By Claire Pooley, BACP (Snr Accred) pluralist therapist, traumatologist and EMDR practitioner Although this book is mainly aimed at the humanitarian sector, I would also highly recommend it to counsellors, therapists, psychiatrists and emergency first responders, who are likely to be, or are already, working in an arena where a traumatic incident could take place. The workplace setting means that our clients will often be exposed to primary or secondary trauma and can all experience trauma as a one-off event or an accumulation over time. The book offers the reader an insight into their own risks of vicarious trauma while working with the trauma of others. Fiona Dunkley captures some thought-provoking vignettes of real-life experiences, with several chapters guiding organisations through a systematic approach, including how to support staff in caring roles such as the police, how to manage a critical incident and how organisations can implement a Trauma Management Programme into their critical incident plan. The book also considers the various treatment pathways, from the preventative to recovery from trauma and PTSD. The book comprehensively covers the need for a cohesive screening process pre deployment, the attention required during deployment, and the monitoring, assessment and subsequent trauma-specific treatment options post deployment, considered from many cultural perspectives. I found the author’s explanation of the neuroscience of the traumatised brain simple and easy to explain to clients, thus normalising their responses to their own traumatic experiences. For example, she covers how the brain responds to a traumatic experience, the natural responses of fight, flight, freeze and appease, and how this may need re-adjusting to return to its natural balanced state. The text also explores some recognised stabilisation techniques to help restore an individual to that state, before therapy can resume. Dunkley bravely interweaves her own experiences of trauma, including what happened, and how she reacted, both at the time and subsequently. Her common reactions to the trauma and her eventual diagnosis of PTSD bring the book to life, and touched a few areas for me, of similar reactions to trauma while working abroad. In doing so, I think this book raises the importance of an effective pathway from prevention to treatment and care, which could help ensure that those working with the trauma of others are safely and professionally cared for too. Get your copy of the book today from Amazon.
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