This forward-thinking volume outlines several approaches to therapeutic
treatment for individuals who have experienced complex childhood and
adult trauma, providing a novel framework for helping patients with a
number of challenging symptoms, with clinical hypothesis testing and
solid therapeutic relationships as a vital foundation. Responding to the
intense disagreement and competition among clinicians championing their
own approaches, the book identifies the strengths and limitations of
multiple therapeutic approaches, addressing the need for qualified
clinicians to be versed in multiple theories and techniques in order to
alleviate suffering in their clients.
Among the topics discussed:
- How to choose specific therapeutic methods and when to shift
techniques
- The neurobiology of trauma and management of fear
- Cultural and ethnic considerations in trauma treatment
- Addressing avoidance and creating a safe therapeutic environment
- Management of dissociation, substance abuse, and anger
Treating Complex Trauma: Combined Theories and Methods serves as a
practical guide for clinicians looking to expand their knowledge of
approaches for treating complex trauma. It aims to provide clinicians
with options for different therapeutic methods, along with the necessary
context for them to select the most effective approach in their
treatments.
"For the first time in the professional literature we are finally
afforded a clear, cogent, and detailed explication of complex trauma and
the multifaceted parameters of treatment. Dr. Tamara McClintock
Greenberg provides perspicacious insight and clinical wisdom only a
seasoned career therapist can yield. Offering sophisticated and nuanced
distinctions between complex trauma and PTSD, she shows how treatment is
necessarily contextual and tailored to the unique clinical and
personality dynamics of the sufferer that is thoroughly client specific
within the therapeutic dyad. She dispenses with simplistic and
supercilious attitudes that embarrassingly boast a uniform or manualized
treatment to trauma, instead carefully taking into consideration
polysymptomatic, neurobiological, and socialcultural differences that
inform the interpersonal, emotional, and safety milieu from the
beginning of treatment to stabilization, the working-through process,
and then onto successful recovery. This is a must-read book for those in
training and senior clinicians alike."
--Jon Mills, PsyD, PhD, ABPP, Faculty, Postgraduate Programs in
Psychoanalysis & Psychotherapy, Adelphi University, NY; author of
Treating Attachment Pathology
*
*"Dr. Greenberg has written an invaluable book on treating complex
trauma. She delves into multiple approaches, assessing what techniques
the client can tolerate at a given therapeutic stage. She covers how to
maintain consistency and connection through a flexible approach and
avoid pitfalls. This is a must read for clinicians wishing to treat
clients with complex PTSD."
--Louann Brizendine, MD, Clinical Professor UCSF; author of The Female
Brain
