Trauma Recovery and Empowerment: A Clinician's Guide for Working With Women in Groups

A one-of-a-kind guide that serves as an essential resource for mental health professionals working with women whose lives have been shattered by the trauma of sexual, physical, or emotional abuse.

Millions of women seek help every year for troubling depression or anxiety, for puzzling physical symptoms like headaches, muscle aches, and stomach cramps, for addictions to drugs, alcohol, or food, and for problems with relationships. What their therapists or physicians are beginning to discover is that trauma, whether past or ongoing, is the cause of many of these problems.

For almost five years, 27 clinicians and more than 500 participants have developed and refined the interventions contained in this manual, combining the best elements of the social skills training, psycho-educational and psychodynamic techniques, and the peer support groups that studies show are highly effective with survivors. Trauma Recovery and Empowerment guides leaders through the entire trauma recovery process. Each section includes specific discussion questions, a sampling of typical responses, and experiential exercises for each topic. A first-person account by a trauma survivor or therapist brings each session to life.

Maxine Harris, PhD, is co-director of Community Connections mental health agency in Washington DC, adjunct professor at Dartmouth Medical School, and psychological consultant to the Maryland Correctional Institute for Women. She is the author of Women of the Asylum and The Loss That Is Forever.