Embitterment, Posttraumatic Embitterment Disorder, and Wisdom Therapy

Practical expert guidance on embitterment disorders

• Learn about the evidence-base of PTED and wisdom therapy
• Teach clients skills to overcome embitterment
• Tips on social, legal, and medical apsects
• Includes printable handouts
• A companion book for clients is available

Feelings of embitterment and posttraumatic embitterment disorder are common in our society and result from reactions to injustices, humiliation, and breaches of trust. They can lead to significant suffering in those affected and to those around them although the clients may be otherwise psychopathologically inconspicuous. The aggressiveness of this client group, as well as their rejection of help, among other factors, is challenging for practitioners and makes treatment complex. Help is hand with this practical evidence-based guide that provides models for the development and continuation of such embitterment states as well as outlines how to diagnose embitterment disorder. The reader is guided through the state-of-the-art treatment approaches for embitterment disorder: cognitive behavior therapy with wisdom strategies.

Teach your clients how to process their internalized feelings of hurt and humiliation so that they can create the conditions to reconcile themselves with the events that triggered these difficult and long-lasting states. The book is full of practice-oriented tips to help clients actively gain closure with the past and enable a new orientation towards the future. One method to reach this goal is the reevaluation of the critical events and their consequences. Wisdom therapy provides various tools for this, and these techniques are brought to life with numerous case vignettes. The author also provides tips on the social, medical, and legal aspects associated with this disorder, for example, questions of work incapacity and criminal responsibility.

Helpful information for clients is provided in the accompanying book, How to Overcome Embitterment With Wisdom.

Prof. Michael Linden, PhD, is psychiatrist and licensed cognitive behavior therapist. He is director of the Research Group Psychosomatic Medicine at the Charité University Medicine Berlin and Medical Director of the Institute for Behavior Therapy Berlin. He has published books and several hundred articles in peer reviewed journals on psychological trauma, anxiety, depression and impairment because of mental disorders. He has done extensive research projects on embitterment and developed the basics of wisdom psychotherapy.