RESOURCES | lizcovey

Links & Resources

Trauma Therapy

Complex PTSD

Parenting

Unlike in generations past, we now refer to "trauma" as anything that is profoundly repetitive or stuck in a person's symptom profile, and which has its root in fear. The deepest roots that are found in our fear networks stem from childhood circumstances, experiences or relationships, and thus our framework for treating trauma will focus to some extent on childhood factors, even if the traumatic events in question happened much later. Sometimes there is no "big T" trauma (major event) at all. But in this area, the symptoms and not the events identify traumatic response.

In other words, trauma includes but is no longer focused exclusively on life-threatening events. Instead, trauma indicates a pattern of universally human responses to states of fear (or inadequate supports following frightening events from childhood), and is marked by symptoms that persist long after the source of danger or cause for concern is long gone. These symptoms can range from PTSD hypervigilance to more common things like frequent shame or perplexing but repetitive relational problems.

RESOURCES:

David Baldwin's Trauma Pages

www.trauma-pages.com

Janina Fisher's website

http://janinafisher.com

AEDP Institute

https://aedpinstitute.org/about-aedp/

Internal Family Systems Model

https://ifs-institute.com/

Intl. Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation

http://www.isst-d.org

Global Association of Interpersonal Neurobiology

http://mindgains.org

Intergenerational Trauma Resources:

What is Epigenetics? - Educationally entertaining science news and more

Beacon House Trauma Resources

https://beaconhouse.org.uk/resources/

Also known as Developmental Trauma, Complex PTSD is the non-diagnostic but established category for treating the effects of traumas, both big and small, in childhood, which specifically has to do with insufficiency in care and in the family attachment system. This category is distinct to those ill effects of trauma and attachment within or throughout one's early life (through the early 20s). Childhood has an enormous impact on our lives, as we are a species that takes so very long to develop into maturity. Problems in the attachment system, or traumas in young life that do not include proper "holding" or processing with caring adults can lead to a predispostion to PTSD or severe mental, physical or relationship or functioning problems in adulthood (now called "ACEs" for Adverse Childhood Experiences following groundbreaking research by that name). Whether they stem from extreme events or have unknown or seemingly typical origins, severe trauma effects call for specialized treatment.

See this Youtube video by Dr. Nadine Burke-Harris for a primer on ACES: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=95ovIJ3dsNk

Beyond ACEs, many children have emotional or behavioral hardships stemming from difficult experiences in the family, or from a highly sensitive temperament, or a conflictual relationship with one or another family member. These too can call for specific therapeutic treatment, despite not seeming to be such "hard" cases.

RESOURCES:

Beacon House UK (resources and infographics on Developmental Trauma)

https://beaconhouse.org.uk/resources/

Aces Too High

https://acestoohigh.com

ATTACH website

https://attach.org

Dan Siegel's website

http://www.drdansiegel.com

Recommended Reading & Relevant Books for Clients in this Practice- mostly written for a general audience:

-Bessel Van der Kolk's

The Body Keeps the Score

-Gabor Mate's

When the Body Says No

-Resmaa Menakem's

My Grandmother's Hands: Racialized Trauma & the Pathway to Mending Our Hearts and Bodies

-Bruce Perry & Maia Szalavitz's

Born for Love

-Colleen West's

We All Have Parts!

-Mark Wolynn's

It Didn't Start with You: How Inherited Family Trauma Shapes Who We Are

•Donna Jackson-Nakazawa's

Childhood Disrupted

-Nadine Burke Harris's

The Deepest Well

-Hilary Jacobs Hendel's

It Isn't Always Depression

-Ron Frederick's

Loving Like You Mean It

-Peter Levine's

Waking the Tiger

-Jonice Webb's

Running on Empty

•Thomas Armstrong's

The Power of Neurodiversity

=Alain de Botton's

The School of Life

Recommended Therapeutic Readings that Inform this Practice- mostly written for clinicians:

-Janina Fisher's

Healing the Fragmented Selves of Trauma Survivors

-Diana Fosha's (ed)

The Healing Power of Emotion

-Deborah Gray's

Promoting Healthy Attachments

-Deb Dana's

The Polyvagal Theory in Therapy

-Richard Schwartz & Martha Sweezy's

Internal Family Systems- 2nd edition

-Suzette Boon's

Coping with Trauma-Related Dissociation

-Bonnie Badenoch's

Being a Brain-Wise Therapist

-Sue Johnson's

Attachment Theory in Practice

Parenting help in this practice, through coaching and psychotherapy, leads with empathy, and is informed by innovative and compassionate models of care that are attachment-focused (**see note below), trauma-wise, sensory smart, and which take a family-inclusive approach. To take a page from developmental neuroscience, this practice uses Bottom-Up approaches to parenting struggles. This means that the focus is on child development (especially their emotional development), the parent/child relationship, and on a parent's skill in reading and responding to needs more accurately and effectively. Top-Down approaches (which are not favored in this practice) focus on problems and the cessation or alteration of child behaviors. No matter the problem, any and all parenting struggles are come by naturally. And as one of the Circle of Security tenets holds, "It is never too late" to begin the good work of making things better with our kids.

**Note: A clinical "attachment focus" is not synonymous with "attachment parenting" which is a model of parenting made well-known through Barry Sears, MD among others. This is not the focus of the work in attachment therapies. Please read this article for a distinction from Yale's Center For Emotional Intelligence Professor Diana Divecha: Why Attachment Parenting Is Not the Same as Secure… (berkeley.edu)

liz Covey MA, LMHC, LMT

Psychotherapist & Consultant

Specializing in Compassionate Complex Trauma & IFS Parts Work

Links & Resources

Trauma Therapy

Complex PTSD

Parenting