Finding Life Beyond Trauma: Using Acceptance and Commitment Therapy to Heal from Post-Traumatic Stress and Trauma-Related Problems

If you've experienced trauma—whether as a result of common life events like accidents or abusive personal relationships or extraordinary experiences like war or natural disasters—you may find that the pain and emotional unease you feel don't go away over time. In fact, they may get worse. But the trauma you experienced lies in the unchangeable past. Because of your strength and perseverance, you survived, and now the rest of your life stretches before you. How do you want to live it? Finding Life Beyond Trauma is about living life well after a traumatic event. It uses the powerful techniques of acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) to help you take a different approach to painful feelings and chart a new course for a rich and meaningful life.

First, you'll learn to accept the pain, sadness, and anxiety that can arise in connection to your trauma. By exploring mindfulness techniques, you'll be able to remain present with painful feelings and stop avoiding the thoughts and situations that bring them up. Instead of focusing on the past, you'll clarify what you want your life to be about right now and in the future. With your values clearly in mind, commit to actions that will express them in your life—guided by the powerful tools you'll find in this book.

Victoria M. Follette, Ph.D., is a clinical scientist with a special interest in the etiology and treatment of trauma-related problems. She is professor of psychology and chair of the Department of Psychology at the University of Nevada, Reno. She was named Distinguished Alumna by the Department of Psychology at the University of Memphis, Tennessee, where she received her doctoral degree. Follette's clinical work is focused on survivors of interpersonal violence, and she examines the use of acceptance-based behavioral therapies in the treatment of this population.

Jacqueline Pistorello, Ph.D., is a psychologist with Counseling Services at University of Nevada, Reno (UNR). She earned her doctorate in clinical psychology at UNR and completed her clinical internship at Brown University Consortium. She specializes in two behavioral approaches, acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) and dialectical behavior therapy (DBT), both of which have been gaining national and international acclaim. She has pioneered the conduct of these approaches to college counseling center settings, and currently has a grant from the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) to adapt DBT to college students and is writing another grant to implement ACT in the prevention of mental health problems among college students. In collaboration with Victoria Follette, she has been applying ACT and ACT-informed approaches to the treatment of trauma survivors, particularly child sexual abuse survivors, since 1989.