Synopses & Reviews
In 2010 the Department of Veterans Affairs cited 171,423 Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans diagnosed with PTSD, out of 593,634 total patients treated. Thats almost 30 percent; other statistics show 35 percent. Nor, of course, is PTSD limited to the military. In twenty years as a therapist, Susan Pease Banitt has treated trauma in patients ranging from autistic children to women with breast cancer; from underage sex slaves to adults incapacitated by early childhood abuse. Doctors she interviewed in New York report that, even before 9/11, most of their patients had experienced such extreme stress that they had suffered physical and mental breakdowns. Those doctors agree with Pease Banitt that stress is the disease of our times. At the 2009 Evolution of Psychotherapy conference Jack Kornfield noted, We need a trauma tool kit.” Here it is.
Most people, Pease Banitt says, experience trauma as a terminal blow to their deepest sense of self. Her techniques restore a sense of wholeness at the core level from which all healing springs. The uniqueness of her book lies in its diversity and accessibility. She assesses the values and limitations of traditional and alternative therapies and suggests methods that are universally available. Almost anybody can
Review
2013 Nautilus Silver Award Winner!In The Trauma Tool Kit Susan Pease Banitt concentrates on the physical, spiritual and esoteric dimensions of trauma usually ignored by our mainstream culture and healing practices. She presents universal dimensions of traumatic injury and recovery as they have been modeled in spiritual and holistic traditions for millennia as well as integrative methods practiced by holistic healers today. The Trauma Tool Kit is a readable, accessible, comprehensive, user-friendly smorgasbord of healing ideas, information and practices that can help guide trauma survivors to wholeness. Susan Pease Banitt is consistently positive, encouraging and helpful as she guides readers in restoring healing and hope.” --Edward Tick, Ph.D., author, War and the Soul and The Practice of Dream Healing, Director, Soldier's Heart
The Trauma Tool Kit is a truly excellent book. Susan Pease Banitt combines her practical experience as a clinical social worker with her extensive knowledge of ancient and modern spirituality to create a fascinating guide to healing the often unrecognized symptoms of stress. Open this book at any page and youll find something to draw you in and keep you reading. It truly is a toolbox, packed full of useful information, not just for those suffering from PTSD, but for anyone interested in personal and spiritual growth.” Ainslie MacLeod, author of The Instruction and The Transformation
The Trauma Tool Kit is an extremely important book in a very young field --the discipline of helping people heal from trauma using yoga therapeutics. Not only will it serve as the seminal work in this practice, it will remain an example of the highest quality, and at the
same time, a profoundly useful guide for front line therapists, case workers and trauma specialists. Tapping into deep clinical experience while at the same time bringing to contemporary audiences the profound details from the science of yoga, Susan Pease Banitt's The Trauma Tool Kit is professional, thorough, easy to read and totally practical. It will not live on people's shelves, but will be well read (and re-read) for many years to come.” Mark Lilly, founder of Street Yoga
"The Trauma Tool Kit has the potential to unlock lifelong trauma and buried feelings, to empower both men and women to access the routemaps to their authentic selves. It's a blueprint for recovery, plain speaking but esoteric. Her style and own journey embody all that is good in east and west. An important book for our times." Farah Damji, author of Try Me
"The Trauma Tool Kit: Healing PTSD From the Inside Out provides a fine tool kit key to helping people heal from trauma using yoga therapeutics, and is one of the few approaches to incorporate yoga techniques into trauma work. Any suffering from or working with PTSD will find this packed with ideas, from working with supplements and augmenting the healing process psychologically to spiritual considerations of the entire process. The result is an alternative tool kit perfect for PTSD sufferers and those working with them." The Midwest Book Review, January 2013
"The Trauma Tool Kit: Healing PTSD From the Inside Out offers a fine guide to healing stress symptoms and offers a blend of yoga and trauma insights to draw connections between trauma and healing routines. It provides a synthesis of East/West thought as it approaches ideas for mending and healing the physical body and psyche, identifying safety issues common among traumatized individuals and discussing step-by-step yoga techniques tied to different facets of healing. This will find a place in health and new age collections alike, with its unified theory and examples of routines that can heal stress." --California Bookwatch, June 2013
About the Author
Susan Pease Banitt, LCSW is a Harvard-trained psychotherapist with over thirty years experience in mental health work. She has worked in a variety of settings with hundreds of diverse clients over the years, including: residential childcare, child abuse prevention, inpatient psychiatric hospitals, outpatient clinics, medical hospitals and private practice. Her clients have included individuals, couples and groups, including children as young as 3 years and adults into their 80s.
Since a very young age, Susan has been aware of her spiritual nature. After a Catholic upbringing, she spent her late twenties studying yoga and meditation and obtained her certification as a teacher of hatha yoga in her thirties. Over the years, Susan has come to see that traumatic stress and experiences are behind the vast majority of suffering in the mind and body.
Her gifts of empathy and intuition became fully engaged when she began formal work with a shaman in 2000. At the same time, she delved deeper into yogic philosophy through intensive study of Vedanta, ancient Indian spiritual wisdom. As a healed survivor who has taken a deep journey into early traumatic abuse, Susan acts as a compassionate guide for those struggling to free themselves from the effects of traumatic stress.
Because Susan has worked with so many gifted psychiatric and alternative practitioners, she has collected a large toolbox of interventions to offer clients and colleagues. Susan currently co-chairs the Mental Health Council for the National Association of Social Workers, Oregon chapter and sits on the board of Street Yoga, an organization that brings yoga techniques to disadvantaged youth in a variety of settings.