UPDATE 2023
MY BOOK, 'TRAUMA: AN INSIDE JOB'
For over two decades, I have spent many hours with trauma and have learned its ways. Life wounds us: trauma is a wound. The wounds we hold as human beings have been a long fascination of mine. We might deny, ignore or explain away these wounds. We might respond to them in a multitude of ways. We may feel we have no control over the way we are. Yet these wounds, if given space for understanding, can become gifts for our transformation.
The book began as an article I wrote in the first lockdown in 2020. Mental and Physical Health in a time of Covid-19 was published here and on the Banbury Therapy Centre website and was used as a resource to help the understanding of trauma in challenging times. The current book is an expansion of this article - the result of three years work. Each of the chapters outlines a different response to trauma and the manuscript is near completion.
In the book, I distil some principles drawn from my long experience of working with trauma while not suggesting everyone needs therapy. The book will be of interest to anyone who is experiencing trauma, is close to or cares for someone who is traumatised. I examine in detail the effects of trauma on the brain and body and show how it manifests in our behaviour. This book explains what trauma is and shows how it can be transformed. It offers a multitude of creative ideas and resources to show experiences of trauma can be turned into lessons for life.
Trauma: An Inside Job will be of interest to a general public - to the survivors of trauma, friends and families of trauma sufferers whether recognised or unrecognised, carers, charity workers, aid workers, social workers, volunteers, therapy students, medical staff, first responders or anyone who interacts with and cares about the wounds of others. This is a book of hope, showing us how the broken threads of our lives can be woven back together again.
