Born for Love: Why Empathy Is Essential-and Endangered

By Bruce D. Perry  (Author), Maia Szalavitz  (Contributor) (2011)

From Amazon.com: ““Bruce Perry is both a world-class creative scientist and a compassionate therapist.”

—Mary Pipher, author of Reviving Ophelia

Born for Love is the definitive book on empathy. Renowned psychiatrist Bruce Perry has appeared on Oprah, CNN, National Public Radio’s All Things Considered, and other programs as an expert in this hot area of neuroscience, and has been cited as such in Newsweek, the New York Times, and The New Yorker (in a story written by Malcolm Gladwell). He and co-writer Maia Szalavitz explore empathy’s startling importance in human evolution and its significance for our children and our society. The authors of The Boy Who was Raised as a Dog present a powerful case that love is essential…and endangered.”

Trauma Through a Child’s Eyes: Awakening the Ordinary Miracle of Healing

By Peter A. Levine Ph.D. and Maggie Kline. (2006

From Amazon.com: “An essential guide for recognizing, preventing, and healing childhood trauma, from infancy through adolescence—what parents, educators, and health professionals can do.

Trauma can result not only from catastrophic events such as abuse, violence, or loss of loved ones, but from natural disasters and everyday incidents like auto accidents, medical procedures, divorce, or even falling off a bicycle. At the core of this book is the understanding of how trauma is imprinted on the body, brain, and spirit—often resulting in anxiety, nightmares, depression, physical illnesses, addictions, hyperactivity, and aggression.

Rich with case studies and hands-on activities, Trauma Through a Child’s Eyes gives insight into children’s innate ability to rebound with the appropriate support, and provides their caregivers with tools to overcome and prevent trauma.”

Trauma and Memory: Brain and Body in a Search for the Living Past: A Practical Guide for Understanding and Working with Traumatic Memory

By Peter A. Levine Ph.D. (Author), Bessel A. van der Kolk M.D. (Foreword) (2015)

From Amazon.com: “In Trauma and Memory, bestselling author Dr. Peter Levine (creator of the Somatic Experiencing approach) tackles one of the most difficult and controversial questions of PTSD/trauma therapy: Can we trust our memories? While some argue that traumatic memories are unreliable and not useful, others insist that we absolutely must rely on memory to make sense of past experience. Building on his 45 years of successful treatment of trauma and utilizing case studies from his own practice, Dr. Levine suggests that there are elements of truth in both camps. While acknowledging that memory can be trusted, he argues that the only truly useful memories are those that might initially seem to be the least reliable: memories stored in the body and not necessarily accessible by our conscious mind.

While much work has been done in the field of trauma studies to address “explicit” traumatic memories in the brain (such as intrusive thoughts or flashbacks), much less attention has been paid to how the body itself stores “implicit” memory, and how much of what we think of as “memory” actually comes to us through our (often unconsciously accessed) felt sense. By learning how to better understand this complex interplay of past and present, brain and body, we can adjust our relationship to past trauma and move into a more balanced, relaxed state of being. Written for trauma sufferers as well as mental health care practitioners, Trauma and Memory is a groundbreaking look at how memory is constructed and how influential memories are on our present state of being”.


Can you process a trauma that you don’t remember?

March 27, 2019

Irene Lyon

One of the more common confusions is how one heals a trauma, or a lifetime of traumas, when there is ZERO memory of it, or them. In this vlog I get into this. The key is working with the body, the somatic self, and also with the survival stress. Enjoy! Resources I Mention In The Vlog: – 9 Common Human Experiences That Can Be Traumatic (but are often seen as not): https://irenelyon.com/2019/01/15/9-co… -Trauma and Memory: Brain and Body in a Search for the Living Past: A Practical Guide for Understanding and Working with Traumatic Memory https://www.amazon.ca/Trauma-Memory-P… -The Story of Teddy (how early trauma impacts all of us) https://youtu.be/dNts7T8_Vig __ Thank you for watching this video and continuing to follow me here on my YouTube channel. I’d love for you to leave a comment and let me know how this impacted you and what you have learned. ► Subscribe to my channel here: https://www.youtube.com/IreneLyon ► Check out my website here: https://irenelyon.com __ Irene Lyon, MSC. and nervous system expert, teaches people around the world how to work with the nervous system to transform trauma, heal body and mind, and live full, creative lives. To date her online programs have reached people in over 63 countries – but you can often find her teaching with Elia Mrak at their signature Up & Down workshops or hiking in the mountains or along the Pacific ocean in her hometown of Vancouver, British Columbia. She has her Master’s in Biomedical and Health Science and also has a knack for making complex info easy for ALL of us to understand and apply to our lives. She has extensively studied and practices the works of Dr. Moshe Feldenkrais, Peter Levine (founder of Somatic Experiencing) and Kathy Kain (founder of Somatic Practice). __ Follow Irene Here Online: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/irenelyon/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lyonirene Twitter: https://twitter.com/irene_lyon LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/irenelyon/ Medium: https://medium.com/@irenelyon SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/irenelyon Website: https://irenelyon.com Work With Irene & Her Team: ► Self-Study Course: https://irenelyon.com/tuneup/ ► Intensive 12-Week Program: https://www.smartbodysmartmind.com/ ► Up & Down Workshop: https://www.updownworkshop.com/ __ Email Us: https://irenelyon.com/contact/ or support@irenelyon.com __ Grab A Free Resource: 4 steps to calm overwhelm and out of control emotions https://irenelyon.com/4-steps-to-calm

