Nurturing Resilience: Helping Clients Move Forward from Developmental Trauma--An Integrative Somatic Approach

This book has helped me a lot, when it comes to understanding attachment patterns from childhood but also our early development and how stress and trauma can affect us during the first period of our life - but also as an adult. The book is very well written and it is clear that the author is well versed and has many years of work in the subject. For those interested in understanding yourself and your deepest patterns from childhood, this book is a must.

I've read half of it so far, in just a few days, and I think I'm really "getting" developmental trauma.I consider myself a fairly well-read client who considered but decided not to go the route of becoming a therapist myself. (Though, being mid-30's, that could always change.)For one, it doesn't seem like anything particularly TERRIBLE needs to have happened to you to end up with a not so well-regulated nervous system as an adult. It seems that you just need to have not had particularly well-regulated parents, who may have actually cared but been not so well-regulated themselves.And its not that the authors just "tell" you this and you have to accept it, I feel that it "intuitively" makes sense to me now in a way that it hadn't before.I consider this about as easy to read as a book like Peter Levine's Waking the Tiger, but its a lot better referenced; its far easier to read than Levine's In an Unspoken Voice (which I didn't quite complete but may try again after this one) but perhaps slightly less referenced.I think this book does a good job of saying "this is what we've found in our clinical practice(s) and here is some science that fits well with it." I think a lot of this stuff is not to the point of being so conclusively proven and supported by science, but is well-supported enough especially if you trust the authors in addition to what research is cited. Based on the way they are presenting their work, I feel fairly trusting toward them.I recommend this far ahead of Stephen Porges' Pocket Guide to the Polyvagal Theory, btw.

I have been in trauma therapy for a few years now. I've processed a lot talking about the past and have done some EMDR. While this has given me insight, it hasn't helped a ton with changing how to I view myself. I can logically understand things weren't my fault but getting to a point where I care about myself hasn't been coming.This book helped to show how much of the core trauma happens before you can form memories or communicate verbally. The effect of trauma and your response from an early age affects how you handle other trauma later in life. The book itself didn't have a ton of practical advice on how to do this healing since it is aimed more at therapists but there was enough information to go out and find some self help books on somatic experiencing. These exercises have been helping me to heal a lot of that core self hatred and the default freeze response.I'm not sure if there is a lot that is new in this book, but it arranged in a way to connect several different theories on trauma and development that make a coherent whole explaining how we are impacted by early trauma. This is a must read up there with books like 'The Body Keeps the Score' .

Great content for developmental trauma. Well written, but it is very dense material. Paperback arrived in brand new condition, thinner than I expected and looked more like a workbook than a textbook, but it’s great read for therapists, and those seeking help.

Hands down my favorite book. Reading it for a second time to gain deeper insights. This book has transformed the way I practice healing, and inspired me to take the training, Somatic Resilience and Regulation (SRR) which is based off of this book. The book, like Kathy and Steve's SRR training is absolutely mindblowing. As a social worker who works with complex trauma & developmental trauma, I've trained in Somatic experiencing, brainspotting, yoga, mindfulness, TREM janina fisher's complex trauma- this book and the subsequent SRR training with Kathy and Steve will not only change your clients but will certainly change YOU! I am so grateful for Kathy and Steve for creating this book (and for them personally, they are incredible human beings). I not only recommend this book to clinicians but to clients as well.

I work in a small private practice and have personal experience with and a strong interest in developmental trauma. This text is awesome. Not only is its writing approachable, but also it does a great job summarizing some of the science related to developmental trauma and its effects on the brain. I found the authors' chapter on Vagal Theory to be a great summary and include some interesting tidbits that went beyond the summary level. I also thought their interventions information was excellent. Overall I'd definitely recommend it for therapists serving those with developmental trauma and I'll probably lend it to some clients who want a deeper understanding as well.

As an adoptee with a spectrum of early developmental trauma, this book is literally changing my life. These 226 pages have done more than 30 years of therapy to help me understand: the sources of preverbal and prememory trauma; the impacts of these traumas; the developmental physiology and the adaptive responses. By the end, I felt an enormous sense of relief and self-forgiveness that my often self-defeating behaviors are survial responses. The combination of the polyvagal theory, early trauma and Faux Window of Tolerance created a coherent theory that explains my issues, my husband's issues and why we can't connect. Highly recommend reading this is you or anyone you love has early trauma.

This book was definitely triggering to read because it touched my traumas. But it’s definitely so informative and so necessary to read to understand early childhood trauma and the effects on our system.