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Trauma and the Struggle to Open Up: From Avoidance to Recovery and Growth
Winner, 2019 Written Media Award, International Society for the Study of Trauma & Dissociation.
How to navigate the therapeutic relationship with trauma survivors, to help bring recovery and growth.
In therapy, we see how relationships are central to many traumatic experiences, but relationships are also critical to trauma recovery. Grounded firmly in attachment and trauma theory, this book shows how to use the psychotherapy relationship, to help clients find self-understanding and healing from trauma.
Offering candid, personal guidance, using rich case examples, Dr. Robert T. Muller provides the steps needed to build and maintain a strong therapist-client relationship –one that helps bring recovery and growth. With a host of practical tips and protocols, this book gives therapists a roadmap to effective trauma treatment.
How to navigate the therapeutic relationship with trauma survivors, to help bring recovery and growth.
In therapy, we see how relationships are central to many traumatic experiences, but relationships are also critical to trauma recovery. Grounded firmly in attachment and trauma theory, this book shows how to use the psychotherapy relationship, to help clients find self-understanding and healing from trauma.
Offering candid, personal guidance, using rich case examples, Dr. Robert T. Muller provides the steps needed to build and maintain a strong therapist-client relationship –one that helps bring recovery and growth. With a host of practical tips and protocols, this book gives therapists a roadmap to effective trauma treatment.
224 pages, Hardcover
Published June 19, 2018
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
July 26, 2018
It's said that the core of what we call post-traumatic stress is not the trauma itself, but the cost to our body and mind and to our society of what follows. Sometimes that cost is in violence; sometimes in depression, family break-up and suicide. The symptoms and toll exacted by trauma are too myriad to list. We see them every day, but very rarely do we make the link to trauma, especially to early developmental and complex trauma. Instead, our habitual response to traumatic memory is to bury it, to split it off, to dissociate.
So how do we even begin to address this problem? How do we support the struggle of trauma survivors to open up so that they stop acting out their trauma, stop hurting themselves and others? How do we help those who have sustained trauma, especially early life interpersonal trauma, open up in a way that addresses the attachment injury and hurt that sustains their mood disorders, their eating disorders, their chronic illness; their ongoing difficulty with relationships.
Traumatologist and Clinical Psychologist Robert T. Muller's second book is a great place to start. It's beautifully written and highly accessible from beginning to end. It consistently engages and does not overwhelm. There's a sense of humanity, of inclusion. The feel is contemporary - this is a text written for our time, yet informed by timeless principles.
Dr. Muller has been in the game for quite some time and here he is able to distill from his experience and wisdom. As other reviewers have mentioned, the material is offered in such a way that it will be relevant to trauma therapists, psychotherapists and patients.
I would add that it is readable and relevant to anyone interested in the subject. The book will meet you where you are. You will feel, at times, in dialogue with a caring teacher, or friend.
This is a book I'm already recommending to family physicians, psychiatrists and to physicians practicing psychotherapy or working with chronic illnesses. Recognizing the signs and effects of trauma are not yet really on the radar in medicine. The early chapters highlight how, despite our best attempts to avoid and bury, trauma reveals itself in speech and movement. The deepest beauty of this book is that it strikes a balance between the author's experience and the challenges of his patients. It brings you briefly into the experience of the therapy room, when a therapist meets and validates the experiences of his patients/clients with knowledge, care and an enduring sense of the possible.
Chapter Eight, on the working through of the therapy relationship (which can lead to a new ability to relate and repair outside relationships) is alone worth the price of the book. If you're a patient or a therapist or a physician (or even a friend or family member) and found yourself stuck in a relationship deadlock or conflict, you probably will find something enlightening and helpful here.
Highly recommended.
So how do we even begin to address this problem? How do we support the struggle of trauma survivors to open up so that they stop acting out their trauma, stop hurting themselves and others? How do we help those who have sustained trauma, especially early life interpersonal trauma, open up in a way that addresses the attachment injury and hurt that sustains their mood disorders, their eating disorders, their chronic illness; their ongoing difficulty with relationships.
Traumatologist and Clinical Psychologist Robert T. Muller's second book is a great place to start. It's beautifully written and highly accessible from beginning to end. It consistently engages and does not overwhelm. There's a sense of humanity, of inclusion. The feel is contemporary - this is a text written for our time, yet informed by timeless principles.
Dr. Muller has been in the game for quite some time and here he is able to distill from his experience and wisdom. As other reviewers have mentioned, the material is offered in such a way that it will be relevant to trauma therapists, psychotherapists and patients.
I would add that it is readable and relevant to anyone interested in the subject. The book will meet you where you are. You will feel, at times, in dialogue with a caring teacher, or friend.
