Treating Survivors of Childhood Abuse, First Edition: Psychotherapy for the Interrupted Life

by Marylene Cloitre, Lisa R. Cohen, Karestan C. Koenen

Meeting a key need, this book presents a modular adult psychotherapy approach grounded in extensive clinical experience and research. Provided is a flexible, empirically supported framework for helping clients manage symptoms related to past physical or sexual abuse; build emotion regulation and interpersonal skills; and process traumatic memories and their associated feelings of fear, shame, and loss. Session-by-session guidelines include many suggestions for tailoring interventions to each person's needs in the context of a safe, supportive therapeutic environment. Designed in a large, easy-to-use format, the book includes over a dozen reproducible handouts, worksheets, and other tools for clinicians and clients.

Genres: Psychology, Nonfiction, Counselling, Mental Health, Self Help, Social Work

338 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2006

Reviews

[Ella · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent, if seemingly ancient, book with loads of worksheets that are actually useful, information and plans for use in therapy that will actually be helpful... There are things written in this book that anyone in the trauma field should know or does know but somehow have escaped being written down, and I'm thrilled this book was still available when I learned about it. Sadly, the blurbs do it an injustice. It looks very formulaic, but it's meant to be individualized for each person. I HIGHLY recommend this to anyone working with survivors and to survivors themselves. This book won't sit on your shelves holding a retelling of the same tale - it has easily copied worksheets and prompts that will suit a variety of survivors.

[Maria · Rating 3 out of 5]

There were a lot of really good tools to use with clients in this book, and an overall plan for working with victims of child abuse, but, although the authors claim that they have tested the process on men, the entire book was written using female pronouns and examples from their original study with women. It was also very repetitive in places, copying and pasting entire passages in some cases (as in, first they would explain it to the reader, then a few paragraphs later, repeat the same explanation word for word, as what the therapist should explain to the client).

[R.]

I read & own the 2nd edition (2020) but that one is not on Goodreads.

[Jessica Brazeal Slaven · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was listed as a possible treatment option for trafficking survivors, so read through the manual. I really like the STAIR piece, which is essentially another version of a skills training like DBT. This would work well as a precursor to EMDR for the trauma processing.

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great application of acceptance and commitment therapy to PTSD and other trauma-based disorders