Synopses & Reviews
If you've experienced trauma-whether as a result of common life events like accidents or abusive personal relationships or extraordinary experiences like war or natural disasters-you may find that the pain and emotional unease you feel don't go away over time. In fact, they may get worse. But the trauma you experienced lies in the unchangeable past. Because of your strength and perseverance, you survived, and now the rest of your life stretches before you. How do you want to live it? Finding Life Beyond Trauma is about living life well after a traumatic event. It uses the powerful techniques of acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) to help you take a different approach to painful feelings and chart a new course for a rich and meaningful life.
First, you'll learn to accept the pain, sadness, and anxiety that can arise in connection to your trauma. By exploring mindfulness techniques, you'll be able to remain present with painful feeings and stop avoiding the thoughts and situations that bring them up. Instead of focusing on the past, you'll clarify what you want your life to be about right now and in the future. With your values clearly in mind, commit to actions that will express them in your life-guided by the powerful tools you'll find in this book.
Synopsis
Because it views experiential avoidance as a central problem in a range of psychological problems, acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) is especially well suited to the treatment of trauma-related problems, which often present avoidance as a symptom. This is the first book to adapt ACT principles in a self-care approach readers can use to help overcome the lingering effects of traumatic events. The book helps readers learn to accept the unpleasant feeling they associated with past trauma. It also shows them why strategies that have them "control" these negative feelings can have severe long-term consequences, such as substance abuse and chronic anxiety--especially when the attempts at control result in the avoidance of normal activities and situations. Instead of control, the book encourages readers to develop psychological flexibility and a willingness to embrace "clean" painful experience that is a necessary and unavoidable part of living. By committing to live in ways that really matter to them despite painful experiences, readers move beyond problems with past trauma. In the end, they will discover that life after trauma is very much worth the bumps and scrapes they receive on the way to living it.
Synopsis
The principles of the revolutionary new acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) help readers cope with the aftereffects of traumatic experience through the straightforward exercises in Finding Life Beyond Trauma.
About the Author
Victoria M. Follette, PhD, is a foundation professor at the University of Nevada, Reno, and a clinical scientist specializing in interpersonal violence and body image problems.Jacqueline Pistorello, PhD, is a clinical and research faculty member at the University of Nevada, Reno Counseling Services, where she has worked with college students for fifteen years. She specializes in the application of two mindfulness and acceptance-based behavioral approaches with college students: acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) and dialectical behavioral therapy (DBT). Pistorello has received grants from the National Institutes of Health to research the prevention and treatment of mental health problems among college students using ACT and DBT.Steven C. Hayes, PhD, is Nevada Foundation Professor and director of clinical training at the department of psychology at the University of Nevada. An author of 38 books and over 540 scientific articles, his career has focused on analysis of the nature of human language and cognition, and its application to the understanding and alleviation of human suffering and promotion of human prosperity. Among other associations, Hayes has been president of the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapy, and the Association for Contextual Behavioral Science. His work has received several awards, including the Impact of Science on Application Award from the Society for the Advancement of Behavior Analysis, and the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapy.
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