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The Body Remembers Volume 2: Revolutionizing Trauma Treatment

The Body Remembers Volume 2: Revolutionizing Trauma Treatment

Current price: $35.00
Publication Date: June 20th, 2017
Publisher:
W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN:
9780393707298
Pages:
224

Description

Challenging the notion that clients with PTSD must revisit, review, and process their memories to recover from trauma.

The Body Remembers, Volume 2: Revolutionizing Trauma Treatment continues the discussion begun more than fifteen years ago with the publication of the best-selling and beloved The Body Remembers: The Psychophysiology of Trauma and Trauma Treatment.

This new book is grounded in the belief that the most important goal for any trauma treatment is to improve the quality of life of the client. Therefore, the first prerequisite is that the client be reliably stable and feel safe in his or her daily life as well as the therapy situation.

To accomplish this, Babette Rothschild empowers both therapists and clients by expanding trauma treatment options. For clients who prefer not to review memories, or are unable to do so safely, new and expanded strategies and principles for trauma recovery are presented. And for those who wish to avail themselves of more typical trauma memory work, tools to make trauma memory resolution even safer are included.

Being able to monitor and modulate a trauma client’s dysregulated nervous system is one of the practitioner’s best lines of defense against traumatic hyperarousal going amok—risking such consequences as dissociation and decompensation. Rothschild clarifies and simplifies autonomic nervous system (ANS) understanding and observation with her creation of an original full color table that distinguishes six levels of arousal. Included in this table (and the discussion that accompanies it) is a new and essential distinction between trauma-induced hypoarousal and the low arousal that is caused by lethargy or depression.

The full color ANS table is also available from W.W. Norton as a laminated desk reference and a wall poster suitable for framing so this valuable therapeutic tool will always be at hand.

Principles and theory come alive through multiple demonstration therapy transcripts that illustrate:

  • Stabilizing a new client who consistently dissociates due to persistent trauma flashbacks
  • Clarifying and keeping therapeutic contracts
  • Identifying and implementing hidden somatic resources for stabilization
  • Easing transition from Phase 1 to Phase 2 trauma treatment via trauma memory outlining
  • Utilizing good memories and somatic markers as antidotes to traumatic memory

Combining an authoritative yet personal voice, Rothschild gives clinicians the space to recognize where they may have made mistakes—by sharing her own!—as well as a road map toward more effective practice in the future. This book is absolutely essential reading for anyone working with those who have experienced trauma.

About the Author

Babette Rothschild, MSW, LCSW is an internationally recognized PTSD specialist and best-selling author of seven books translated into eighteen languages, including her new offerings Help for the Helper Updated + Expanded and the 8 Keys to Safe Trauma Recovery Workbook. Babette is also the creator and Series Editor of W. W. Norton’s 8 Keys to Mental Health Series. She currently lives in Los Angeles, California.

Praise for The Body Remembers Volume 2: Revolutionizing Trauma Treatment

[P]rovides a plethora of ways to look at and understand the lasting effects of trauma on the body and the provider’s role in creating a safe space for healing to take place.
— Somatic Psychotherapy Today

[E]xtremely useful in helping me to gain confidence in my verbal skills, enabling clients to self-regulate and to monitor my own ANS regulation. . . The masterpiece is the in-depth chapter on Precision ANS Regulation; comprising a review, theory, and practical tips for monitoring the ANS. . . [I] recommend this volume to new and experienced therapists alike.
— Fulcrum Book Reviews

Once again, Babette Rothschild makes clear an understanding of the role of the body in healing trauma. There is a great value in how she presents simple tools for stabilization and safety, as well as appreciating the important therapeutic differences in working with hyper- and hypo-aroused states. She presents this material in a way that is accessible for the beginner but also adds to the knowledge base of the seasoned therapist.
— Peter A. Levine, author of In an Unspoken Voice and Trauma and Memory

The Body Remembers, Volume 2 broadens the options available to trauma therapists and challenges the therapist to see clinical symptoms as resources. The volume provides an accessible understanding of how therapists can leverage the resources of trauma survivors and use an awareness of the client's physiological state to choreograph the client's journey towards resilience and health.

— Stephen W. Porges, author of The Polyvagal Theory