Coping With Trauma: A Guide to Self-Understanding

by Jon G. Allen

Traumatic experience is alarmingly prevalent; few people escape its direct or indirect effects. The author has drawn on his wide experience to help laypersons understand the complex and often bewildering impact of traumatic experience. This work provides a comprehensive and readable summary of current professional knowledge for people of diverse backgrounds and education. Those who are struggling to cope with the direct effects of trauma should find the book an informative and also a sensitive guide to better understanding themselves and their experience. Partners and family members of traumatised individuals can gain increased understanding of and empathy with their loved ones, in addition to learning how to be more supportive. Mental health professionals who work with people with a history of trauma should find the book to be a useful digest of current knowledge that they can share with their patients.

Genres: Psychology, Mental Health, Self Help, Nonfiction

385 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1995

About the author

Jon G. Allen, Ph.D., holds the position of Clinical Professor as a member of the Voluntary Faculty in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the Baylor College of Medicine. He is a member of the honorary faculty at the Houston Center for Psychoanalytic Studies and the adjunct faculty of the Institute for Spirituality and Health at the Texas Medical Center. He retired from clinical practice as a senior staff psychologist after 40 years at The Menninger Clinic, where he taught and supervised fellows and residents; conducted psychotherapy, diagnostic consultations, and psychoeducational programs; and led research on clinical outcomes. He continues to teach, write, and consult.

Reviews

[Heidi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Caveat: I started reading this several years ago, when I was struggling with a PTSD diagnosis and very active symptoms. While the author addresses trauma in general, childhood abuse -- especially childhood sexual abuse -- is a focus. I found it helpful (though disheartening for a while) to read the author's insights on why this is perhaps the most deeply affecting type of trauma. It did help me move beyond my rejection of the diagnosis ("PTSD is something that happens to people who went to war"). It helped me realize, childhood abuse is like going to war, living in a war zone, being a prisoner of war.

I also found the distinction the author makes between intrusive memories and flashbacks to be really helpful. No one had ever explained this to me, and I think many lay people (and even patients/survivors) are made to think of flashbacks as unexpected, unwanted memories or mental images. The author categorizes those as "intrusive memories," which can occur within flashbacks or outside of them. Flashbacks, on the other hand, feel like that unwanted memory is actually happening right now. They pull you out of your current reality into an active reliving of traumatic events. This book helped me understand that having very visceral body experiences during flashbacks was, while unpleasant, normal. It didn't help them stop, but it did lessen the worry that I must be going crazy or that my experience was unique (since providers never distinguished this). It also helped me to come up with better language to explain the experience and get the help I needed.

-1 star because the information in the text is dated in some ways. I think a more contemporary text would include additional treatment recommendations and potentially could mention epigenetics. However, for a book that's 20+ years old, it still was well worth reading.