Early Trauma

Explaining that an impaired capacity for connection to self and to others underlies most psychological and many physiological problems, clinicians Laurence Heller, PhD, and Aline LaPierre, PsyD, introduce the NeuroAffective Relational Model™ (NARM), a unified approach to developmental, attachment, and shock trauma that emphasizes working in the present moment. NARM is a somatically based psychotherapy that helps bring into awareness the parts of self that are disorganized and dysfunctional.

Imagine, if you will, a disease - one that has only subtle outward symptoms but can hijack your entire body without notice; one that transfers easily between parent and child; one that can last a lifetime if untreated. According to Dr. Paul Conti, this is exactly how society should conceptualize trauma: as an out-of-control epidemic with a potentially fatal prognosis. In Trauma: The Invisible Epidemic, Dr. Conti examines the most recent research, clinical best practices, and dozens of real-life stories to present a deeper, richer, and more urgent view of trauma.

Drawn from the wisdom and insights of the world's top doctors, therapists, and experts, Trauma will show you that no matter what you have endured, how long you have carried it, or how deeply embedded it is, you can be free from pain and suffering. Your road to recovery and whole-body healing is before you, and with it the richer and more profound connections that you seek with yourself and your loved ones.

Today, something is going to happen to an innocent child. Tomorrow, that child will walk into their school. What happens next will impact the rest of their life. What is this powerful event? Childhood trauma. Most students will experience some form of emotional, physical, or sexual abuse, neglect, family dysfunction, racism, homelessness, or poverty by their 18th birthday. If left untreated, their traumatic experience may have lasting implications on their physical and mental health and their success in school.

Trauma can result not only from catastrophic events such as abuse, violence, or loss of loved ones, but from natural disasters and everyday incidents like auto accidents, medical procedures, divorce, or even falling off a bicycle. At the core of this book is the understanding of how trauma is imprinted on the body, brain, and spirit—often resulting in anxiety, nightmares, depression, physical illnesses, addictions, hyperactivity, and aggression.

In Trauma and Memory, best-selling author Dr. Peter Levine (creator of the Somatic Experiencing approach) tackles one of the most difficult and controversial questions of PTSD/trauma therapy: Can we trust our memories? While some argue that traumatic memories are unreliable and not useful, others insist that we absolutely must rely on memory to make sense of past experience. Dr. Levine suggests that there are elements of truth in both camps.

From a profoundly troubled childhood comes unflinchingly honest stories of abuse, neglect, violence, isolation, and blatant racism. Through the Storm of Early Trauma is not told from a place of anger or resentment. Instead, it speaks with the voice of hope - that others who have lived such stories, and who are living those stories today, will find their own inner strength to seek the help they need and deserve.