assessment, engagement, development of service plans, and implementation of attachment and trauma therapy. The book is a comprehensive model for working to build the trust necessary before other trauma therapy approaches can be successfully initiated. Topics examined in Rebuilding Attachments with Traumatized Children include: attachment theory and research types of attachment problems PTSD behaviors permanency work with children in placement ADHD, bipolar, and RAD cognitive behavioral therapies storytelling therapies the myth of perfection neuropsychological patterns and much more! Rebuilding Attachments with Traumatized Children is a rich resource for practitioners, academics, parents, adoptive parents, foster parents, grandparents, and anyone working to show troubled children how to learn from the past, resolve problems in the present, and build a better future.

Originally published by Viking Penguin, 2014.

A simple, effective, and groundbreaking approach to help you move beyond trauma and focus on the things that bring you joy. If you suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), reliving the past through trauma-focused treatments may be too painful a place to start. Behavioral activation—the powerful treatment method outlined in this workbook—provides an essential foundation for recovery by shifting the focus of your trauma to the things in life that give you true fulfillment, joy, and value. This way, you can envision the kind of future you want to have, and move forward in your treatment to pursue that future. With this breakthrough workbook, you’ll learn to replace unproductive coping strategies—such as avoidance—with activities that you find pleasant and meaningful. You’ll find an overview of behavioral activation: what it is, why it works, and how you can implement it into your life to begin healing the wounds of your past and paving the way for a bright future full of possibility. If you’ve experienced trauma, you need real tools to help you manage your pain and jumpstart your recovery. With this compassionate and evidence-based workbook, you’ll find actionable solutions to help you begin healing and take that next needed step toward wellness, wholeness, and peace.

Examines the feelings of loneliness and mistrust suffered by trauma survivors, explores how these feelings affect personal relationships, and suggests ways of negotiating and coping with the trauma for improved relationships.

In Rebuilding Shattered Lives, James A. Chu, MD, describes a proven approach to the assessment and treatment of post-traumatic and dissociative disorders developed at the Dissociative Disorders and Trauma Program at McLean Hospital and Harvard Medical School. Drawing on his extensive empirical research and more than a decade's clinical experience specializing in treating survivors of severe abuse, Dr. Chu also offers valuable insights into all the major areas of traumarelated symptomatology and provides the most detailed explanation of dissociative theory currently in print. And, with the help of numerous vignettes and case examples, he clearly illustrates common clinical dilemmas encountered when dealing with survivors of severe abuse as well as the most effective techniques for resolving them. Rebuilding Shattered Lives is an important working resource for mental health workers of all levels of experience. Throughout, the writing style is clear, and complex theories are explained with an emphasis on how they provide the conceptual basis for a rational, responsible, and safe approach to treatment.