The Compassionate-Mind Guide to Recovering from Trauma and PTSD: Using Compassion-Focused Therapy to Overcome Flashbacks, Shame, Guilt, and Fear

Although many people who have survived trauma, abuse, and violent situations understand on a logical level that the traumatic events they experienced were not their fault, shame may still underlie their feelings and fuel post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and other trauma-related psychological difficulties. For example, women who are victims of domestic abuse are often so paralyzed with the stigma of shame associated with their abuse, they don’t seek help. The Compassionate-Mind Guide to Recovering from Trauma and PTSD helps readers reduce the sense of threat they constantly feel and develop a fuller understanding of their reactions to trauma by cultivating compassion for themselves and others. The practical exercises based in compassion-focused therapy (CFT) that are offered in this book help readers gradually confront and overcome trauma-related behaviors. This approach invites readers who have undergone a traumatic experience to develop compassion for themselves and others, a sense of safety, and the ability to self-soothe when difficult memories or emotions arise. Written by an international expert on PTSD treatment, this book will prove to be an essential resource for therapists specializing in the treatment of trauma and anyone in the process of healing from a traumatic experience.

Deborah A. Lee, DClinPsy, is a consultant clinical psychologist, head of a national treatment center for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in Berkshire, UK, and an honorary senior lecturer in clinical psychology at the University College London. Lee has worked with adult survivors of rape, interpersonal violence, and childhood abuse for more than twenty years and specializes in treating shame-based PTSD and complex trauma. She has pioneered the use of compassion-focused therapy with those suffering from shame-based PTSD and complex trauma and widely disseminated her clinical knowledge through writing and delivering clinical workshops in North America and Europe.

Sophie James is a lawyer and writer. After practicing law for over a decade, she changed her career to take up her passion for writing. She has particular interest in writing for the self-help market, and is dedicated to making clinical research and practice accessible to the general population.

Foreword writer Paul Gilbert, PhD, is a professor at the University of Derby in the United Kingdom, director of the mental health research unit at Derbyshire Mental Health Trust, and author of The Compassionate Mind.