Voices of Trauma

Synthesizing insights from psychiatry, social psychology, and anthropology, Voices of Trauma: Treating Survivors across Cultures sets out a framework for therapy that is as culturally informed as it is productive. An international panel of 23 therapists offers contextual knowledge on PTSD, coping skills, and other trauma sequelae as they affect survivors of traumatic events. Case studies from Egypt to Chechnya demonstrate various therapeutic approaches (and the Cultural Formation of Diagnosis from the DSM-IV), often integrated with social agencies outside the clinical setting. Authors explore the balance of inter- and intrapersonal factors in reactions to trauma, dispel misconceptions that hinder progress in treatment, and provide profound examples of mutual trust and empathy, even how the wounded may heal the therapist.

Highlights of the coverage: Silence as a coping strategy: Sudanese refugee women; Individual and group identity, Western and non-Western healing: a Chinese woman in Hong Kong; Mother/infant psychotherapy with a Kosovar family; Trauma and the bicultural self: New York’s Dominican community and the crash of Flight 587; Why war? Why genocide? A social psychology theory of collective violence; Transference, countertransference, and supervisory issues in intercultural treatment.

Today’s political climate has made refugee mental health a growing public health issue. Voices of Trauma gives clinical and counseling psychologists, psychiatrists, psychotherapists, rescue and social workers, the tools to create healing on a global scale.

• Counseling
• Encounter
• Intervention
• Sandplay therapy
• Supervision
• Syndrom
• Trauma
• coping
• diagnosis
• psychiatry
• psychology
• psychotherapy
• psychotraumatology
• social psychology

From the reviews:

"Voices of Trauma addresses the important subject of understanding and responding to the subjective and communal consequences of trauma cross culturally. This is a topic of considerable significance in our dangerous and uncertain world. I give this volume and its strong group of contributors high marks for addressing treatment issues in a professionally and morally serious way that may well improve care for trauma victims globally." (Arthur Kleinman, Esther and Sidney Rabb Professor of Anthropology; Chair, Department of Anthropology, Harvard University; Professor of Medical Anthropology and Professor of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School)

"The stated goal of Voices of Trauma: Treating Psychological Trauma Across Cultures is noble – just what is needed by our battered and wounded world. The book makes available knowledge in the field of trauma so as to aid in the assessment, diagnosis, and treatment of clients from different cultural backgrounds. … The intended audience for this book is composed of mental health professionals, clinical and counseling psychologists, social workers, and graduate students." (Alejandra Suarez, PsycCRITIQUES, Vol. 53 (20), 2008)

• Reinier van Arkel groep, Psychotrauma Centrum Zuid Nederland/Reinier van Arkel groep’s-Hertogenbosch, Postbus 70058, the Netherlands

  Boris Drožđek

• Cleveland State University, Ohio, USA

  John P. Wilson

Boris Droždek, M.D., M.A., is psychiatrist at Psychotrauma Centrum Zuid Nederland/Reinier van Arkel groep, ’s-Hertogenbosch, the Netherlands, an international centre for treatment of victims of political and war violence. He is leading the residency training in social psychiatry, collaborating with different NGO’s in post-war areas, teaching and giving trainings in psychotraumatology and transcultural psychiatry on a regular basis in the Netherlands and abroad. He is international director of the International Summer School of Psychotrauma in Dubrovnik, Croatia. He is author of several scientific publications and chapters to books and, together with John P. Wilson, editor of the Broken Spirits: The Treatment of Traumatized Asylum Seekers, Refugees, War and Torture Victims (New York: Brunner-Routledge, 2004).

John P. Wilson, Ph.D., is currently Professor of Psychology at Cleveland State University in Cleveland, Ohio, U.S.A.. He is a founding member and Past President of the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies (ISTSS) and a Fellow of the American Institute of Stress. He is a Diplomate and Fellow of the American Academy of Experts in Traumatic Stress, a Fulbright Scholar and the International Director of the International Summer School of Psychotrauma in Dubrovnik, Croatia. Dr. Wilson is the author of ten books and over 30 monographs and chapters on traumatic stress syndromes. Research and clinical work developed by Dr. Wilson have led to consultations with different national and international agencies like the U.S. Army and Navy, Department of Veterans Affairs, The White House and The World Health Organization, where he developed mental health programs during the war in Bosnia in 1994/ 1995., and more recently in Croatia to aid victims of war trauma.

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