A Parent’s Guide to Raising Grieving Children: Rebuilding Your Family after the Death of a Loved One 1st Edition

By Phyllis R. Silverman & Madelyn Kelly (2009)

From Amazon.com:  “When children lose someone they love, they lose part of their very identity. Life, as they knew it, will never be quite the same. The world that once felt dependable and safe may suddenly seem a frightening, uncertain place, where nobody understands what they’re feeling. In this deeply sympathetic book, Phyllis R. Silverman and Madelyn Kelly offer wise guidance on virtually every aspect of childhood loss, from living with someone who’s dying to preparing the funeral; from explaining death to a two year old to managing the moods of a grieving teenager; from dealing with people who don’t understand to learning how and where to get help from friends, therapists, and bereavement groups; from developing a new sense of self to continuing a relationship with the person who died. Throughout, the authors advocate an open, honest approach, suggesting that our instinctive desire to “protect” children from the reality of death may be more harmful than helpful. “Children want you to acknowledge what is happening, to help them understand it,” the authors suggest. “In this way, they learn to trust their own ability to make sense out of what they see.” Drawing on groundbreaking research into what bereaved children are really experiencing, and quoting real conversations with parents and children who have walked that road, the book allows readers to see what others have learned from mourning and surviving the death of a loved one. In a culture where grief is so often invisible and misunderstood, the wisdom derived from such first-hand experience is invaluable. Filled with compassion and common sense, A Parent’s Guide to Raising Grieving Children: Rebuilding Your Family after the Loss of a Loved One offers readers a wealth of solace and sound advice, and even-where one might least expect it-a measure of hope.”

From Amazon.com:  “About the Author

Phyllis R. Silverman has received many awards for her work and is recognized internationally as a leader in the field of bereavement. The co-principal investigator of the pioneering Harvard Child Bereavement Study, her books include Widow to Widow: How the Bereaved Help Each Other and Never Too Young to Know: Death in Children’s Lives.

Madelyn Kelly is a writer and former television news producer, and the mother of two sons. Her husband, the writer/columnist/editor Michael Kelly, was the first American journalist to be killed in the Iraq war, in 2003. She edited a compilation of his work, Things Worth Fighting For: Collected Writing.”

You Are Not Alone: A Heartfelt Guide to Grief, Healing, and Hope

By Debbie Augenthaler (2018)

From Amazon.com: “2018 Winner of the Foreword INDIES Book Awards, Grief/Grieving

2019 Finalist in Health: Psychology/Mental Health International Book Awards

2019 Readers’ Favorite Silver Medal Winner in Nonfiction – Grief/Hardship

Are you grieving? Do you know someone who is grieving and you don’t know how to help them?

You Are Not Alone takes readers into Debbie’s personal journey of grief, from the first gripping chapter, when her husband dies unexpectedly in her arms. Throughout the book, Debbie takes readers by the hand and offers them gentle insights and suggestions for healing and hope, while sharing her powerful story of loss and the spiritual journey that led her to know love never dies.

This book is a life raft in a grief storm.

Just as she has helped many as a psychotherapist specializing in trauma and grief, Debbie and her wisdom can help you too.

She wants you to know:

  • It’s okay to be a griever. Don’t feel like you have to hold it together for others.
  • Grief is not linear. There is no timetable. Your experience of grief is as unique as you are.
  • Beginning to heal and adjust to your new life doesn’t mean having to let go of the person you love.

You Are Not Alone will gently guide you from grief, to healing, to hope and transformation.”

Bearing the Unbearable: Love, Loss, and the Heartbreaking Path of Grief

By Joanne Cacciatore, PhD. (Author), Jeffrey Rubin (Foreword) (2017).

From Amazon.com: “If you love, you will grieve—and nothing is more mysteriously central to becoming fully human.

Foreword INDIES Award-Winner — Gold Medal for Self-Help

When a loved one dies, the pain of loss can feel unbearable—especially in the case of a traumatizing death that leaves us shouting, “NO!” with every fiber of our body. The process of grieving can feel wild and nonlinear—and often lasts for much longer than other people, the nonbereaved, tell us it should.

Organized into fifty-two short chapters, Bearing the Unbearable is a companion for life’s most difficult times, revealing how grief can open our hearts to connection, compassion, and the very essence of our shared humanity. Dr. Joanne Cacciatore—bereavement educator, researcher, Zen priest, and leading counselor in the field—accompanies us along the heartbreaking path of love, loss, and grief. Through moving stories of her encounters with grief over decades of supporting individuals, families, and communities—as well as her own experience with loss—Cacciatore opens a space to process, integrate, and deeply honor our grief.

Not just for the bereaved, Bearing the Unbearable will be required reading for grief counselors, therapists and social workers, clergy of all varieties, educators, academics, and medical professionals. Organized into fifty-two accessible and stand-alone chapters, this book is also perfect for being read aloud in support groups.

Now available as an online course from the Wisdom Academy.”

Why Clients Smile When Talking About Trauma — Part 1

What are the reasons for this confusing phenomenon?

By Lisa Ferentz LCSW-C, DAPA

Posted September 4, 2015

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/healing-trauma-s-wounds/201509/why-clients-smile-when-talking-about-trauma-part-1#:~:text=Smiling%20or%20laughing%20when%20disclosing,indicator%20of%20embarrassment%20or%20shame.&text=Some%20trauma%20survivors%20hold%20deeply,they%20played%20in%20their%2