Family Therapy for Treating Trauma

Trauma can result in a variety of symptoms and problems such as behavioral disorders, emotional dysregulation, sleep disturbances, recurring nightmares, intrusive thoughts, and learning and academic challenges. Children and adolescents who have posttraumatic stress disorder are usually presented to therapists in one of four clinical situations: (1) the traumatized child and parents request trauma-focused therapy, (2) the child with trauma history refuses treatment, (3) a parent is impaired by their own trauma history but does not want to receive treatment, (4) a child has experienced trauma but the parent wants to focus on a behavioral issue and symptoms rather than the trauma. Family Therapy for Treating Trauma offers a stand-alone family therapy approach for trauma survivors and provides a cross-culturally competent family treatment framework for working with trauma. It outlines both how to assess family patterns that reinforce or exacerbate effects of trauma and how to mobilize the healing power of family relationships to moderate or resolve effects of trauma. Via an integrative approach, the book offers flexible ways to adapt to client choices so as to enhance difficult to engage clients and families. It serves as a resource for professional audiences and can be offered as a text for courses on both family therapy and trauma treatment.