EBOOK: Trauma Therapy and Clinical Practice: Neuroscience, Gestalt and the Body

Book excerpt: Therapy with traumatised clients can be fraught with problems and therapists working with these clients seek greater understanding of the specific problems they encounter. Trauma Therapy and Clinical Practice weaves together neuroscience research and the experience of trauma, taking a fresh look at how original Gestalt theory informs our current understanding of trauma therapy. The book: Places trauma and trauma therapy in a relational field model Includes material on change processes, triggers, dissociation, shame, enactment and resources Describes clearly the neurobiology of trauma and the role of the body in maintaining trauma reactions and in the recovery process Offers experiments for deepening the therapist's embodied presence Provides numerous clinical examples and an extended case study Miriam Taylor offers readers a theoretical basis for interventions and shows how simple Gestalt concepts can be applied in trauma therapy. By creating the conditions in which awareness, choice and vitality can grow, contemporary relational Gestalt is shown to be exceptionally well suited for trauma clients. The book is presented in three parts covering theory, the phenomenology of trauma and the therapeutic relationship. Including a glossary for readers unfamiliar with Gestalt therapy, case studies and reflection points, this book is a thoughtful and coherent guide for trainees and practitioners in counselling and therapy. "Miriam Taylor has done a simply tremendous job in articulating an expanded Gestalt approach to trauma treatment that is informed by, and integrated with, modern neurobiological approaches to trauma ... This book should be read by everyone treating trauma and I expect it to become a foundational text in our field." James Kepner, Gestalt therapist and international trainer in Gestalt Body Process Psychotherapy "Taylor's book is a theoretically and clinically sophisticated approach to working with trauma from a phenomenological vantage point. Her book hadan immediate effect on my work." Lynne Jacobs, co-founder, Pacific Gestalt Institute, USA "Destined to become a classic in Gestalt therapy literature. Well-written, insightful, compassionate, and practical, it will assist many a therapist." Malcolm Parlett, Visiting Professor of Gestalt Psychotherapy, University of Derby, UK (now retired) "I am profoundly grateful to Miriam Taylor for writing this book. I just wish that she could have written it before 2002 when I began my own training in Gestalt psychotherapy. There is a section at the beginning called ‘Praise for this book’ which includes very positive prepublication comments from Malcolm Parlett, James Kepner, and Lynne Jacobs. Now that I have read the book for myself, I find myself in agreement with their comments and want to add my own round of applause ... I consider that Taylor has made a major contribution to our field in taking this enterprise forward." British Gestalt Journal2014, Vol. 23, No. 2, 47–58 "Taylor’s remarkable contribution is a reminder that Gestalt Therapy Theory is alive and kicking and demonstrating how Gestalt can and should become the therapy of choice for trauma workers." Review published in Self and Society