Trauma
Resources

The National Sexual Violence Resource Center provides this excellent article entitled ‘7 Ways Survivors of Sexual Violence Can Practice Self-Care When Retraumatized During Tragedy’

Read the article at NSVRC

In this article, RAINN explains that a flashback is when memories of a past trauma feel as if they are taking place in the current moment. That means it’s possible to feel like the experience of sexual violence is happening all over again. During a flashback it can be difficult to connect with reality. It may even feel like the perpetrator is physically present.

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As part of their collection of symptoms relating specifically to survivors of Child Sexual Abuse, Saprea includes this excellent resource that explains triggers and provides guidance on how to cope when triggered.

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WebMD maintains a good library of resources related to most emotional health issues. This article provides a medically-approved description of exactly what PTSD Triggers are and how to recognize them.

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By Bessel van der Kolk M.D.

Trauma is a fact of life. Veterans and their families deal with the painful aftermath of combat; one in five Americans has been molested; one in four grew up with alcoholics; one in three couples have engaged in physical violence. Dr. Bessel van der Kolk, one of the world’s foremost experts on trauma, has spent over three decades working with survivors. In The Body Keeps the Score, he uses recent scientific advances to show how trauma literally reshapes both body and brain, compromising sufferers’ capacities for pleasure, engagement, self-control, and trust.

Click to view on Amazon

By Mark Wolynn

It Didn’t Start with You builds on the work of leading experts in post-traumatic stress, including Mount Sinai School of Medicine neuroscientist Rachel Yehuda and psychiatrist Bessel van der Kolk, author of The Body Keeps the Score. Even if the person who suffered the original trauma has died, or the story has been forgotten or silenced, memory and feelings can live on. These emotional legacies are often hidden, encoded in everything from gene expression to everyday language, and they play a far greater role in our emotional and physical health than has ever before been understood.

Click to view on Amazon

by Laura Davis & Ellen Bass

Come to terms with your past while moving powerfully into the future.

The Courage to Heal is an inspiring, comprehensive guide that offers hope and a map of the healing journey to every woman who was sexually abused as a child—and to those who care about her. Although the effects of child sexual abuse are long-term and severe, healing is possible.

Weaving together personal experience with professional knowledge, the authors provide clear explanations, practical suggestions, and support throughout the healing process. Readers will feel recognized and encouraged by hundreds of moving first-person stories drawn from interviews and the authors' extensive work with survivors, both nationally and internationally.

Click to view on Amazon

by Laura Davis

In this groundbreaking companion to The Courage to Heal, Laura Davis offers an inspiring, in-depth workbook that speaks to all women and men healing from the effects of child sexual abuse. The combination of checklists, writing and art Projects, open-ended questions and activities expertly guides the survivor through the healing process.

Survival Skills—Teaches survivors to create a safe, supportive environment, ask for help, deal with crisis periods, and choose therapy.

Aspects Of Healing—Focuses on the healing process: gaining a capacity for hope, breaking silence, letting go of shame, turning anger into action, planning a confrontation, preparing for family contact, and affirming personal progress.

Guidelines For Healing Sexually—Redefines the concept of "safe sex" and establishes healthy ground rules for sexual contact.

Click to view on Amazon

by John Bradshaw

Based on the public television series of the same name, Bradshaw On: The Family is John Bradshaw's seminal work on the dynamics of families that has sold more than a million copies since its original publication in 1988. Within its pages, you will discover the cause of emotionally impaired families. You will learn how unhealthy rules of behavior are passed down from parents to children, and the destructive effect this process has on our society.

Using the latest family research and recovery material in this new edition, Bradshaw also explores the individual in both a family and societal setting. He shows you ways to escape the tyranny of family-reinforced behavior traps--from addiction and co-dependency to loss of will and denial--and demonstrates how to make conscious choices that will transform your life and the lives of your loved ones. He helps you heal yourself and then, using what you have learned helps you heal your family.

Finally, Bradshaw extends this idea to our society: by returning yourself and your family to emotional health, you can heal the world in which you live. He helps you re-envision societal conflicts from the perspective of a global family, and shares with you the power of deep democracy: how the choices you make every day can affect--and improve--your world.

Click to view on Amazon

by John Bradshaw

Shame is the motivator behind our toxic behaviors: the compulsion, co-dependency, addiction and drive to super-achieve that breaks down the family and destroys personal lives. This book has helped millions identify their personal shame, understand the underlying reasons for it, address these root causes and release themselves from the shame that binds them to their past failures.

