Unravelling Trauma And Weaving Resilience With Systemic And Narrative Therapy

Unravelling Trauma and Weaving Resilience with Systemic and Narrative Therapy is an innovative book that details how clinicians can engage children, families and their networks in creative and collaborative relationships to elicit change within the context of trauma and violence. Combining systemic, narrative and dialogical theoretical frameworks with clinical examples, this volume focuses on therapeutic conversations that can help children, and those involved with them, deconstruct their experienced difficulties, and create more hopeful stories and alternative ways of relating to one another through a sense of play. Vermeire advocates for serious playfulness as a way of directly addressing trauma and its effects, as well as along ‘trauma-sensitive’ side paths. Puppetry, artwork, interviews and theatre play are used to weave networks of resilience in ever-widening circles and this approach is informed by the awareness that individual problems are always to be seen as relational, social and political. This book is an important read for therapists and social workers who work with traumatised children and their multi-stressed families.

This book addresses the multifaceted nature of trauma by bringing together the many theoretical perspectives that explain how people cope with traumatic life experiences. Practitioners working across the people professions frequently find themselves working with service users, patients and clients who are survivors of trauma. Ranging between attachment, person-centred and anti-oppressive approaches, this text will help students and practitioners widen their approaches to such clients' experiences. Whether you are a student or practitioner of counselling, social work or mental health, this book provides the foundations for understanding people's responses and resilience against traumatic life experiences.

In 'The Magic Loom' the author, Heather McClelland, invites adults who survived trauma in their childhood to become more aware of their sensations. She helps them interweave the narratives and wisdom of both body and mind as they safely explore and make meaning of the past and put it behind them. This is a text for therapists primarily, teaching with metaphor and case-study. Therapists will discover why and how weaving the body and mind together in interpersonal narrative style conversations meets the needs that contemporary scientific research is uncovering. It is the author's hope that survivors themselves may find they can identify with the stories of trauma recovery as they unfold and engage with the Magic Loom's conversational style and translation of the languages of therapy and of science. Neuroscientists inform us that unresolved aspects of early trauma become hidden within a person's somatic memory (van der Kolk, 2006). Memories are not cognitively or narratively retrievable because at the time of the original trauma, the hormonal impacts on the traumatised child's brain prevented vital neural signals from reaching the brain's higher, sense-making parts (Perry, 1997; van der Kolk, 2006). The trauma is remembered, not by her rational mind but by her body. Raising a person's awareness of her body means that key threads can be woven together with the full range of narrative therapy approaches that enable her to explore what her mind presents. The body-focused narrative therapist is learning to listen to an added voice and a different suite of narratives. She is helping to make explicit and visible to the survivor what has long remained implicit and hidden. It's as if the person's body gives her back her voice and her mind. Body-focused narrative therapy owes its transformative power to the synthesis of a range of somatic and narrative approaches.

"Systemic Therapy and Attachment Narrative explores how attachment-based ideas can be used in clinical practice by offering a practical and sophisticated exposition of clinical approaches. This new edition offers an updated overview of the integrations of attachment, systemic and narrative theory, and practice incorporating key developments in developmental trauma, intergenerational trauma, and neuroscience of the emotional brain. It shows how early emotional experiences set the tone of the narratives we develop about our lives and how these in turn shape our emotional connections. This edition is more oriented towards activities and features more visual representations of problematic patterns of interaction, showing their significance for the family members. It also uses clinical examples to provide guidance on using attachment narrative therapy in different clinical contexts and with various client groups. The book provides practical guidance for a range of mental health professionals including family therapists, child, adolescent and adult psychotherapists, clinical psychologists, and social workers, enabling them to apply this approach in a range of contexts"--

Introduces a Powerful New Brief Therapy Approach This groundbreaking book is the first to provide a comprehensive model for effectively blending the two main postmodern brief therapy approaches: solution-focused and narrative therapies. It harnesses the power of both models—the strengths-based, problem-solving approach of SFT and the value-honoring and re-descriptive approach of Narrative Therapy--to offer brief, effective help to clients that builds on their strengths and abilities to envision and craft preferred outcomes. Authored by a leading trainer, teacher, and practitioner in the field, the book provides an overview of the history of both models and outlines their differences, similarities, limitations and strengths. It then demonstrates how to blend these two approaches in working with such issues as trauma, addictions, grief, relationship issues, family therapy and mood issues. Each concern is illustrated with a case study from practice with individual adults, adolescents, children, and families. Useful client dialogue and forms are included to help the clinician guide clients in practice. Each chapter concludes with a summary describing and reinforcing the principles of the topic and a personal exercise so the reader can experience the approach first hand. Key Features: Describes how two popular postmodern therapy models are combined to create a powerful new therapeutic approach—the first book to do so Includes case studies reflecting the model’s use with individual adults, children, adolescents, and families Provides supporting dialogue and forms for practitioners Authored by a leading figure in SFT and its application in a variety of setting Presents an overview of the history of both models

Therapists intuitively know that the families, partnerships, and individuals they treat have strengths, but may not know how to identify or utilize them. This edited collection aims to help therapists understand and apply concepts of systemic resilience in clinical practice, supporting them in conceptualizing cases, treatment planning, and developing supportive therapeutic relationships. Christie Eppler, PhD, brings together a collection of voices to provide comprehensive guidance on what systemic resilience is and how therapists can enhance the lives and relationships of their clients. Based on contemporary training standards, this text emphasizes practice-based applications and focuses on diversity, equity, and inclusion. Chapters address how to foster resilience in clinical treatment with individual and relational clients, supervisees, and in the therapist’s own life. With case studies, clinical activities, interventions, and reflective questions throughout, this approachable text will help therapists empower their clients. This book demonstrates to practicing and established therapists how connections, community involvement, shared visions and a sense of purpose, and healthy relationships can promote growth, healing, and transformation. This is essential reading for students and professionals in counseling, clinical social work, and marriage and family therapy.

Forced migration has become an inescapable reality of our world in the 21stcentury. Why? The traumatic experiences of refugees are key to understanding why people keep on the move despite enormous risks. This book sheds light into the psychological impact entailed in refugee trajectories. With findings mainly from Eritrean refugee communities in multiple locations, the underpinning research reveals alarming levels of individual and collective trauma. The book outlines a new approach for treatment: Trauma, Recovery, Understanding, Self-Help Therapy TRUST. The intervention was developed as a practical and low resource support to traumatised vulnerable refugees. TRUST utilises information technology to reduce levels of trauma, enabling refugees to build social and economic resilience as an alternative to pursuing risky migratory trajectories. The study concludes that providing psycho-social support is a more prudent alternative to managing forced migration and avoiding the use of hostile refugee polices that expose refugees to more trauma and put them at risk of heinous organised crimes including human trafficking. TRUST resulted in significant positive outcomes for refugee wellbeing even in deprived refugee camps.

Narrative Therapies with Children and their Families introduces and develops the principles of narrative approaches to systemic therapeutic work, and shows how they can provide a powerful framework for engaging troubled children and their families. Written by eminent and leading clinicians, known nationally and internationally for their research and theory development in the field of child and family mental health, the book covers a broad range of difficult and sensitive topics, including trauma, abuse and youth offending. It illustrates the wide application of these principles in the context of the particular issues and challenges presented when working with children and families. Since publication of the first edition, the importance of narrative therapy has continued to grow, and this new edition provides an updated and revised overview of the field, along with three new chapters to keep apace with developments in child mental health trauma work. This book remains a key text in the field of systemic narrative training and practice. With clinical examples throughout, this practical book will be welcomed by family and systemic therapists and other professionals in the field of child, adolescent and family mental health.