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Coping with Trauma: The Victim and The Helper Editors: Rod Watts and David. J de L. Horne No Pages: 164 E-Book ISBN: 1–875378–08–1 Purchase
Options Publication Date: 1994 |
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Coping with Trauma is a concise, readable and practical book about the nature of traumatic experiences and their impact on both victim and helper. With contributions from some of Australia’s leading trauma specialists, Coping with Trauma provides a unique and systematic analysis of trauma reactions in individuals suffering directly from the experience. As well as the professionals who render assistance to them. This book outlines major principles of assessment and intervention based on contemporary research and experience, and provides vivid, real-life case histories. Coping with Trauma is a well-referenced and valuable resource text for any person who finds themselves working in the area of trauma. |
Editors Rod Watts has researched extensively into the effects of large-scale road trauma and has conducted workshops on bereavement, loss and training. He has also trained mental health professionals in critical incident stress debriefing. At the time of writing Coping with Trauma, David J de L Horne was an Associate Professor/Reader inMedical Psychology and Head of the Medical Science and Psychology Unit at theUniversity of Melbourne. He currently holds positions in the United Kingdom as the Director of Psychological Therapies for Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health Trustand as an Honorary Professor of Clinical Psychology at the University of Birmingham.David Horne has been working since the 1980s to promote the need for improved research, assessment and treatment for victims of road trauma. |
Review Coping with Trauma: The Victim and the Helper Trauma is fast becoming the flavour of the decade, with the rush to print more literature on the topic at risk of outstripping a relatively slender knowledge base. In this increasingly cluttered market, Coping with Trauma manages to hold its own as a mercifully short and readable primer aimed at workers and helpers in the field. Trauma workers from Victoria are the chief contributors, although there are occasional chapters by other Australian and overseas experts. Monographs based on multi-authored chapters have advantages and disadvantages, and this book is no exception. Repetition is inevitable, as is unevenness in “pitch” — some chapters are informal and chatty, one or two read like a tutorial for the novice, and yet others notable by Minas and Klimidis, are more scholarly in style. On the other hand, a divergence in opinion serves to focus attention on unresolved issues. For example, Creamer states emphatically that debriefing sessions are not aimed at catharsis, whereas other contributors take the conventional view that an integral function of such groups is to allow survivors to express their feelings in a safe and containing environment. Almost all contributors make reference to the wider social and familial context in which trauma occurs and the importance of education in normalising the experience for victims and families. There is still a tendency to focus on the more dramatic forms of trauma such as major catastrophes, rather than on the everyday events — assaults, domestic violence, and accidents —which account for most cases of traumatic stress. This trend is not the fault of the contributors, but rather a bias, which has underpinned research in the field. A number of chapters stand out. Raphael and Meldrum provide an easy-to-read overview of the field, particularly emphasising principles of intervention. Two of the lessons they offer are particularly valuable — the importance of distinguishing between traumatic loss and traumatic threat, and their respective sequelae; and the concept of "dosing" in therapy — the need to iterate exposure to trauma memories according to the capacity of the survivor to process the associated memories. Chapters by Creamer and the British workers, Stewart and Hodgkinson, make for compelling reading. The authors skilfully combine their first-hand experiences of disaster situations with evocative accounts drawn from the relevant literature, thereby providing the reader with a vivid account of the issues involved in developing a comprehensive program for survivors and helpers. Wraith’s chapter serves to remind the reader of the often undetected or ignored impact of trauma on children. Her account of the various mechanisms whereby parental exposure to trauma can affect offspring is particularly illuminating. I searched in vain through Brunt’s chapter on the long-term consequences of early sexual abuse for a critical discussion of the controversy surrounding “false” or “induced” memories — an issue which continues to cloud clinical work in this area. Minas and Klimidis’ chapter reviews key issues relating to diagnosis and treatment of trauma-related disorders in the trans-cultural setting. It is fitting that they expand further on a theme, which runs throughout the book — whether the therapist should encourage survivors to remember or to forget the trauma. In summary, this short monograph provides the worker in the field with a sound overview of the chief and systemic issues they are likely to face in treating trauma patients.
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