Mental, physical, or sexual abuse in close personal relationships commonly results in trauma that is very different from the trauma of accidents, illness, or war. Making creative use of attachment theory to explicate the multifaceted outcomes of trauma, this book provides a powerful conceptual framework and a concise, masterly review of a huge knowledge base. Encyclopedic in scope and scholarly in its up-to-the-minute survey of research findings.
Combining years of research, teaching, and experience treating trauma survivors, Dr. Jon G. Allen offers compassionate and practical guidance to understanding trauma and its effects on the self and relationships. Coping With Trauma is based on more than a decade of Dr. Allen's experience conducting educational groups for persons struggling with psychiatric disorders stemming from trauma. Written for a general audience, this book does not require a background in psychology. Readers will gain essential knowledge to embark on the process of healing from the complex wounds of trauma, along with a guide to current treatment approaches.In this supportive and informative work, readers will be introduced to and encouraged in the process of healing by an author who is both witness and guide. This clearly written, insightful book not only teaches clinicians about trauma but also, equally important, teaches clinicians how to educate their patients about trauma.Reshaped by recent developments in attachment theory, including the importance of cumulative stress over a lifetime, this compelling work retains the author's initial focus on attachment as he looks at trauma from two perspectives. From the psychological perspective, the author discusses the impact of trauma on emotion, memory, the self, and relationships, incorporating research from neuroscience to argue that trauma is a physical illness. From the psychiatric perspective, the author discusses various trauma-related disorders and symptoms: depression, posttraumatic stress disorder, and dissociative disorders, along with a range of self-destructive behaviors to which trauma can make a contribution.Important updates include substantive and practical information on ; Emotion and emotion regulation, prompted by extensive contemporary research on emotion - which is becoming a science unto itself. Illness, based on current developments in the neurobiological understanding of trauma. Depression, a pervasive trauma-related problem that poses a number of catch-22s for recovery. Various forms of self-destructiveness - substance abuse, eating disorders, and deliberate self-harm - all construed as coping strategies that backfire. Suicidal states and self-defeating aspects of personality disorders. The author addresses the challenges of healing by reviewing strategies of emotion regulation as well as a wide range of sound treatment approaches. He concludes with a new chapter on the foundation of all healing: maintaining hope.This exceptionally comprehensive overview of a wide range of traumatic experiences, written in nontechnical language with extensive references to both classic and contemporary theoretical, clinical, and research literature, offers a uniquely useful guide for victims of trauma, their family members, and mental health care professionals alike.
Distilling years of experience in educating psychiatric patients and their families about depression, Jon Allen has written a practical book that addresses the challenges depressed patients face on the road to recovery. Allen advocates approaching depression by focusing on the importance of hope, and he helps patients understand depression through two simple ideas: catch-22 and stress pileup. This book conveys how the symptoms of depression impede all the things depressed persons must do to recover, thus defusing self-criticism while encouraging patients to take satisfaction in small steps toward improvement. And the concept of stress pileup encompasses a developmental perspective respecting the full range of accumulated biological, psychological, and interpersonal stresses that play into depression. This broad understanding helps patients become more compassionate toward themselves and puts them in a stronger position to make use of professional care. Coping With Depression is written for a general audience, including depressed persons and their family members, as well as professionals seeking a readable integration of current knowledge that they can use to educate their patients. Although written in nontechnical language, the book provides a sophisticated and comprehensive understanding of the psychological development of depression, the neurobiology of the illness, and the full range of evidence-based treatment modalities. All material is buttressed by extensive references to theoretical, clinical, and research literature. Coping With Depression emphasizes the concept of agency, encouraging readers to take an active role in their recovery. Countering today's trend toward exclusive reliance on antidepressant medication, the book employs the perspective of developmental psychopathology to integrate psychosocial and neurobiological knowledge. The book explains how biological vulnerability is intertwined with stress stemming from insecure attachment, childhood adversity, stressful life events, emotional conflicts, and problems in close relationships. Going far beyond the "chemical imbalance," the author illustrates how the experience of depression is linked to changes in patterns of brain activity as evidenced by neuroimaging studies. Coping With Depression will help readers • understand the development of depression from a biopsychosocial perspective• appreciate how depression is compounded by related conditions, including bipolar disorder, anxiety disorders, substance abuse, personality disorders, general medical conditions, and suicidal states• understand how recovering from depression entails working on many fronts, including improving physical health, participating in pleasurable activities, countering negative thinking, resolving internal conflicts, and-above all-establishing more stable and secure attachment relationships• become knowledgeable about the treatment options that facilitate coping, including cognitive-behavioral, interpersonal, and psychodynamic psychotherapy as well as medication and combined treatment• appreciate the centrality of hope in recovery from depression and the challenges to hope that depression poses To maintain hope, patients, their family members, and clinicians must face the seriousness of the illness of depression and the daunting obstacles to recovery, including catch-22 in all of its manifestations. Throughout the book, Allen reiterates the theme of agency: depressed persons can use their intelligence to understand their illness and do something to recover and remain well, making use of help from others along the way.
