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Secrets, Lies, Betrayals: The Body/Mind Connection

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I am considered a successful woman, educated and accomplished, yet like many others, suffered significant physical and emotional abuse as a child of old world parents. While there is a wide variety of therapy and therapists, I never felt successful at it. I never felt free of the "deep feelings of rejection", or cured of depression. I was profoundly affected by reading this book and was ready to fly anywhere I could engage in EMDR therapy. I did find a psychiatrist locally who agreed to work with me and it has absolutely changed my life. I experienced profound realizations and consider myself "cured", finally free from past negative experiences. I'm not a healer, don't know all the buzzwords like immunoneuropsychology. I just know that this book completely turned me over and shook me up and showed me the possibility of life-altering changes within me.
If you have a science background, and enjoy reading about biochemistry, another great book on the physical/emotional connection is "Molecules of Emotion" by Dr. Candice Pert.

Having used EMDR in my clinical practice for 10 years, I am delighted to have Maggie Scarf's book available to clients and practitioners alike. It is extremely user-friendly in its explanation and description of EMDR treatment. Scarf's personal journey candidly gives a riveting birds-eye view of her own therapy. Clinicians worldwide know first-hand about the efficacy of this treatment. Now the public will have the chance to understand the importance of the mind-body connection in the treatment of psychological problems. It seems to be a "secret" that EMDR has been approved as one of the few methods effective in the treatment of trauma by the Department of Defense, the U.S. Veterans Administration, the American Psychological Association, and The International Society of Traumatic Stress. The Northern Ireland Department of Health, the Israeli National Council for Mental Health, the Red Cross Disaster Mental Health, the United Kingdom Department of Health, and many other countries recommend EMDR as a first-line treatment. Volunteer clinicians in EMDR's Humanitarian Assistance Program have trained thousands of clinicians as well as treated thousands of survivors of disasters around the world: Oklahoma City, NYC 9/11, Columbine, Dunblane Scotland, the Balkans, and following earthquakes and natural disasters in Turkey, Bombay, Bangladesh, Central and South America. Scarf's book touches on some of this research and gives a genuinely understandable introduction to the physiology of the brain/body connection so necessary in accessing and treating long-buried issues. It is a must-read book for anyone interested in the cutting edge of psychotherapy treatment. Moreover, it is a pleasure to read.

As in her previous books, Maggie Scarf has tackled an original, fascinating, and complex subject relating to the psyche, integrated both science and psychology, and presented it in a form that appeals to professionals and non-professionals alike.

This time, it's the mind-body connection, with particular reference to early traumas such as emotional abuse. Presenting examples from interviews and her own life, Scarf shows how memories of traumatic experiences may be stored in a tiny brain structure known as the "amygdala" for days or even years, long after the original event. Thus, she shows, the body remembers and holds memories of traumas even at a cellular level. Through numerous interviews, Scarf illustrates how such long-retained memories can affect present-day experiences, even those with no apparent connection to the original event.

There's so much more to this book than this brief a review can convey. If you have an interest in trauma, or the mind-body connection, I urge you to read this book.

and discovers there's more to them than she might have imagined, in this well-written and personal exploration of the grey area where talk therapies fail and alternative treatments make headway. Award-winning author Scarf may have some traditional therapists shaking in their boots as she describes how traumas impact the body's "wiring," and how simple techniques can "re-wire the system" in ways that talk therapies can't. Her discussion of the trauma of "witnessing" is a must-read for anyone concerned about the personal side of the international tragedies that beset us today.

Maggie Scarf's insights have been invaluable to me. I was touched by the tremendous empathy she had for her interviewees and particularly impressed with her clear explanation of her research.

Maggie Scarf is at her best in this case study exploration of the way the body stores life's traumas. The idea of a body-mind connection is hardly new; it's even fashionable. What Scarf offers the reader, in addition to a compelling read, are real insights into how these traumas can be identified, how they become locked in the body, and, most impressively, how they may be unlocked. Secrets, Lies, Betrayals: The Body/Mind Connection,like her landmark study of women and depression, Unfinished Business, is a "must read" and a "must know."

