Trauma Informed Care: Books

A top expert on human trauma argues that we vastly overestimate how common PTSD is and fail to recognize how resilient people really are After 9/11, mental health professionals flocked to New York to handle what everyone assumed would be a flood of trauma cases. Oddly, the flood never came. In The End of Trauma, pioneering psychologist George A. Bonanno argues that we failed to predict the psychological response to 9/11 because most of what we understand about trauma is wrong. For starters, it's not nearly as common as we think. In fact, people are overwhelmingly resilient to adversity. What we often interpret as PTSD are signs of a natural process of learning how to deal with a specific situation. We can cope far more effectively if we understand how this process works. Drawing on four decades of research, Bonanno explains what makes us resilient, why we sometimes aren't, and how we can better handle traumatic stress. Hopeful and humane, The End of Trauma overturns everything we thought we knew about how people respond to hardship.

Over four decades of clinical experience, renowned physician and addiction expert Dr Gabor Maté has seen how health systems neglect the role that trauma exerts on our bodies and our minds. Medicine often fails to treat the whole person, ignoring how today's culture stresses our bodies, burdens our immune systems and undermines emotional balance.

Now, in his most ambitious and urgent book yet, Dr Maté connects the dots between our personal suffering and the pressures of modern-day living - with disease as a natural reflection of a life spent growing further and further apart from our true selves. But, with deep compassion, he also shows us a pathway to health and healing.

This collection brings together indigenous thinkers and practitioners from Aotearoa and internationally to discuss the effects of trauma on indigenous peoples across social, economic, political and cultural environments. The authors explore understandings and practices of indigenous people, grounded in the knowledge of ancestors and based on research, that facilitate healing and wellbeing. The first part of the book focuses on research findings from He Oranga Ngākau: Māori Approaches to Trauma Informed Care, which supports health providers working with whānau experiencing trauma. It discusses tikanga Māori concepts, decolonising approaches and navigating mauri ora. The subsequent chapters explore indigenous models of healing, focusing on connections to land and the environment, whakapapa connections and indigenous approaches such as walking, hunting, and growing and accessing traditional foods for wellbeing

Forming a secure therapeutic alliance with traumatized clients is tricky. How do you help clients trust you after they've been abused, betrayed, or exploited? How do you instill hope and convince clients who've been devastated by loss to believe that a better life is possible? In this accessible guide, Courtney Armstrong distills discoveries from attachment theory, brain science, and post-traumatic growth into practical strategies you can use to: 1) build trust and a secure therapeutic relationship; 2) transform traumatic memories into stories of triumph and courage; and 3) help clients cultivate resilience and a positive post-trauma identity. Packed with dozens of scripts, step-by-step worksheets, and inspiring client stories, this book gives you tools for each phase of the trauma therapy process and shows you how to: Engage and motivate clients based on their attachment style; Manage trauma-related dissociation, anxiety, and anger; Transform traumatic memories so they no longer haunt your client; Work with different types of trauma, from sexual abuse to traumatic grief; Evoke inner resources for healing and positive emotional states; Counter compassion fatigue and burnout so you can thrive as a therapist; Merely talking about a traumatic event is not enough because the parts of the brain where traumatic, implicit memories are stored don't understand words. Heartfelt, relational experiences catalyze brain change and buffer the impact of trauma. In this book, Armstrong demonstrates that neuroscience is validating what therapists have suspected all along: the brain changes through the heart. 

Drawing on groundbreaking scientific research and real-life stories, world-renowned psychiatrist Dr Paul Conti shares an accessible guide to how trauma works and how we can get to the root of the issue.

This book applies a Kaupapa Māori framing of the problem of sexual violence and the healing strategies that can be applied from within our own mātauranga and tikanga. It draws its inspiration from the story of Niwareka as a model of healing. The book also offers a critique of current policies and practices that have failed to prevent sexual violence or deal with the consequences of sexual violence or heal the victims and their whānau from the impacts of sexual violence.

“I live on a beach. It’s wide and stretches. All sorts of things wash up there. Me especially. On a good day I can see Ruapehu, Taranaki, the Tararuas and Kāpiti. The dead wander by, noisy and full of chat. They stop me being scared. The living are another kettle of fish. Next door is a small town. The mayor runs a bookshop. Old guys wear socks and sandals. Kids say, ‘Not even’ ‘Sweet’, ‘Hard’, ‘Matua’, ‘peeps’ and ‘Too much’. There’s a youth health clinic there too. That’s where I work. I am a doctor. Young people tell me their stories. Around the corner there’s a movie theatre and a couple of cafes. Two supermarkets. An adventure park. A commerce of dairies. And somewhere in all of that something awful is going on.”

In this essay Glenn Colquhoun explores the role adverse childhood events (ACEs) play in the lives of the young people he works with at the Horowhenua Youth Health Service.