This is not just a recovery book. Among other things, it is a classic book on identifying and working through unresolved family issues. Includes affirmations, visualizations, inner voice and feeling exercises. Strong supporting studies make this a popular book with counselors and other professionals.

Click to view on Amazon

by John Bradshaw

In this powerful book, John Bradshaw shows how we can learn to nurture that inner child, in essence offering ourselves the good parenting we needed and longed for. Through a step-by-step process of exploring the unfinished business of each developmental stage, we can break away from destructive family rules and roles and free ourselves to live responsibly in the present. Then, says Bradshaw, the healed inner child becomes a source of vitality, enabling us to find new joy and energy in living.

Homecoming includes a wealth of unique case histories and interactive techniques, including questionnaires, letter-writing to the inner child, guided meditations, and affirmations. Pioneering when introduced, these classic therapies are now being validated by new discoveries in attachment research and neuroscience. No one has ever brought them to a popular audience more effectively and inspiringly than John Bradshaw.

Click to view on Amazon

by Patrick Carnes, PhD

A first-time examination of sexual anorexia, an extreme fear of sexual intimacy and obsessive avoidance of sex, by the acknowledged leader in the treatment of compulsive sexual behavior and recovery.

Author Dr. Patrick Carnes begins by defining sexual anorexia and demonstrating how it and its parallel disorder, sexual addiction and compulsivity, often arise from a background of childhood sexual trauma, neglect, and other forms of abuse. Carnes explores the numerous dimensions of sexual health, examining key issues which must be addressed and resolved for recovery to proceed.

Click to view on Amazon

The experience of shame—a feeling of being unworthy, bad, or wrong—can be extremely uncomfortable. Shame has the potential to change the way we see ourselves and may lead to long-lasting social, professional, and sexual difficulties.

Visit GoodTherapy

Survivors of sexual abuse have a need for social connection to give them the support to heal – something that has become more elusive as we all hunker down in our homes in the midst of a pandemic. In this interview with Debra Graugnard, Janet Bentley, talks about the power of connection in healing from sexual abuse and complex PTSD, the challenge of maintaining social connection in these times of isolation and the additional support that survivors need.

Listen on Joyfully Living (see podcast link at bottom of webpage)

In our childhood, many of us have had adverse moments. Maybe you were always the last pick when playing sports, or perhaps you fell off your bike and scraped your knee. But for children of childhood trauma, it can leave scars that can take a lifetime to heal. For Janet Bentley, the journey has been harrowing, but with her husband Simon’s help, it’s also one that speaks to fortitude and endurance. Recovery Replay, which is powered by Meadows Behavioral Healthcare, was created and is written and produced by me, Dominic Lawson. Special thanks to Simon Bentley and Janet Bentley, who is the author of the award-winning book Don’t Expect Me To Cry. Find out more at JanetBentley.com. Also special thanks to Special thanks to Havi Kang, Clinical Director of Willow House at Meadows Behavioral Healthcare. Find out more about her work at https://www.willowhouseforwomen.com.

Click to listen on Apple Podcast

Our host Sarah Buino facilitates an extraordinary conversation between trauma visionaries Dr. Laurence Heller and Dr. Gabor Maté centered on complex trauma, its effects on human development, and their views on the future of trauma-informed care.

Click to listen at NARM

Join Erica and me as we explore the content of Janet Bentley’s new book, Don’t Expect Me to Cry. Janet was so kind to join Erica DeLong and me to talk candidly about her book "Don’t Expect Me to Cry". Janet was courageous in sharing her powerful story about the sexual abuse and neglect she experienced as a child by many abusers, including her own father. She is sharing her story to inspire others to know they aren't alone. What has come of all this? Janet powered through her trauma and founded her non-profit, Show Up for Children; create Courageous Survivors, a safe, online environment for people to learn and share experiences about childhood sexual abuse; join the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network’s Speaker’s Bureau; and become a licensed facilitator of Darkness to Light’s Stewards of Children child sexual abuse prevention training.

*Before tuning in, please be aware that this episode contains stories of sexual violence against children. It may not be suitable for all listeners.

Click to listen on Apple Podcast

It's a humbling situation, but much about who we are as adults can be traced back to things that happened to us before our 12th birthday. Part of learning to be an adulthood means making sense of the events of our childhood. We need to spot how our past might be trying to interfere with our chances in the present.

Click here to watch on YouTube