For anyone who loves to read case studies and is interested in how the brain works and how things in our past affect everything from our personalities to our health and relationships.

This book represents to me a breakthrough of the barriers between so-called "western" science and other "alternative" therapies in the realm of the psyche, and it does so in a style that is wonderfully accessible to readers. Maggie Scarf's depiction of her process of learning about this therapy - from questioning, to observing, and through to experiencing and analyzing, her own personal experience, blended in with the insightful analysis through case studies and current medical research, was both informative and useful for a general readership. I should think this would make a wonderful 4th July gift for soldiers returning from the Gulf, or pretty much anyone who has experienced a "little t" trauma in their lives, which i suppose means all of us.

Our bodies hold on to painful episodes from the past. Early trauma and deeply buried feelings become woven into the fabric of our physical being. These echoes from the past cause disruptive patterns in life and relationships. Our bodies can hold the knowledge of situations and events we have forgotten, yet are deeply rooted in experiences of the past. Memories exist within the body's nervous system.

Harmful events long since slipped beneath the surface of awareness are lodged in our brain and surface at unexpected times with symptoms such as emotional swings, panic, feeling helpless and powerless, fear of the future, along with physical ailments, like greater susceptibility to colds, 'low energy,' changes in sleep patterns -- even nightmares. Sometimes symptoms develop when aspects of a person's past history are so stuck in your body and psyche that they erupt endlessly into current day existence.

Many are diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, once considered to be related to military combat malfunctioning, but is not at all uncommon these days. The latest scientific findings show that 60% males, 51% females had signifigant PTSD as adults, some trauma going back to parental neglect during their childhoods. In the aftermath, studies show that women are more than twice as likely to suffer needlessly, as the aftereffects can persist for years undiagnosed and untreated.

Mrs. Scarf uses narratives to tell the secret stories of 'volunteers' willing to share their secrets (shame-related, motivated by love and loyalty, those kept from Self, etc.). She writes: "for what could be more secret, more mortifying and shame-ridden, than those painful, sometimes overwhelming remembrances of the past that most of us don't want to examine candidly, even think about, much less reveal to other people?"

As Peter Fonda put it in his memoir, DON'T TELL DAD: "I would prefer to never again think of the dark parts of my past." He's not alone in wishing the painful episodes could just disappear. This book shows they never do.

She recognizes Dr. Bessel van der Kolk in Boston to be the 'father of present-day research in this field.' The author admits experiencing painful symptoms when she wrestles with contradictory memories of her mother. She interviewed so many doctors, therapists, and psychologists for this book, it's as if she was receiving "free" therapy as a result.

Trauma can be caused by a threat to the physical integrity of another person, according to the DIAGNOSTIC AND STATISTICAL MANUAL to which she refers. She lists 'Acts of Violence' and 'Emotional and Economic Attacks' in Appendix 2, listing and giving examples of what affects us all. Some are Intimidation, Threats, Disrespect (putting you down in front of other people), Destructive Criticism, among others.

She attended a writing class at Yale taught by Susan Cheever, so she would be able to present her findings for the ordinary person to understand and be able to learn from the admissions of others. The people interviewed by Mrs. Scarf knew the secrets they revealed would be used in a book. She expresses her appreciation for their candidness and willingness with this statement, "I have wondered about you, worried about you, admired you; above all, learned from you."

She has received several National Media awards from the American Psychological Foundation, has written three previous books, and is a contributing editor to 'The New Republic.'

The reader can learn things from her research, such as "one can't eliminate childhood memories, but can see those things in perspective as what they are, more finite in size."

I have never received the book. Please let me know what to do next. I either want my money back or the book. Maybe someone else could send me the book. Charles Alexander