Arielle Schwartz - The Complex PTSD Workbook: A Mind-Body Approach to Regaining Emotional Control and Becoming Whole

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ISBN: Print 978-1-62315-824-8 | eBook 978-1-62315-825-5

To my children, Eliana and Ian.

Thank you for the gift of being your mother.
You are my teachers about the most important lesson in life: what it means to love.

HOW TO USE THIS WORKBOOK ON AN EBOOK DEVICE

This workbook is meant to be interactive. If youre reading this on a touch-screen device, you can add notes to this ebook and highlight text just like you would in a physical workbook.

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A breakthrough moment in psychotherapy can be an insight or a shift toward adaptive resolution of a disturbing memory; or it can occur in an early therapy session, or even prior to the first session, when the client makes the brave decision to pick up the phone and make an initial appointment. This book is written for individuals who are at the initial point of turning the corner on their long-standing problems and have questions: I know generally what psychotherapy is, but what would it be for me, and how could it really help me? There are so many different kinds of therapywhich method would be the best fit for me? What would an actual therapy session be like for me, with the difficulties I have? This book contains concise, accurate, and accessible answers to these types of questions.

The theme throughout the chapters is one of normalizing the problems of people with difficult and extensive trauma historiesthose individuals who might be described within the categories of complex PTSD and/or developmental trauma disorder. Dr. Schwartz makes it clear that complex PTSD is a normal response or adaptation to non-normal life conditions that may be in a persons history. This in itself is a very useful perspective, especially for those clients who have been struggling with emotional problems for a long time, and, as a result, have much reduced self-esteem. The comprehensive and compassionate descriptions of the many different manifestations of complex PTSD are likely to be helpful for those clients who have feared, erroneously, that they are too unusual or weird to be helped.

Throughout each of the chapters, the reader is invited to respond in writing with information from their own life experience. This volume then becomes more than just a book off the shelf, but instead a more real and interactive experience.

The chapters provide comprehensive coverage of a range of issues related to the treatment of complex PTSD: the importance of attachment patterns (as a sometimes hidden element of an adults emotional problem); an overview of different models of treatment, with enough information about each method so the reader can make an informed choice regarding which approach might be the best fit; and potential obstacles to successful treatmentobstacles that can be identified in advance so that an appropriate treatment plan can be constructed. With these issues in mind, the therapist and client will be better able to form a roadmap for therapy, a contract listing therapy goals, and the likely best path to reaching each of those goals. This book is a valuable resource for all those affected by complex PTSD, allowing them to be informed and active as partners in the therapeutic healing process.

JIM KNIPE, PHD

I t takes tremendous courage to confront childhood trauma. Like searching in the dark for an unknown source of pain, the process of healing can feel daunting, if not terrifying. This book will help you illuminate that darkness and enter a new world of personal freedom.

Childhood traumas can range from having faced extreme violence and neglect to having confronted feelings of not belonging, being unwanted, or being chronically misunderstood. You may have grown up in an environment where your curiosity and enthusiasm were constantly devalued. Perhaps you were brought up in a family where your parents had unresolved traumas of their own, which impaired their ability to attend to your emotional needs. Or, you may have faced vicious sexual or physical attacks. In all such situations, you learn to compensate by developing defenses around your most vulnerable parts. Importantly, we cannot compare one persons loss or pain to anothersevery persons experience is different and leaves different wounds.