Book Review: The Heart of Trauma

Betrayal, painful losses, devastating natural disasters, acts of terrorism, and mass shootings can all cast a physiological residue on those left in their wake. A neuroscientific footprint that extends far beyond the experiences that caused it, but into all aspects of our lives, trauma can jeopardize our ability to experience the very relationships that can help heal it. In The Heart of Trauma: Healing the Embodied Brian in the Context of Relationships, Bonne Badenoch demonstrates how the safe sanctuaries of warm, loving relationships can help heal trauma, and how we can create them. It has been said that successful therapy goes beyond talking. It is about feeling, sensing, and being with another person, or what Stephen Porges, who formulated the polyvagal theory calls, “accessing the third adaptive system and leveraging this system within the therapeutic setting to contain defense and enable co-regulation.” Described as relational neuroscience, we are interwoven in ways that often lie beneath toureir conscious awareness, yet affect everyone around us. However, when we have experienced trauma, relating to others and ourselves becomes disrupted. “If our right hemispheres harbor significant trauma in the form of unhealed fear and pain, or we feel overwhelmed by the sheer volume of incoming information, we may adaptively shift toward the left dominance in an effort to protect ourselves from a crippling onslaught of unmanageable inner and outer experience,” writes Baden...
Source: Psych Central - Category: Psychiatry Authors: Tags: Book Reviews PTSD Stress Trauma Treatment books on relationships embodied brain heart of trauma Source Type: news