Healing Trauma Through Self-Parenting: The Codependency Connection

Self-healing through self-parenting, a concept introduced a generation ago, has helped thousands of adult children of alcoholics who are codependent and have conflicts in their primary relationships. Now Patricia O'Gorman, Ph.D., and Phil Diaz, M.S.W., authors of the classic book The 12 Steps to Self-Parenting for Adult Children and its companion workbook, expand the reach of that successful healing paradigm to anyone who has suffered from any kind of trauma. Whether they grew up in a dysfunctional home, were victims of violence, or suffered other types of acute distress, many people struggle to determine the impact of earlier trauma on current adult decision making. O'Gorman and Diaz show how trauma is a driver of dysfunctional behaviors and linked with codependency, and they offer a concise yet detailed resource for survivors and thrivers as well as the professionals who work with them. Through a process modeled after the 12 Steps of AA, Healing Trauma Through Self-Parenting: The Codependency Connection offers help to a broad array of readers (not just those who are ACOAs) by healing the wounded inner core and helping readers reconnect to their inner child.

Phil Diaz, M.S.W., is the director of community development and education for Behavioral Health of the Palm Beaches in Palm Beach, Florida, and has a private practice specializing in the treatment of addiction and trauma at Lifescape Solutions in Delray Beach, Florida. He is the former executive director of the Harrigan Foundation, where he specialized in Gestalt family therapy, and the former CEO of Gateway Community Services, a 300-bed drug treatment facility for adolescents and adults in Jacksonville, Florida, where he pioneered PTSD treatment using EMDR and motivational therapy. Patricia O'Gorman, Ph.D., a psychologist in private practice in East Chatham and Albany, New York, is noted for her work in trauma, families, children of alcoholics, child welfare, mental health, and substance abuse. She was one of the first researchers on children of alcoholics in the early 1970s, documenting the impact of alcoholism and sobriety on adolescent development, and went on to create the Department of Prevention and Education for the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence (NCADD). Dr. O'Gorman is a cofounder of the National Association for Children of Alcoholics, and she has held positions that include clinical director of a child welfare agency, executive director of an agency serving survivors of crime and abuse, and director of prevention for NIAAA. She is a veteran of numerous television appearances, including Good Morning America, Today, and AM Sunday. She is the author of numerous books and articles in magazines including Addiction Today, Counselor, and Recovery. She brings the same type of seminal thinking to the topic of trauma and codependency that she used to help create the Children of Alcoholics movement.