Trauma Transformed: An Empowerment Response

by Marian Bussey, Judith Bula Wise

Overview

Whether it's physical, psychological, social, historical, or ongoing, trauma is a universal experience, and this book provides professionals with the approaches necessary for successful and empowering interventions across the trauma spectrum. Part one examines the steps individuals take to heal their traumas. Nicolas survives an attack by his own dog; Tay rebuilds her life after years of incest; Claire speaks out about being molested by a program participant at her mental health clinic; and Erma copes with the shattering memories of childhood abuse. Part two focuses on interpersonal dynamics. Frank is held accountable for his violence toward his wife; Erin and her mother confront the reality of bullying and victimization in schools; Beth faces discrimination because of her sexual orientation; and staff members at a transitional housing shelter deal with the death of a client.

Part three recounts stories of resilience and healing at the social and community level. Salome and her family process the historical trauma of the massacre of her American Indian ancestors. A group of boys who became fatherless after 9/11 respond to experiential ways of coping with their grief. Jennifer and Kim live daily with the social trauma of poverty. Three Liberian families survive torture, flight, refugee camps, and resettlement. Amory struggles to find meaning and move on from his experience as a combat veteran, and the story of Angelina Batiste epitomizes the loss and resilience of those who lived through Hurricane Katrina. Trauma Transformed provides insight into the psychological and spiritual resources practitioners need to help victims move forward and improve upon their circumstances. Readers will also learn to strengthen their sense of self to prevent secondary trauma.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780231138338
Publisher:	Columbia University Press
Publication date:	11/09/2007
Series:	Empowering the Powerless: A Social Work Series
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	352
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Marian Bussey is an associate professor at the Graduate School of Social Work, University of Denver, where she teaches courses on clinical social work assessment, trauma, and research and is coordinator of the school's Trauma Response Certificate Program. Judith Bula Wise, professor emerita, has held academic positions at Columbia University and the University of Denver. She is the author of Empowerment Practice with Families in Distress (Columbia University Press) and has developed and served as the first coordinator of the Trauma Response Certificate Program at the University of Denver.

Table of Contents

Series Editor's Note
Acknowledgments
Contributors
Introduction: Empowerment as a Response to Trauma
Judith Bula Wise
Part 1 by Transforming Trauma at the Personal Level
1. Nicolas Puts Back the Pieces: Transforming a Childhood Trauma
Eliana Gil
2. Transforming Trauma Responses to Sexual Abuse in Adolescents
Carol J. McCarthy and Joycee Kennedy
3. Transforming Trauma Responses to Women with Serious and Persistent Psychiatric Disability
Susan Manning
4. Transforming Childhood Physical and Verbal Abuse: Mind-Body Approaches to Trauma Treatment
Diane B. Byington
Part 2 by Transforming Trauma at the Interpersonal Level
5. Transforming Privilege, Power, and Control in Relationship Trauma
Lynn Parker
6. Bullying and Victimization: Transforming Trauma Through Empowerment
Faye Mishna
7. Insidious Trauma and the Sexual Minority Client
Laura Kaplan
8. When a Client Dies: Transforming Agency Grief
Marian Bussey
Part 3 by Transforming Trauma at the Social/Community/Political Levels
9. The Impact of Historical Trauma: The Example of the Native Community
Maria Yellow Horse Brave Heart
10. Transforming the Trauma of September 11, 2001, with Children and Adolescents Through Group Work
Andrew Malekoff
11. Response to Poverty as a Form of Transforming Trauma
Jean East and Sue Kenney
12. Transforming the Trauma of Torture, Flight, and Resettlement
Kay M. Stevenson and Jaime Rall
13. Transforming the Trauma of War in Combat Veterans
Mel Singer
14. Triumph Over Tragedy: Transformation Through the Aftermath of Disaster
Jane Parker and Michael Zakour
Conclusion: Trauma Transformed Through Empowerment and Resilience
Marian BusseyIndex

What People are Saying About This

Katherine van Wormer

Trauma Transformed is must reading for therapists in substance abuse counseling, mental health counseling, and work with war veterans, and above all social workers engaged in disaster relief efforts. There is a wealth of knowledge in these pages that will benefit all practitioners. The topics covered are timely and highly relevant to social work practice in today's world. Trauma Transformed is one of the most fascinating books to come out in social work in some time. The use of personal narratives by practitioners who have worked in various aspects of trauma therapy—with children, with disaster victims, with warveterans—is an extremely effective style of presentation. The situations of relationship, refugee, combat, historical-cultural, and collective trauma are all covered. Rare for an edited volume of this sort, each chapter is as beautifully written as the last. Ican't wait to refer my students to this book.

— Katherine van Wormer, author of Human Behavior and the Social Environment, Micro Level

Katherine van Wormer

Trauma Transformed is must reading for therapists in substance abuse counseling, mental health counseling, and work with war veterans, and above all social workers engaged in disaster relief efforts. There is a wealth of knowledge in these pages that will benefit all practitioners. The topics covered are timely and highly relevant to social work practice in today's world.Trauma Transformed is one of the most fascinating books to come out in social work in some time. The use of personal narratives by practitioners who have worked in various aspects of trauma therapy—with children, with disaster victims, with warveterans—is an extremely effective style of presentation. The situations of relationship, refugee, combat, historical-cultural, and collective trauma are all covered. Rare for an edited volume of this sort, each chapter is as beautifully written as the last. Ican't wait to refer my students to this book.

Editorial Reviews

A very unusual book in the thoroughness of its scholarship and in its ability to reach and touch the reader.

Robert Salmon

An excellent overview of various forms of trauma and trauma treatment covering a wide array of presenting problems and holistic interventions.

— Keren Ludwig

Social Work in Groups

Trauma Transformed provides insight into psychological and spiritual resources practitioners need to help victims move forward.

Family Therapy

An excellent overview of various forms of trauma and trauma treatment covering a wide array of presenting problems and holistic interventions.

Social Work in Groups - Keren Ludwig