Parenting Trauma

On a summer night in 1984, 19-year-old UC Berkeley sophomore Karen Thomas leaves her uniformed patrol job at the University of California Police Department and walks home alone in darkness. At the threshold of her apartment a man assaults her at knife point. After a soul chilling struggle she manages to escape and call 911. Police catch her assailant, she identifies him, and he is arrested. Fast forward 2014, 30 years after her assault. Why does the body remember what the mind tries so desperately to forget?

If you experienced physical or emotional abuse, neglect, or abandonment as a child, you may struggle with unhealthy relationships as an adult. Hurtful attachments with our caregivers in early childhood can lay the foundation for toxic relationships. Those experiences can even affect the way we handle conflict, our feelings toward sex, and our expectations of our partners. But this doesn't mean you can't change. This book will help you gain a greater awareness of the trauma bonds that prevent you from getting the love, safety, and security you desire.

A world-recognized authority and acclaimed mind-body medicine pioneer presents the first evidenced-based program to reverse the psychological and biological damage caused by trauma. In his role as the founder and director of The Center for Mind-Body Medicine (CMBM), the worlds largest and most...

Shadow work is a well-known method to manage your hidden sides and acknowledge and integrate suppressed desires to live a more balanced life. Exploring your shadow can help provide answers that can change the course of your life and help you uncover the best and most authentic version of yourself.

Is it possible to feel better - and make it last? Renowned physician, psychiatrist, brain-imaging researcher, and founder of Amen Clinics Dr. Daniel Amen understands how critical it is for you to know what will help you feel better fast, now and later. In Feel Better Fast and Make It Last, you'll discover new, powerful brain-based strategies to quickly gain control over anxiety, worry, sadness, stress, and anger, strengthening your resilience and giving you joy and purpose for a lifetime.

Written in plain English and packed with sensitive, authoritative information, Codependency for Dummies, 2nd Edition describes the history, symptoms, causes, and relationship dynamics of codependency. The majority of the book is devoted to healing and lays out a clear plan for recovery with exercises, practical advice, and daily reminders to help you know, honor, protect, and express yourself, with new chapters on working the 12 Steps to recover from codependency and how therapists/coaches/nurses are affected by codependency.

If you felt unloved or unsafe as a child, you may have difficulty trusting others as an adult. You might struggle to maintain healthy relationships, or feel like you are somehow damaged. Written by a renowned family therapist, this gentle guide offers an evidence-based approach to help you move past relational trauma—the psychological wounds that can result from experiences of abuse, neglect, or betrayal. By building self-awareness, understanding triggers, and improving your communication skills, you can achieve the love and connection you deserve.

Discover the transformative power of Internal Family Systems (IFS) therapy with this compassionate and practical guide designed for beginners. This book introduces you to the concept of your “inner parts” and shows how to build a harmonious relationship with every part of yourself. Through step-by-step explanations, relatable examples, and actionable exercises, you’ll learn how to identify and work with protectors, connect safely with vulnerable exiles, and access your Self—the calm, compassionate leader within.

Do you or someone you know feel stuck in the cycle of trauma or anxiety? Do emotional struggles steal your peace and leave you feeling lost? Healing doesn’t have to be so complicated. This book offers a simple, practical guide to emotional recovery. It combines proven methods with modern tools to help you heal in today’s busy world. With clear steps, you’ll learn how to calm anxiety, rebuild self-worth, and find lasting emotional balance—without confusing jargon or complicated techniques.

Shame influences more of our thoughts and actions than many other emotions. Used as a punishment for bad behavior, shame acts as an incentive for us to behave in socially acceptable ways. As a common method used to regulate children’s behavior, shame is by far one of the most pervasive socializing agents. Many of our more persistent, punitive, and critical feelings about ourselves stem from humiliations in early childhood even if we don’t remember the specific events that prompted them.

Do you feel insecure, jealous, or anxious in your relationships? Do you have a deep fear that people will abandon you? Have you stayed in a toxic situation because you didn't believe you deserved better? If so, you may have an anxious attachment style—a way of coping with difficult situations or emotions that is often rooted in an adverse childhood experience (ACE), such as neglect or abuse. Fortunately, there are ways to heal this anxious attachment, and even transform it into an earned secure attachment.

Do you keep chasing love but pushing it away the moment it feels too close? Think it’s time to break free from the emotional patterns rooted in childhood and finally feel secure in your relationships? Rewire Your Anxious Attachment is a transformative guide to help you heal from past trauma, boost emotional intelligence, and rewrite your relationship story using the proven tools of attachment theory—so you can build lasting love from the inside out.

Wie frühe Prägungen unsere Beziehungen bestimmen. Frühe Bindungserfahrungen und emotionale Verletzungen aus der Kindheit hinterlassen Spuren in unserem Nervensystem, die sich ein Leben lang auswirken können: wiederkehrende Konflikte, Gefühle tiefer Einsamkeit und Selbstentfremdung. Was vielen nicht bewusst ist: Gerade Beziehungsprobleme wie Bindungsängste oder der Hang zu toxischen Partnerschaften sind häufig Folgen dieser Traumata.

Since Stephen Porges first proposed the Polyvagal Theory in 1994, its basic idea-that the level of safety we feel impacts our health and happiness-has radically shifted how researchers and clinicians approach trauma interventions and therapeutic interactions. Yet despite its wide acceptance, most of the writing on the topic has been obscured behind clinical texts and scientific jargon.

Are you overwhelmed by your children's emotional outbursts? Do you wish there was an effective way to teach your toddler about emotions? Does your own stress make it hard to support your child? You’re not alone. Many parents face these challenges daily. The good news is, with the right strategies, you can transform your household dynamic and foster stronger family bonds.

If your life has been affected by addiction (yours or someone else's), abuse, trauma or toxic shaming, you may also be struggling with another invisible problem - codependency. Without your even being aware of the connection to the above issues, it has created additional life-long challenges such as endless guilt, anxiety, perfectionism, need to control, depression, a history of dysfunctional relationships and much more. This easy-to-understand, interactive book will reveal how codependency has sobotaged you, the lies it created in your beliefs and the truths that expose them.

Know that you are no longer alone. For a long time, I didn't know what triggered my anger. Past and present were mixed together, and it was impossible for me to tell them apart. I felt rejected and abandoned. To get to see it more clearly, I undertook several therapeutic approaches, in groups, alone. The secret was buried deeply in my memory and poisoned my existence. All I wanted was to feel better. I simply did not know how and what was causing my suffering.

If you’re ready to work smarter—not harder—on your healing and growth, this book offers you a road map that will lead you out of pain and fear and into the life you deserve. Trauma, stress, and mood disorder specialist Dr. Monica Vermani shares insights, knowledge, and self-reflective exercises honed over 25 years as a clinical psychologist, in 18 concise life lessons designed to take your healing to a deeper level.

Just as you prepared your home to welcome a new child, it is important to prepare your heart and mind - especially if the child has suffered from a background of trauma. Perhaps your invitation for love is met with hostility and you find that this new member of your family rejects connection. It’s critical to acknowledge the effects of trauma on a child’s ability to attach. Mike and Kristin Berry realized this when they became adoptive and foster parents. They now offer guidance from their own journey to others parenting a child who has experienced past trauma.

Through our guidance, you will explore and reintegrate aspects of your mind that have been shamed and repressed. Shadow Work teaches us to stop hiding from our true selves. By owning the truth of your feelings, regardless of how "bad" or "wrong" you judge them, you reclaim your power. Shadow Work is about confronting the truth and nothing but the truth.