Creating Sanctuary: Toward the Evolution of Sane Societies

by Sandra L. Bloom

Creating Sanctuary is a description of a hospital-based program to treat adults who had been abused as children and the revolutionary knowledge about trauma and adversity that the program was based upon. This book focuses on the biological, psychological, and social aspects of trauma. Fifteen years later, Dr. Sandra Bloom has updated this classic work to include the groundbreaking Adverse Childhood Experiences Study that came out in 1998, information about Epigenetics, and new material about what we know about the brain and violence.

This book is for courses in counseling, social work, and clinical psychology on mental health, trauma, and trauma theory.

Genres: Psychology, Social Work, Nonfiction

340 pages, Kindle Edition

First published August 15, 1997

Reviews

[Erin Drake · Rating 4 out of 5]

Creating Sanctuary is a courageous and insightful read. Having worked as an activist and psychiatrist for decades, Sandra Bloom's work both defines and describes the sickness that pervades modern society, investigates how we got this way and provides a framework (at times vague though perhaps necessarily so) for how we can begin to heal ourselves both individually and collectively. Her tone is honest, critical and urgent. Her approach to problem solving is straightforward and practical.
Dr. Bloom argues that psychic health is virtually impossible in our society because we have become desensitized to violence, we have normalized repression, and we have created institutions that serve only repeatedly traumatize the most vulnerable among us. She explains,
“A psychiatric label is a heavy burden to carry. And psychiatric labels often become self-fulfilling prophecies. If a patient’s social group expects them to ‘be bad,’ they will definitely ‘be bad’... All of us are strongly influenced by social expectations and social pressure. We do not create pathological behavior, but any social system can encourage it or discourage it” (p.173-174).
Dr. Bloom also executes a thorough exploration of ongoing cycles of trauma in postmodern society and dares to define violence as more than emotional, physical, and sexual abuse. She suggests that allowing children to go hungry or homeless, denying them a quality education or medical care, and tolerating laws and policies that perpetuate these conditions are all forms of violence. Bloom suggests that these hostile acts – unaddressed, regulated, permitted, accepted - are perpetually shaping our culture and threatening the very possibility of our healthy existence. “For the most part, we have lost our awareness of the true social nature of human existence, of tragic consciousness…. Within our segregated, individualized, demystified, and fragmented lives we avoid resonating with the suffering of others. We are not our brother’s keepers” (p.250-251).
Bloom is also realistic about what it will take to begin healing our world and avoids sweeping assumptions and “band aid” solutions in this regard. She suggests that slow, steady work in the spirit of togetherness is key. She implores us to consider difficult questions. “’What is it we are actually doing, and what are we trying to achieve’” (p.256)? I found these sorts of questions to be both thought provoking and inspiring and Creating Sanctuary to be brave work by a brilliant mind.

[Aunnalea · Rating 5 out of 5]

Everyone who ever works with people should read this book. Seriously.

[Alissa · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this for one of my classes and it was really an excellent description of how to work with people from a trauma informed perspective. Sandra Bloom is extremely passionate about this subject and her talks on trauma are all very informative as well.

[Clivemichael · Rating 5 out of 5]

These are foundational directives for healing. Insightful, articulate, and well presented it deserves a place in all our educational, health and creative institutions. Increasingly relevant today.

[Zachary Ransom · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enhancing Trauma Awareness, Lakeside Global Institute, 12/2022