From Amazon: For the past decade, author Tian Dayton has been researching trauma and addiction, and how psychodrama (or sociometry group psychotherapy) can be used in their treatment. Since trauma responses are stored in the body, a method of therapy that engages the body through role play can be more effective in accessing the full complement of trauma-related memories. This latest book identifies the interconnection of trauma and addictive behavior, and shows why they can become an...

by Dr. Melissa Sadin and Nathan Levy with Theo Sadin “Teachers’ Guide to Trauma is full of insights and each insight is flawlessly aligned with good teaching practices. There’s a tenderness to the book which makes you keep returning to its pages-not unlike the tenderness a teacher feels each time she helps a student succeed.”- Susan E. Craig, Ph.D. Author of Reaching and Teaching Children Who Hurt , Trauma Sensitive Schools: Learning Communities Transforming Children’s Lives , and...

I first heard about Eugene Gendlin while reading Peter Levine's Waking the Tiger . Gendlin, a psychologist, originated the term "felt sense," which refers to the awareness of our internal, bodily experiences. Like Levine, Bessel van der Kolk, and other somatic pioneers, Gendlin promotes emotional self healing by learning to listen to your body in an accepting way. As Gendlin writes: "You have a bodily orienting sense. You know who you are and how you came to be in this room, reading this...

Although I haven't read this book, I took a sneak peek of the foreword, written by Bessel van der Kolk in 2015. Although I'm familiar with Levine's Somatic Experiencing approach to healing trauma, some of what I read here was new to me. Here's what van der Kolk had to say about this latest book from Peter Levine: "One of the most brilliant and original discussions in this book is Peter's explanation of how, in order to meet extreme adversity, one needs to engage both the brain's motivation...

I was checking out some new reading material on Amazon when I stumbled on a book review of Emotional Sobriety , in which the reviewer included author Tian Dayton's definition of codependency: "Codependency, I feel, is fear-based and is a predictable set of qualities and behaviors that grow out of feeling anxious and therefore hypervigilant in our intimate relationships. It is also reflective of an incomplete process of individuation....Though codependency seems to be about caretaking or...

This documentary by the Representation Project explores the American boy crisis and the culture of American masculinity. According to the film's website, "Research shows that compared to girls, boys in the U.S. are more likely to be diagnosed with a behavior disorder, prescribed stimulant medications, fail out of school, binge drink, commit a violent crime, and/or take their own lives." I watched it on Netflix and thought it was quite good. Here's the link to the website and trailer: ...

From Amazon: Healing the Fragmented Selves of Trauma Survivors integrates a neurobiologically informed understanding of trauma, dissociation, and attachment with a practical approach to treatment, all communicated in straightforward language accessible to both client and therapist. Readers will be exposed to a model that emphasizes "resolution"―a transformation in the relationship to one’s self, replacing shame, self-loathing, and assumptions of guilt with compassionate acceptance. Its...

I haven't read this, but it looks like it might be of interest to therapists and other practitioners. From Amazon: This is the first book that addresses trauma treatment for child and adolescents using a Family Systems Trauma (FST) model which goes beyond individual therapy to include the child and their entire family. Co-written by a renowned family therapist who created the Parenting with Love and Limits® model, it delivers a research-based , step-by-step approach that incorporates the...

In Johann Hari 's bestselling book, Chasing the Scream: The First and Last Days of the War on Drugs , the British author explored misconceptions of addiction. It is not the drugs themselves that lead to dependence, he argued. Rather, it is one's environment and the attempt to self-medicate and alleviate pain that are the true causes of addiction. Three years later, Hari's follow up, Lost Connections: Uncovering the Real Causes of Depression—and the Unexpected Solutions , digs beneath...

My dream is to create a space which feels safe, yet empowering; offering a hand to hold along the road of recovery.

John Sharp is a psychiatrist and professor at Harvard Medical School. In his book Insight Cure , Sharp includes ACEs science in his exploration of how traumatic events from childhood may turn into what he calls a "false truth" (such as "I am unlovable") that then turns into a maladaptation that can plague an individual for life. His book outlines an 8-step program to help readers shine the light of awareness on these false truths that so many of us harbor based on early childhood...

In my last post, I highlighted a book Vincent Felitti mentioned at the CAMFT conference in Orange County. In the same talk, Dr. Felitti also recommended a form of therapeutic writing developed by James Pennebaker to help individuals uncover painful emotions and heal trauma. Pennebaker's book Opening Up by Writing It Down: How Expressive Writing Improves Health and Eases Emotional Pain details the why and how. The Pennebaker method has been referenced elsewhere on ACEs Connection; I thought...