Elizabeth A. Stanley - Widen the Window: Training Your Brain and Body to Thrive During Stress and Recover from Trauma

Dr. Stanley writes with a clarity and intelligence that results in a truly accessible scholarly work on understanding stress, trauma, and a path to healing. This is one of the most important books on meditation since Jon Kabat-Zinns Full Catastrophe Living brought meditation into the mainstream. Widen the Window is about healing and recovery. It is about a pathway beyond self-improvement to self-understanding.

Gary Kaplan, D.O., author of Total Recovery and founder of the Kaplan Center for Integrative Medicine

This book holds a template for enhancing performanceattention span, focus, rapid recovery from shock, and stress. Although I was initially skeptical, I became convinced when I was able to see, review, and understand the supporting science, in particular the data that shows physiological changes. These outcomes hold value in all environments and conditions, and can help people gain more mastery of their bodies to improve their daily performance, and their overall lives.

Major General Melvin G. Spiese, U.S. Marine Corps (Ret.), former commander of the U.S.M.C. Training and Education Command

In Widen the Window, Elizabeth Stanley takes us on her profound journey into experiencing, understanding, and treating the devastating impact of trauma. Through her personal journey, she shares her transformation from numbness to an awareness of the language of her body with an understanding of the important role that the autonomic nervous system plays in our mental and physical health. These experiences have enabled her to develop an innovative treatment model to provide the heroic survivors of trauma with tools to enhance regulation and resilience.

Stephen W. Porges, Ph.D., author of The Polyvagal Theory and Distinguished University Scientist and Founding Director of the Traumatic Stress Research Consortium in the Kinsey Institute, Indiana University

Stanley offers a brave and skillful journey through her personal experiences and the science of stress and trauma. This is a stark look at how society defines strength and success, and how achieving these at the highest levels undermines their very foundation. Stanley gives us an opportunity to rethink and shift our approach to strength and resilience. A must-read for the many driven individuals who find themselves victims of their own drive and success.

Sarah Bowen, Ph.D., author of Mindfulness-Based Relapse Prevention: A Clinicians Guide and Associate Professor of Psychology, Pacific University

Elizabeth Stanleys new book, Widen the Window, is a well-researched, thorough exploration of the causes and treatments of stress and trauma. This book offers hope to those of us who have lived within a narrow window of our potential by offering a composite of proven principles and practices that can free us from a lifetime of conditioning.

Rodney Smith, author of Touching the Infinite and founding teacher of the Seattle Insight Meditation Society

Dr. Stanleys book offers invaluable insight on how to handle the stress of everyday life as well as more severe emotional trauma. Her strategies should be a lifeline for military veterans dealing with the wrenching memories of combat, but also for all of the rest of us trying to deal with the mental strain of our lives. Most important, this book offers hope. It shows a path to better mental health.

Congressman Adam Smith, Chair of the House Armed Services Committee

Full of stories mixed with science in a friendly, stimulating, and hopeful read, this pioneering book offers an exciting new perspective on stress and trauma. Explaining that we often fail to recognize, and thus neglect, the effects of such ordeals, Liz Stanley teaches the reader how to exchange maladaptive conditioned responses for new, adaptive strategies that increase concentration, enhance performance, and heal mind and body. By integrating top-down with bottom-up approaches, our windows of tolerance can be widened, both individually and collectively, bringing out the best in humanity.

Pat Ogden, Ph.D., founder of the Sensorimotor Psychotherapy Institute

At a time when our culture is catching up with the physical, mental, and social costs of stress and trauma, Elizabeth Stanley, in her groundbreaking book, brings a new and much-needed understanding of how these phenomena are intimately linked, and how we can heal them. A must-read for anyone who is in the helping professions.

Richard Strozzi-Heckler, Ph.D., author of In Search of the Warrior Spirit and The Leadership Dojo

Drawing from her personal experience as a longtime meditator and trauma survivor, teacher, and researcher of mindfulness-based programs for high stress, high trauma populations, and training in trauma-oriented therapies, Dr. Stanleys Widen the Window provides an accessible and valuable contribution to the burgeoning field of trauma-informed mindfulness.

Willoughby Britton, Ph.D., Director of the Clinical and Affective Neuroscience Laboratory at Brown University Medical School

With the excellent books on trauma, Dr. Stanleys book on resilience stands out. It adds a vital link in understanding how we regulate stress and soften the corrosive effects of trauma. Her book offers an evidence- and theory-based understanding of the intimate influences of bonding and attachment, processes that solidify the early roots of resilience. But then, it goes further by illustrating how, at every age, and in any situation, we can learn powerful skills that let us tap into the healing power of resilience. It does this by solidifying the intrinsic and welded unity of mind, brain, and body. A must-read for all therapists and for all of us seeking healing and wholeness.

Peter A. Levine Ph.D., author of In an Unspoken Voice and Trauma and Memory

In Widen the Window, Liz Stanley offers an in-depth understanding of the physiological and psychological impact of survival responses to stress and trauma. Drawing from cutting-edge research, she offers both professional and lay readers practices and strategies for dealing effectively with the challenging and rapid-fire responses that arise when we feel overwhelmed or threatened. I cannot recommend this book highly enough.

Nancy J. Napier, MA, LMFT, SEP, Faculty, Somatic Experiencing Trauma Institute, and author of Getting Through the Day: Strategies for Adults Hurt as Children

Liz Stanley has opened a window onto a promising new vista for human healing and thriving. Her powerful insights transform the narrative of how societies and organizations approach (and often ignore, dismiss, or deny) trauma. She offers a state-of-the-art understanding of how traumas are formed as well as effectively repaired. For people whose work routinely puts their lives on the lineand pay a terrible price for itshe offers a ray of hope.

Jeremy Hunter, Ph.D., Founding Director and Associate Professor of Practice at the Executive Mind Leadership Institute, Peter F. Drucker and Masatoshi Ito Graduate School of Management

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Copyright 2019 by Elizabeth A. Stanley

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