Trauma

Bessel van der Kolk, a leading trauma therapist, takes on the New York Times. Read more

During Vietnam, there were proportionately far fewer reported cases of trauma on the actual battlefield than there'd been in previous wars. The primary reason... Read more

In this brief video clip, Mary Jo explains why bringing the family into therapy should be our first stop when treating trauma. Read more

In this brief video clip, Peter demonstrates a body awareness technique that includes loud, vibrating deep breaths to help clients minimize anxiety and... Read more

In this brief video clip, Richard explains how trauma survivors can have a dialogue with the damaged inner parts—the “Exiles”—by first consulting their... Read more

Imagine the helplessness of being unable to distinguish painful past experiences from present ones. According to Bessel van der Kolk, author of The Body Keeps... Read more

What keeps people stuck in destructive relationship patterns? While Attachment Theory has provided some answers as to how those patterns originate, many... Read more

Coauthor of Freedom from Pain, Maggie has found that Attachment Theory is a useful framework for understanding the unreleased trauma that often lies at the... Read more

While developing Coherence Therapy, Bruce Ecker, coauthor of Unlocking the Emotional Brain, spent a lot of time uncovering the differences between... Read more

Many well-intentioned therapists have suggested that their clients just “let go” of hate, as if it were a heavy load that they could simply drop to the... Read more

Pioneering trauma expert Bessel van der Kolk shares his thoughts on the differences between public and private trauma. Read more

Stephen makes it clear that hard scientific evidence now exists for what most therapists instinctively know: successful therapy depends utterly on establishing... Read more

Back in the late 1970s, a motley crew of Vietnam War vets, sympathetic psychiatrists, antiwar activists, and church groups undertook a crusade to have a... Read more

To get through to clients in our increasingly ADD culture, therapists must learn to evoke a deeper, more visceral engagement with them. At this year’s... Read more

The increasing popularity of neurofeedback is based on the growing evidence that a wide variety of psychological disorders can be understood as firing mistakes... Read more

Part of the epidemic of misdiagnosed ADHD in young children today results from a failure to understand how trauma often leads to difficulty learning in school. Read more

No other single condition tests the therapeutic relationship quite so stringently, demands so much from the clinician, or combines so many disparate treatment... Read more

If we don’t open up the one-on-one therapeutic cloister, trauma sufferers may never learn how to engage in the give and take of real-life relationships. By... Read more

Most therapists find it relatively easy to feel empathy for the usual hyperaroused, vulnerable trauma client. But it can be a lot tougher to remain... Read more

Twenty-five years ago, we believed that helping trauma survivors dig into dark and unspeakable horrors would set them free. But in this new age of trauma... Read more

Therapeutic skeptics still cite the possibility of stirring up intense transference and countertransference responses as a compelling reason not to use more... Read more

Using humor to help clients reconstruct their problems, even to the point of making parodies of their own dilemmas, can help some them get distance from their... Read more

Watch this clip to hear Courtney Armstrong talk about a specific client she saw who needed guidance more than she needed understanding. Read more

When attachment theory was blossoming, it didn’t provide an accompanying toolbox of tactics and techniques, though it did offer a new therapeutic attitude... Read more

In this clip Janina Fisher talks about how years of experience do not guarantee easy clients and how she reacts when faced with a challenging case. Read more

It’s the very fact that both emotion and reasoning ability are held hostage by their body’s continuing physical reaction to trauma that makes healing so... Read more

To help depressed clients figure out what they need to heal, mindfulness specialist Elisha Goldstein has developed several effective self-compassion practices... Read more

When Treating Some Forms of Anxiety, Reenacting a Traumatic Memory May Be the Key Read more

Since the publication of DSM-IV in 1994, a massive body of neurobiological research has accumulated, revealing how protracted childhood abuse and neglect can... Read more

Mary Jo talks about the first stage of trauma treatment, where she teaches clients about the natural cycle of growth in order to discover how they prefer to... Read more