Treating Complex Traumatic Stress Disorders: An Evidence-Based Guide
Treating Complex Traumatic Stress Disorders: An Evidence-Based Guide Books
Product Description
Chronic childhood trauma, such as prolonged abuse or family violence, can severely disrupt a person’s development, basic sense of self, and later relationships. Adults with this type of history often come to therapy with complex symptoms that go beyond existing criteria for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). This vital book brings together prominent authorities to bestow the latest thought on complex traumatic stress disorders and provide matter-of-fact guidelines for conceptualization and treatment. Evidence-based assessment procedures are detailed, and innovative individual, link, family, and group therapies are described and illustrated with case vignettes and session transcripts.
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In some way from the Amazon description of this book I plotting that it was written by Judith Herman. I was very disappointed when I received it and exposed that she had only written the introduction.
The book is a collection of scholarly articles by many experts in the field. It is a valuable resource for anyone who treats clients with a history of complex trauma.
Rating: 4 / 5
As a shrink, I’ve struggled to handle various forms of Complex PTSD, in children & adults, for over 20 years, including borderline personality disorder, Reactive Attachment Disorder (RAD) and current forms of multi-deployment Combat PTSD.
This recent collection of 20 articles from over 30 leading scholars, researchers and clinicians in the field will doubtless be the standard reference for Complex PTSD for many years. If you want to know more about how to know, diagnose and handle Complex PTSD, START HERE! The articles are divided into three sections: overview, individual treatment approaches and strategies and – what a relief! – systemic treatment approaches and strategies. I say, “What a relief!”, as often in reviews of treatment approaches, systemic approaches are given small shrift. And in my experience, systemic approaches are often VERY much needed, in some cases indispensible, for healing Complex PTSD, especially with children & teens, and especially with major problems with attachment – one sadly common token of Complex PTSD. Each article has an extensive bibliography for those who want to know more.
The “Overview” section covers a satisfyingly large number of topics, including current approaches to understanding & defining Complex PTSD, overviews on best Practices with children & teens and with adults, cultural issues, risk management/treatment alliance and compassion fatigue/vicarious traumatizing. I want to compliment the editors for this last article. Few areas of psychotherapy are more prone to therapist burnout via PTSD by association than Complex PTSD. I strongly urge that all clinicians who work significantly in this area become competent in assessing their own risks to compassion fatigue and take fixed steps to manage this.
The “Individual Treatment Approaches and Strategies” section is refreshingly clear of biases toward one school. In addition to the standard Cognitive/Behavioral models, they also include articles on Experiential and Emotion-Focused Models, Sensorimotor Psychotherapy and – helpful for clinicians to know –Pharmacotherapy. Each article presents an initial summary, the develop’s basic assumptions/theory, reviews the research, discusses specific clinical applications and presents a case example and/or transcript. Even as not lengthy, they provide enough in rank for clinicians to choose whether to pursue an approach further.
The “Systemic Treatment Approaches and Strategies” section includes Richard Schwartz’s “Internal Family Systems” as well as habitual multi-person “systems” treatments – Link Therapy, Family Systems Therapy and Group Therapy. As with the individual treatment section, each section includes overview, basic assumptions, review of research, clinical applications and case example/transcript. Both the “Internal Family Systems” and the “Link Therapy” articles are written by the field’s giants – Schwartz and Susan Johnson & Christine Courtois. These two articles are gems for a moderate introduction. I found the family section more disappointing – particularly since so small has been “overviewed” in this field. But then this may possibly be because my giants – Daniel Hughes (see Attachment-Focused Family Therapy and Building the Bonds of Attachment: Awakening Like in Deeply Troubled Children) and Heather Forbes & B. Bryan Post (See Beyond Consequences, Judgment, and Control: A Like-Based Approach to Helping Attachment-Challenged Children With Severe Behaviors) – weren’t even referenced. Nor did they reference the Grand Dame of RAD family approaches, albeit less therapy than parenting — Nancy Thomas. (Her 2nd ed. of “When Like Is Not Enough: A Guide to Parenting Children with RAD” is a strong improvement, correcting parts in the 1st ed. which may possibly be misinterpreted and lead families to become punishing.)
I have three complaints, which are serious, but which don’t take away the right importance of this collection. First is that by emphasizing treatments ONLY, they mention, but do not emphasize as much as, in my experience, as is desperately needed, the trying relationship-building aspects. In my experience, building specific Complex-PTSD relationships is more vital than particular treatment approaches. For in rank about building relationships, and about more on accessing client strengths & feedback, I urge Psychotherapy Relationships that Work: Therapist Contributions and Responsiveness to Patients and The Heart and Soul of Exchange: Delivering What Works in Therapy (Be sure to get the 2nd ed., 2010!).
Second is that large areas of Complex PTSD are neglected or even absolutely ignored. For example, as someone who treats Combat PTSD with soldiers (and their families) who’ve experienced three and four deployments of a year or more, I’m finding that the worse the deployment, and more deployments appear to be making symptom clusters highly typical of Complex PTSD. Another area: as someone who treats individuals with Asperger’s/High Functioning Autism, I find that many AS/HFA teens, especially, because of problems they face – socially, educationally, vocationally, in administration feelings, cognitively – also appear to develop symptoms quite similar to the Complex PTSD cluster.
Third is that I strongly wish that issues of addiction & various forms of self-medicating were more integrated into the Complex PTSD concept and into the treatment approaches. I find addictions/self-medicating distressingly common in Complex PTSD. And when bestow, addictions/self-medicating greatly complicates building treatment alliances and other relationships, the resources available to clients and finding approaches which integrate this into general Complex PTSD treatment.
Again, though, I want to emphasize: if you work in this field, I’d urge buying this book. Its rampant pluralism of approaches is just what Complex PTSD needs. Here, like nowhere else in my clinical experience, one size does NOT fit all. Not only are different treatment approaches needed, commonly different modalities, such as family & group, are also needed. Therefore, knowing several approaches helps the vital administer of individualizing treatments.
We can never know enough treatments for helping these people & their families. And “Treating Complex Traumatic Stress Disorders” can help us all find more approaches that can help us help more clients.
Rating: 4 / 5
This book is THE ultimate resource and current “How To” for trauma work that does Not fit neatly into a (now outdated) definition of “trauma”. Complex trauma is a much more realistic picture of what we have been seeing in today’s world. Thanks to the humility, dedication, and commitment of this remarkable list of contributors to share in rank, this specialty is in top form. I have been privileged to work with trauma survivors for many years and how wonderful to have the “creme de la creme” at my fingertips…How wonderful to have this extraordinary field of work given it’s due. By the way, the chapter on Internal Family Systems Therapy is a real bonus.
Rating: 5 / 5