Trauma & Neglect
Trauma by definition is overwhelming experience, which essentially means the stimulus is greater than what the brain and nervous system are designed to process in their customary way. Neglect is the panoply of essential missing experiences, without which survival and wellbeing may be compromised and possibly threatened. Both can dysregulate the brain, and body and leave their mark on virtually all aspects of human functioning.
The Book
For many years, adult “children of neglect” have lamented, “why did no one ever recognize this before?” or “I could never understand why I felt bad, there was nothing they could point to in their childhoods. They found little to read that seemed to fit or help. Learning about neglect, suddenly they understood what was “wrong” and had a direction for how to feel better. Both they and their partners implored me, “please teach and write about this!” Thus this book.
My most recent book, Working with the Developmental Trauma of Childhood Neglect teaches therapists how to help children of neglect, while also being accessible to the intelligent client population.
Stay tuned to my weekly blog for more information and for dialog.
Topics covered in this book will include:
- What is neglect?
- I had food, clothing and shelter, so what was missing?
- The “three P’s of neglect:” passivity, procrastination and paralysis
- Caretaking: why the “external” focus?
- Isolation: self centeredness or self reliance?
- The conundrum of relationship
- “Knowing” it all
- The koan of sexuality
- The myth of powerlessness
- Healing? Who needs It?
- Steps to healing and growth for the self reliant character
Waking Up to ACES – Neglect Edges into Awareness
The PTSD diagnosis only appeared in the DSM in 1980. To me that seems like an “augenblick” as my German mother used to say, the blink of an eye. I realize that many of my readers may not have been even a glimmer in anyone’s eye in 1980. By now
Unlocking – What the Pandemic Evokes About Neglect
It was March 16th, 2020 when the San Francisco Bay Area went into lockdown. That was the last time I was in my psychotherapy office. At the time, the mayor said it would be two weeks. On June, 15th 2021, the State of California re-opened. What a long, strange 15
Body Oriented Psychotherapy in the Treatment of Trauma
In the past ten or so years of burgeoning progress, the growing subfield of traumatology has come to identify and elucidate much about the physiology of trauma. From the start it was undeniably obvious that trauma was a “physioneurosis,” (van der Kolk, McFarlane and Weisaeth, 1996) directly afflicting the body