They typically have a wide array of symptoms, often classified under
different combinations of comorbidity, which can make assessment and
treatment complicated and confusing for the therapist.
Many patients have substantial problems with daily living and
relationships, including serious intrapsychic conflicts and maladaptive
coping strategies. Their suffering essentially relates to a terrifying
and painful past that haunts them. Even when survivors attempt to hide
their distress beneath a facade of normality--a common
strategy--therapists often feel besieged by their many symptoms and
serious pain. Small wonder that many survivors of chronic traumatization
have seen several therapists with little if any gains, and that quite a
few have been labeled as untreatable or resistant.
In this book, three leading researchers and clinicians share what they
have learned from treating and studying chronically traumatized
individuals across more than 65 years of collective experience. Based on
the theory of structural dissociation of the personality in combination
with a Janetian psychology of action, the authors have developed a model
of phase-oriented treatment that focuses on the identification and
treatment of structural dissociation and related maladaptive mental and
behavioral actions. The foundation of this approach is to support
patients in learning more effective mental and behavioral actions that
will enable them to become more adaptive in life and to resolve their
structural dissociation. This principle implies an overall therapeutic
goal of raising the integrative capacity, in order to cope with the
demands of daily life and deal with the haunting remnants of the past,
with the "unfinished business" of traumatic memories.
Of interest to clinicians, students of clinical psychology and
psychiatry, as well as to researchers, all those interested in adult
survivors of chronic child abuse and neglect will find helpful insights
and tools that may make the treatment more effective and efficient, and
more tolerable for the suffering patient.
