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Complete Table of Contents

Acknowledgment

Introduction

• Why this guidebook?
• Simple and complex post-traumatic stress - What is the difference?
• Goals of this guidebook
• Who should read this guidebook?
• Overview of this guidebook
• A note about language

Part I: The biological, psychological and social contexts of trauma

1. Abuse and trauma in women’s lives: Understanding gender

• Gender, trauma and social context
• The impact of gendered violence and abuse in women’s lives
• Understanding abuse and trauma developmentally
• Sexual abuse in childhood and the effects on women’s adult sexuality
• The limitations of traditional psychiatric diagnoses in understanding abuse-related post-traumatic stress
• Abuse, violence and complex post-traumatic stress

2. Attachment theory and trauma

• Attachment as the regulator of emotional arousal
• Insecure attachment, isolation and disconnection
• Attachment and the therapeutic relationship

3. Understanding how complex Post-Traumatic Stress gets produced

• The bio-psycho-social framework
• Physiological effects: the “fight-or-flight” response

4. The six dimensions of complex Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

1. Affect dysregulation
2. Dissociation and changes in consciousness
3. Changes in self-perception
4. Disturbances in relationships
5. Somatization
6. Alterations in systems of meaning

Part II: Therapeutic essentials in trauma treatment

5. Key clinical issues in trauma treatment

• Why specialized training in trauma work is critical
• Clinical challenges in working with complex post-traumatic stress responses
• Phase-oriented post-trauma treatment
• The critical “first phase” of trauma treatment

6. Diagnosing and identifying the need for trauma treatment

• Criteria for simple post-traumatic stress disorder
• Criteria for complex post-traumatic stress disorder
• Formal assessment of complex post-traumatic stress

7. Establishing the therapeutic alliance

• Collaboration
• Validation and empathic attunement
• Empowering clients to make changes
• Respectful engagement / active facilitation

Part III: Tools and strategies

8. The importance of carrying out psycho-education with clients

• General issues of psycho-education
• Making the connection between childhood abuse and trauma
• Normalization
• The focus of psycho-educational work

9. Explaining simple Post-Traumatic Stress responses to clients

• Explaining trauma
• Explaining ways of surviving trauma
• Explaining simple post-traumatic stress responses
• Explaining the three response clusters of simple post-traumatic stress

10. Explaining complex Post-Traumatic Stress responses to clients

• Explaining the dimensions of complex post-traumatic stress responses
• Explaining affect dysregulation
• Explaining dissociation and changes in consciousness
• Explaining changes in self-perception
• Explaining disturbances in relationships
• Explaining somatization
• Explaining alterations in systems of meaning

11. Working toward change: Therapeutic techniques to help clients manage their feelings and memories

• Collaborating with clients to manage trauma responses
• An approach for intervening in trauma responses
• Three steps in managing trauma responses
• Developing a tool box

12. Strategies and tools for managing Complex Post-Traumatic stress responses

• Dimension one: affect regulation strategies
• Dimension two: dissociation and changes in consciousness
• Dimension three: changes in self-perception
• Dimension five: somatization

Conclusion

Resources

Glossary