This one-of-a-kind guide serves as a rich and essential resource for mental health professionals working with women whose lives have been shattered by the trauma of sexual, physical, or emotional abuse. The book presents a practical, step-by-step guide to implementing a group recovery program for female trauma survivors.

Victims of sexual assault experience their trauma in different ways, and often one path to recovery and healing is right for one person, but not right for another. While there are some general mental health effects of sexual violence, this book outlines and describes the impact of particular types of sexual violation. Whether the survivor has experienced childhood sexual abuse, sexual assault during adulthood, marital rape, sexual harassment, sex trafficking, or sexual violence within the military, they will find aspects of her experience in these pages. Once survivors understand the ways in which they have been affected, they are introduced to various pathways to surviving sexual violence and moving forward. The chapters provide case examples and specific activities which give a fuller description of the ways survivors can make use of the particular approaches, which include mind-body practices, counseling, group therapies, self-defense training, and others. Anyone who has been a victim of sexual violence, or knows and cares about someone who has, will find relief in these pages, which offer practical approaches to finding balance and healing.

A Practical Approach to Trauma: Empowering Interventions provides trauma counselors with effective guidelines that enhance skills and improve expertise in conducting empowering therapeutic interventions. Taking a practitioner’s perspective, author Priscilla Dass-Brailsford focuses on practical application and skill building in an effort to understand the impact of extreme stress and violence on the human psyche. provides trauma counselors with effective guidelines that enhance skills and improve expertise in conducting empowering therapeutic interventions. Taking a practitioner’s perspective, author Priscilla Dass-Brailsford focuses on practical application and skill building in an effort to understand the impact of extreme stress and violence on the human psyche.

In this groundbreaking book, a leading clinical psychiatrist redefines how we think about and treat victims of trauma. A "stunning achievement" that remains a "classic for our generation." (Bessel van der Kolk, M.D., author of The Body Keeps the Score). Trauma and Recovery is revered as the seminal text on understanding trauma survivors. By placing individual experience in a broader political frame, Harvard psychiatrist Judith Herman argues that psychological trauma is inseparable from its social and political context. Drawing on her own research on incest, as well as a vast literature on combat veterans and victims of political terror, she shows surprising parallels between private horrors like child abuse and public horrors like war. Hailed by the New York Times as "one of the most important psychiatry works to be published since Freud," Trauma and Recovery is essential reading for anyone who seeks to understand how we heal and are healed.

Geller and Harris's accompanying history of both societal and psychiatric standards for women reveals that often even the prevailing conventions reinforced the perception that these women were "mad.".

Yoga for Trauma Recovery outlines best practices for the growing body of professionals trained in both yoga and psychotherapy and addresses the theoretical foundations that tie the two fields. Chapters show how understanding the safe and effective integration of trauma-informed yoga and somatic psychotherapy is essential to providing informed, effective treatment. Uniting recent developments in our understanding of trauma recovery with ancient tenets of yoga philosophy and practice, this foundational text is a must read for those interested in the healing capacities of each modality. Readers will come away from the book with a strong sense of how to apply theory, philosophy, and research to the real-life complexities of clients and students.

"Rich with expert, practical guidance for therapists, this book presents an evidence-based group treatment approach for survivors of interpersonal trauma. This time-limited treatment is designed for clients who have achieved basic safety and stability in present-day life and who are ready to work on the more enduring ways that trauma has harmed their self-perception and relationships. Vivid case examples and transcripts illustrate the process of screening, selecting, and orienting group members and helping them craft and work toward individualized goals, while optimizing the healing power of group interactions. In a convenient large-size format, the book includes reproducible handouts, worksheets, and flyers"--Provided by publisher.

Survivors of trauma—whether abuse, accidents, or war—can end up profoundly wounded, betrayed by their bodies that failed to get them to safety and that are a source of pain. In order to fully heal from trauma, a connection must be made with oneself, including one’s body. The trauma-sensitive yoga described in this book moves beyond traditional talk therapies that focus on the mind, by bringing the body actively into the healing process. This allows trauma survivors to cultivate a more positive relationship to their body through gentle breath, mindfulness, and movement practices. Overcoming Trauma through Yoga is a book for survivors, clinicians, and yoga instructors who are interested in mind/body healing. It introduces trauma-sensitive yoga, a modified approach to yoga developed in collaboration between yoga teachers and clinicians at the Trauma Center at Justice Resource Institute, led by yoga teacher David Emerson, along with medical doctor Bessel van der Kolk. The book begins with an in-depth description of trauma and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), including a description of how trauma is held in the body and the need for body-based treatment. It offers a brief history of yoga, describes various styles of yoga commonly found in Western practice, and identifies four key themes of trauma-sensitive yoga. Chair-based exercises are described that can be incorporated into individual or group therapy, targeting specific treatment goals, and modifications are offered for mat-based yoga classes. Each exercise includes trauma-sensitive language to introduce the practice, as well as photographs to illustrate the poses. The practices have been offered to a wide range of individuals and groups, including men and women, teens, returning veterans, and others. Rounded out by valuable quotes and case stories, the book presents mindfulness, breathing, and yoga exercises that can be used by home practitioners, yoga teachers, and therapists as a way to cultivate awareness, tolerance, and an increased acceptance of the self.

How mindfulness can help trauma survivors move to places of healing. Trauma touches every life, but the way that we hold our pain makes a difference. Mindfulness Skills for Trauma and PTSD provides user-friendly descriptions of the many facets of traumatic stress alongside evidence-based strategies to manage trauma symptoms and build new strengths. This book is a valuable resource for trauma survivors, health professionals, researchers, mindfulness practitioners, and others seeking new pathways to recovery and resilience. It is normal to feel anxious or depressed after trauma, and to have upsetting thoughts and memories. Instead of fighting our feelings and blaming ourselves for what are actually common responses to trauma, mindfulness practices can help us tolerate and decrease distress, cultivate kindness towards ourselves and others, make wise choices, navigate attention, improve relationships, and relax—capacities that reduce trauma symptoms and advance our overall well-being. Practicing the small stuff can help us with the big stuff. As we learn to notice our breathing, walking, minor frustrations or daily activities with curiosity and care, we build inner resources to skillfully handle past trauma, as well as current and future challenges. Mindfulness practices can transform self-blame into self-respect and self-compassion. We can also match specific mindfulness skills to particular trauma symptoms. For example, “grounding” with the five senses can help us when we feel overwhelmed or spaced out, and loving-kindness meditation can alleviate self-criticism. With this book, you will explore scientifically supported mindfulness practices, plus “In their own words” sections that illustrate the skills with personal stories demonstrating how mindfulness practices have helped others recover from trauma. “Research highlight” sections showcase fascinating scientific studies that form the basis for the book's approaches. As we practice effective strategies to handle a full range of experiences, we can each find new sources of hope, connection, and peace.

This book discusses psychiatric disorders among women in a manner that is relevant to clinical practice and keep cultural and social realities in perspective. The book is important in the face of rapidly changing conditions globally (including better education and more opportunities for work for women); challenges such as migration, war and violence and emerging areas such as newer reproductive technologies, Women's mental health cannot be divorced from social and cultural realities and while the book emphasises these areas, it also gives due importance to the current advances in neurobiology and psychopharmacology of psychiatric disorders among women. Chapters in the book are written by multiple authors, many of the chapters use the life stage approach, and have been written by authors from different parts of the world to ensure cultural relevance and diverse viewpoints.