Synopses & Reviews
Growing up in a home where there is addiction or relationship trauma puts a child at great risk for long-term, post-traumatic stress effects that adversely compromise adult relationships. Bestselling author, psychologist, and psychodramatist Tian Dayton examines this trauma through an exploration of the way the brain and body process frightening or painful emotions and experiences in childhood, and she shows how these traumas can become catalysts for unhealthy, self-medicating behaviors including drug and alcohol abuse, food issues, and sex, gambling, and shopping addictions.
Through Dr. Dayton's insightful analysis and thoughtful examination, Adult Children of Alcoholics will learn how and why the pain they experienced in childhood plays out in their adult partnering and parenting, and they will learn how to restore health and happiness through their resilience.
About the Author
Tian Dayton, MA, PhD, TEP, has a masters in educational psychology and a PhD in clinical psychology and is a board-certified trainer in psychodrama. She is also a licensed Creative Arts Therapist and a certified Montessori teacher. Dr. Dayton is the director of the New York Psychodrama Training Institute where she runs training groups in psychodrama, sociometry, and experiential group therapy. She created a model for treating trauma called Relationship Trauma Repair, which is currently in use at treatment centers across the United States. She was also on the faculty at NYU for eight years teaching psychodrama.
Dr. Dayton is a fellow of the American Society of Group Psychotherapy and Psychodrama, winner of their Scholar's Award, editor in chief of the Journal of Psychodrama, Sociometry & Group Psychotherapy, and sits on the professional standards committee for ASGPP. She has been awarded the Mona Mansell Award and the Ackerman/Black Award for contributions to the field of addiction.
She has been a guest expert on NBC, CNN, MSNBC, The Montel Williams Show, The Ricki Lake Show, The John Walsh Show, and Geraldo. Dr. Dayton is the author of fifteen books including Emotional Sobriety, Trauma and Addiction, Heartwounds, The Living Stage, and Forgiving and Moving On. She has also written The Process, an award-winning docudrama that uses psychodrama to tell stories of addicts and ACOAs and Psychodrama and Trauma Resolution