Trusting in Psychotherapy is an important book that fills a lamentable void: although virtually everyone—therapists, students, and patients alike—believes that trust is the foundation of psychotherapy, the topic has been neglected in the psychiatric literature, to the detriment of the therapeutic relationship. The author, who brings five decades of study and practice to the enterprise, posits that cultivating trusting psychotherapy bonds—especially for patients who have experienced developmental trauma in close relationships—is complex, challenging, and a critically important topic for examination. Whereas therapists are inclined to focus on patients' problems with trust, the author argues that trusting cannot be understood apart from trustworthiness and that therapists should give equal attention to the task of becoming trustworthy to their patients. Blending developmental science and ethical thought in an interdisciplinary spirit, the author draws on contemporary writings of philosophers to elucidate the concepts of trust and trustworthiness. What it means to trust in the practice of psychotherapy; the many facets of trusting and trustworthiness; attachment relationships, both secure and insecure; the central role of hope in trust; and the ethical-moral basis of trusting and trustworthiness—these and other topics are addressed with competence and care. Intellectually engaging and designed to provoke thought, the book: • Offers a broadly developmental perspective, reflecting the belief that attachment trauma plays a profound role in many severe psychiatric disorders and emphasizing that the resulting and pervasive distrust and social alienation pose significant obstacles to developing therapeutic connections.• Provides an overview of the professional literature on developing expertise in conducting psychotherapy, with discussion of current research.Addresses the proliferation of new therapies in the context of competing schools of thought and what this proliferation means for the therapist caught between science and practice, academics and clinicians. • Is aimed chiefly at psychotherapists, yet its conversational, generally nontechnical style makes it accessible to those who are not mental health professionals, including patients who might wish to listen in on the conversation and families who desire a more complete understanding of the therapeutic process.• Includes key points at the end of each chapter to help the reader stay oriented and focused on the most important concepts. Trusting in Psychotherapy argues persuasively that we should shift the balance of our efforts from developing therapies to developing therapists, a view that deserves to inform mental health research and thought leadership.
This book brings together the latest knowledge from attachment research and neuroscience to provide a new approach to treating trauma for therapists from different professional disciplines and diverse theoretical backgrounds. The field of trauma suffers from fragmentation as brands of therapy proliferate in relation to a multiplicity of psychiatric disorders. This fragmentation calls for a fresh clinical approach to treating trauma. Pinpointing at once the problem and potential solution, the author places the experience of being psychologically alone in unbearable emotional states at the heart of trauma in attachment relationships. This trauma results from a failure of mentalizing, that is, empathic attunement to emotional distress. Psychotherapy offers an opportunity for healing by restoring mentalizing, that is, fostering psychological attunement in the context of secure attachment relationships-in the psychotherapy relationship and in other attachment relationships. The book gives a unique overview of common attachment patterns in childhood and adulthood, setting the stage for understanding attachment trauma, which is most conspicuous in maltreatment but also more subtly evident in early and repeated failures of attunement in attachment relationships.
”Denne bog handler om et stort sundhedsproblem: traumer i tilknytningsrelationer – i yderste instans overgreb på og vanrøgt af børn. (…) Den voksende forståelse af den afgørende betydning af mentalisering – det at være opmærksom på mentale tilstande som tanker og følelser hos en selv og andre – sætter os mere specifikt i stand til at finde frem til det, som efter min opfattelse er nøglen til traumet og vejen til at komme sig: mentalisering i forbindelse med tilknytningsrelationer. Med inddragelsen af mentalisering vil tilknytningsteori og forskning give os et solidt grundlag for traumebehandling, som tilbyder terapeuter og patienter en klarere forestilling om, hvad vi foretager os.” Jon G. Allen i bogens prolog ”Allen styrer os behændigt gennem minefeltet af evidensbaserede terapier og når frem til ’traditionel terapi’, en ny kombination af mindfulness, mentalisering og tilknytningsbaseret terapi, der leverer den diagnostiske forståelse, som både terapeut og patient – implicit eller eksplicit – søger.” Peter Fonagy, leder af Anna Freud Centre, i bogens forord ”Jon G. Allen opfordrer på en yderst engagerende og nyttig måde terapeuter til grundige overvejelser, før de undervurderer værdien af ’traditionel terapi’, når de arbejder med klienter, som har været udsat for relationelle psykiske traumer. Men det, han beskriver, er meget mere end traditionel terapi; det er en kompleks (men særdeles praktisk) destillation af de centrale principper og praksisser, der gør alle de nyere ’evidensbaserede’ terapier effektive.” Julian D. Ford, University of Connecticut Health Center Jon G. Allen, ph.d, er ledende psykolog ved Menninger-klinikken og Helen Malsin Palley-professor i psykisk sundhedsforskning og professor i psykiatri ved Menninger-instituttet for psykiatri og adfærdsvidenskaber ved Baylor College of Medicine. Jon G. Allen har specialiseret sig i behandling af traumerelaterede lidelser og depression. Han er en produktiv forfatter og udgiver, der har skrevet bøger om traumer, depression og mentalisering.