This is a book I'm already recommending to family physicians, psychiatrists and to physicians practicing psychotherapy or working with chronic illnesses. Recognizing the signs and effects of trauma are not yet really on the radar in medicine. The early chapters highlight how, despite our best attempts to avoid and bury, trauma reveals itself in speech and movement. The deepest beauty of this book is that it strikes a balance between the author's experience and the challenges of his patients. It brings you briefly into the experience of the therapy room, when a therapist meets and validates the experiences of his patients/clients with knowledge, care and an enduring sense of the possible.
Chapter Eight, on the working through of the therapy relationship (which can lead to a new ability to relate and repair outside relationships) is alone worth the price of the book. If you're a patient or a therapist or a physician (or even a friend or family member) and found yourself stuck in a relationship deadlock or conflict, you probably will find something enlightening and helpful here.
Highly recommended.
December 6, 2019
I originally picked up this book to better understand how my behaviour has been impacted by the events and circumstances I was borne into but also how I have impacted others: my family, my friends, my lovers, my students. Equally, I read it to better understand the responses of my family, my friends, my lovers, my students.
Note: I am not a trauma victim or trauma survivor nor am I a therapist.
While I think this book is useful to everyone, not just people who have experienced trauma or clinicians and therapists looking for insight into how to best connect with people who have or are experiencing trauma, I do think many of the more poignant insights of tragedy really are only helpful to those who do or have experienced great trauma. That isn't to say those of us who have not, will not gain anything from this book.
Much of what is written is relatable. Not to diminish the trauma that people have experienced but all of us experience pain, loss, regret, disappointment and many of us respond to those feelings through avoidant behaviours. Understanding why a person might avoid by focusing on more extreme examples helps the lay person (myself) better grasp why I have made certain choices in my life and how to correct it. The other invaluable lesson that this book offers is how to *respond* to people whose behaviours seems incongruent or to look beyond one's own reaction and reflexive responses and instead respond more reflectively.
The reason for the lowered stars is that a good portion of this book seemed to be directed to therapists or practitioners, such as how to offer forgiveness and when, as a therapist, to invite growth. This, I believe, is only really useful in the realm of therapy and so as a person who is really only seeking greater understanding into this kind of behaviour, I didn't find these portions very useful.
Overall, this book is a good introduction into the paths that lead to avoidant behaviour but perhaps some knowledge in psychology or a practicing psychologist will find this more invaluable than a person merely seeking insight into the behaviour.
Note: I am not a trauma victim or trauma survivor nor am I a therapist.
While I think this book is useful to everyone, not just people who have experienced trauma or clinicians and therapists looking for insight into how to best connect with people who have or are experiencing trauma, I do think many of the more poignant insights of tragedy really are only helpful to those who do or have experienced great trauma. That isn't to say those of us who have not, will not gain anything from this book.
Much of what is written is relatable. Not to diminish the trauma that people have experienced but all of us experience pain, loss, regret, disappointment and many of us respond to those feelings through avoidant behaviours. Understanding why a person might avoid by focusing on more extreme examples helps the lay person (myself) better grasp why I have made certain choices in my life and how to correct it. The other invaluable lesson that this book offers is how to *respond* to people whose behaviours seems incongruent or to look beyond one's own reaction and reflexive responses and instead respond more reflectively.
The reason for the lowered stars is that a good portion of this book seemed to be directed to therapists or practitioners, such as how to offer forgiveness and when, as a therapist, to invite growth. This, I believe, is only really useful in the realm of therapy and so as a person who is really only seeking greater understanding into this kind of behaviour, I didn't find these portions very useful.
Overall, this book is a good introduction into the paths that lead to avoidant behaviour but perhaps some knowledge in psychology or a practicing psychologist will find this more invaluable than a person merely seeking insight into the behaviour.
June 16, 2022
wonderful read
I buy a lot of books and rarely read more than 25% of them.
But I read Robert T. Mullers book in one go and got so much information out of it, both personal and professional.
Thank you very much.
I buy a lot of books and rarely read more than 25% of them.
But I read Robert T. Mullers book in one go and got so much information out of it, both personal and professional.
Thank you very much.
March 19, 2023
Muy guay para introducirse en el mundo del trauma y del abordaje del mismo en consulta. Lo explica todo muy bien, fácil de entender cuando estás iniciándote en el mundo de la psicología. Muy recomendado🙌🏻
October 17, 2023
Intended for clinicians. Uses a psychodynamic lens to examine avoidance in both client and clinician. I found that, being structured around case studies from the author’s practice, this book was more well-organized and easier to follow than the author’s previous book.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews