Healing from Trauma: A Survivor's Guide to Understanding Your Symptoms and Reclaiming Your Life [Paperback]

Jasmin Lee Cori (Author), Robert Scaer (Foreword)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 8, 2008

While there are many different approaches to healing trauma, few offer a wide range of perspectives and options. With innovative insight into trauma-related difficulties, Jasmin Lee Cori helps you: Understand trauma and its devastating impacts Identify symptoms of trauma (dissociation, numbing, etc.) and common mental health problems that stem from trauma Manage traumatic reactions and memories Create a more balanced life that supports your recovery Choose appropriate interventions (therapies, self-help groups, medications and alternatives) Recognize how far you’ve come in your healing and what you need to keep growing Complete with exercises, healing stories, points to remember, and resources, this is a perfect companion for anyone seeking to reclaim their life from the devastating impacts of trauma.

--This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Psychotherapist Cori (The Tao of Contemplation: Re-Sourcing the Inner Life) translates the dark language of trauma in this primer of agony and recovery, with a deep understanding of the tortuous journey many suffer after sexual assault, war, violence and childhood abuse. Skillfully, she avoids the bevy of usual tales of misery found in self-help books on trauma, focusing instead on the resilience of the spirit, regaining control and resuming a renewed life. Very timely and informative, Cori's guidebook includes a long segment on PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder), recognizing the emotional and moral conflicts faced by troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan and attempting to reintegrate into society. The author offers solid information on types of trauma disorders and stresses the importance of selecting caring, sensitive health practitioners and therapists as critical to speed the healing quest (she offers sensible specifics on choosing a therapist). Concluding with her own story as an incest survivor (based on recovered memories), the book is a compact, knowing work of atonement, grace, compassion and healing. (Nov.)
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Review

"Cori's guidance for choosing a therapist and a therapy, as well as her numerous, practical ideas for self-help, is full of common sense. With her variety of treatment options, Cori effectively (and refreshingly) dispels the popular belief that there is only one way to deal with trauma. If you or a loved one continues to suffer from long-past or recent trauma, reading Healing From Trauma should be a part of your over-all treatment plan." -- Babette Rothschild, MSW, LCSW, author of The Body Remembers: The Psychophysiology of Trauma and Trauma Treatment

"It takes a special kind of talent to make complex information clear and useable without talking down to a reader, and Jasmin Cori has pulled this off in spades. Her discussion of how to interpret symptoms, find a good therapist, and explore various therapies without inviting reactivation and flooding is a tour de force of sensitivity, insider knowledge, brevity and clarity. This goes on my `Highly Recommended' list immediately!" -- Belleruth Naparstek, LISW, author of Invisible Heroes: Survivors of Trauma and How They Heal and creator of the Health Journeys guided imagery audio series

"This well-written reader-friendly book provides a clear and compassionate overview of the emotional, physical, spiritual, and societal aspects of trauma, as well as helpful suggestions regarding the recovery process." -- Aphrodite Matsakis, PhD, author of I Can't Get Over It: A Handbook for Trauma Survivors and Trust after Trauma

"What a gift! Survivors will cherish this book, which is the best I've seen on the subject in years. It is reassuring, practical, thorough, accurate, and beautifully written. But most importantly, it is filled with hope. Healing from Trauma is going to the top of Sidran's recommended reading list." -- Esther Giller, M.A., President, Sidran Traumatic Stress Institute

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Da Capo Press (January 8, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1600940617
• ISBN-13: 978-1600940613
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6.1 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #37,163 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #26 in Books > Health, Fitness & Dieting > Mental Health > Post-traumatic Stress Disorder

More About the Author

Jasmin Lee Cori is a licensed psychotherapist based in Boulder, Colorado. She wrote Healing From Trauma from her dual perspective as a therapist and trauma survivor. A gifted self-help writer, she has brought similar clinical acumen and personal insight to her newest book for under-mothered adults, The Emotionally Absent Mother.

You can learn about upcoming titles and the second edition of Jasmin's mystical poetry collection at www.jasmincori.com. The Tarot of Transformation is also being republished and can be found there, and the site is full of useful articles.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

41 of 42 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Wonderful Resource for Those Affected by Trauma, April 4, 2008

By 

L. Ebert (MN United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Healing from Trauma: A Survivor's Guide to Understanding Your Symptoms and Reclaiming Your Life (Paperback)

If you are a trauma survivor -- especially if you are just beginning to deal with your trauma and symptoms -- please read this book.

This is, finally, the book I've been looking for and really needed a year or two ago when I first started dealing directly with my trauma history and its affects on my life! I recommend this whole heartedly as a great resource for survivors and their loved ones. It is the best general guide to the subject that I have read.

I have read most of the other books folks typically recommend, and usually found them interesting and helpful. At the same time, I felt like they were either to detailed and technical (Levine, Herman, Rothschild, etc.) to really be practical. Or, they had too many exercises, reflections, and inspirational quotes for me (The Courage to Heal and its kindred) and I found them a bit too sappy and off-putting for where I was in my process.

In this book, Cori strikes just the right balance of information, suggestions, and tone. She also does a wonderful job of summarizing what trauma is, how it affects the body and mind, what therapeutic methods can be helpful, and how to generally care for oneself through the healing process. She also provides tools for self-reflection, and intersperses stories from other survivors that make the data relevant and come to life.

If this book had been available when I started dealing with my trauma, I think I would have understood the situation better and would have been more equipped to make good choices and deal with things in a caring and effective way.

While this is clearly a sort of overview or handbook, Cori provides plenty of additional references and resources so you can do further investigating on your own.

My one small quibble (and it's is very small), is that she only mentions meditation and mindfulness practices in passing. I have found these practices to be essential to my healing. But I recognize that they are a bit outside the mainstream, and certainly aren't for everyone.

Overall, a wonderful resource!

37 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The journey to "even more than healed.", April 15, 2008

By 

C. Courter (Pinewood Springs, CO United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Healing from Trauma: A Survivor's Guide to Understanding Your Symptoms and Reclaiming Your Life (Paperback)

Since my trauma-related dreams surfaced three years ago, I've been to three counselors who welcomed trauma patients. After reading this book, I realize they knew little of the territory. And of the several books on trauma I've read, none came close to this thorough one in its scope and supportiveness. I hadn't realized my easily triggered nervous system, allergies, extreme sensitivity, and difficulty in planning, organizing and moving ahead with my life were trauma-related. In fact, I was about to embark on expensive allergy desensitization work, but after reading this, decided to get at the deeper causes instead. I'm already noticing an improvement in symptoms, just having worked through the book. And I wouldn't have made it through the book - it's been such an emotionally charged mirror for me - if Cori were not so encouraging. A golden strength seemed to be transmitted through her words, almost like a healing voice in my head as I read.

Cori writes as a fellow traveler. She presents up-to-date information on physiology, psychology, and spirituality. Then skillfully and gently guides you through the landscape, asking you questions about you, including exercises to help you identity your symptoms and your needs. Like a good friend, she shares what has worked well for her. Many books make you feel like a statistic or one of a herd of patients. Not this one.

This book has been pivotal, transforming the way I sense my inertia, vulnerability, and frustration. It's given me a glimpse that it's possible to fully heal, and what that might look like.

Start here. The focus is on you, not on a theory or technique, although you'll get an insightful, comprehensive overview of the best therapies for trauma, both professional and self-help.

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars powerful knowledge, December 14, 2010

By 

eurotrash "parentalcontrol" (here and there) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Healing from Trauma: A Survivor's Guide to Understanding Your Symptoms and Reclaiming Your Life (Paperback)

i've often heard the term 'peeling an onion' but rarely knew how it applied. well this book does that. it walks you through what trauma is, how it's affecting you and what you can expect and do about it. it's one AH HA! moment after another. each page imparts knowledge that you didn't know but somehow now understood. i was foolish enough to go from abusive parents to an abusive spouse, recovery has been almost unattainable. there have been numerous therapists, even a hypnotist, lots of books and a few meds... what this book has done, unlike anything or anyone prior, is illustrate that whats happening to me is a very basic, natural responce, that my expreiences have affected my ability to cope with trauma. the best thing to come out of this is i no longer feel crazy for the way i respond to triggers... heck i didn't even understand the importance of triggers, i used to think i was just weak, incompetent, in a haze, unsure of my own feelings and emotions. but now i see this is just my mind helping me, it's processing and protecting me so I only cope with what i am capable of coping with. i'm not sure if i'm doing the book justice, it's difficult to describe how much a person can appreciate being helped when they have spent the majority of their life being harmed. i just wanted peace, reprieve from the pain. all i can say is the clear and steady way the book provides information has helped me, at 47 i finaly feel wiser, surer and stronger.